Myddfai Herbs

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show at Builth Wells this year was very well attended with more than 200,000 visitors passing through the gates over the four days of the show. Apart from one particularly wet afternoon the weather generally was favourable.

The Myddfai stall in the Rural Crafts centre was exciting, sporting the full range of crafts and herbal products have been developed under the Myddfai brand. All more impressive as everything from conception to branding and production to packaging, was all done in only six weeks.

The Myddfai Stand - From l-R Stella Byrne, Jo Gideon and Lesley Griffiths.

The herbal teas that Stella Byrne, BSc (hons), MNIMH and Dylan Warren-Davis, MNIMH formulated, proved to be very popular, attracting interest from those who were not regular herb tea drinkers. A couple of quotes of appreciation revealed that their distinctive flavours broke through the aversion barrier that many people have towards such teas.
“I don’t normally drink coffee or tea, but I could drink this!!”
“I thought it was going to taste horrible, but I am amazed at how much I enjoyed it!!”

The names of the teas were deliberately chosen to pay homage to the physicians of Myddfai; Physician’s Treasure, Bardic Bliss, Ceredwen’s Brew, Myddfai Magic and Llyn-y-Fantastic. The popularity and enthusiasm for the teas revealed just how many people wanted to use and understand herbs again. From the demonstration of all the teas it was encouraging to find many people naturally enquiring about our work as medical herbalists.

The website www.myddfai.com has now been launched where all the products from the Royal Welsh, including the teas, are now available. It tells the story of the physicians and the legend of “The Lady and the Lake,” while being illustrated with spectacular images of Myddfai and surrounding Brecon Beacons, all of which are available as cards.

At the BBC pavilion a sister Myddfai stall was located as part of the Village SOS exhibition. The BBC is currently filming events from all three winning villages involved, from the announcement of the £400,000 grants to the development of their projects. The exhibition explains how each village plans to put their funds to use and provided an opportunity for the public to find out more about what is going with the SOS fund.

The exhibition provided an opportunity for members of the Myddfai Project to exchange experiences and ideas with members of the other two Village SOS projects, the Talgarth Mill Project and the Ashfield Community Project. One potential symbiotic suggestion was for Talgarth Mill to stock Myddfai herb teas for their café while the Myddfai café would stock breads baked at Talgarth.

The BBC have filmed us at our clinic working on the herb tea formulations, walking through the lanes of Myddfai commenting on the medicinal plants in the hedgerows and organising the making up of the tea blends by the villagers of Myddfai. At the Royal Welsh, Dylan was filmed encouraging visitors to taste the teas, some for the first time ever. Their comments were also recorded!!

 

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Myddfai win £400,000 grant from the Lottery Village SOS

May 10th 2010 the Carmarthenshire village of Myddfai won £400,000 grant from the Lottery Village SOS fund to rebuild their village hall and the local economy. A committee in the village decided that in order to promote the village economy, they would draw on the herbal heritage of the legendary “Physicians of Myddfai,” that started in the 13th century.

To this end, local herbalists, Stella Byrne, BSc (hons), MNIMH and Dylan Warren-Davis, MNIMH, were approached and invited to act as herbal consultants to the Myddfai village regeneration project. Stella has been treating people in the communities of South Wales for more than 30 years, emulating the role of the physicians who providing herbal medicine to the communities for more than 500 years. Dylan in addition to seeing patients has acted as a consultant to the herbal industry. He has also spent more than 20 years researching medieval herbal medicine. Last year they jointly completed an interactive CD-Rom - “A Welsh Herbal - a Herbal Journey through the Culture and Places of Wales. The herbal was produced to promote awareness herbal medicine within the context of traditional Welsh culture.

The bulk of the money is to be spent on the construction of the new hall, which will have an auditorium, café and exhibition areas. It is intended that the new building will provide a focus for the village, reversing its decline and provide a facility for visitors to learn about the herbal heritage.

A range of crafts and herbal products have been developed under the Myddfai brand. Dylan and Stella have formulated a range of herbal teas to be sold under this brand. The launch of the range will be at the Royal Welsh Show 19th -22nd July. A website is also going to be launched telling the story of the physicians and the legend of “The Lady and the Lake.” The BBC is currently filming the project for release on national TV early next year.

It is hoped in the fullness of time that the village will develop a herb garden commemorating the knowledge of the Physicians and that it will become an educational facility. The village could even become a centre for people seeking herbal treatment.

At a time when we are seeking Statutory Recognition for medical herbalists, the Myddfai Project presents a significant opportunity for raising the profile of herbal medicine in general and also encouraging interest in the role of medical herbalists throughout Wales.