MARK Harvest Home was 128 annual events in the making today, with some new changes made to the successful formula.
You could reserve a seat, with the 300-odd revellers getting to chose who sat next to them with certainty for the first time.
But some things never change, like the staggering spread of food laid out. This year's shopping list included:
350lbs of ham;
340lbs of roast beef;
360lbs of salt beef;
450 bread rolls;
26 cottage loaves;
24kg tomatoes;
26 cucumbers;
40 lettuces;
864 mini cakes;
25 loaves of sliced bread;
4 large blocks of cheese.
And let's not talk about the amount of beer, cider, lager and spirits poured.
This year's guest speaker - the chief executive officer of TalkTalk - was an unusual booking on face value, to propose the toast to agriculture and Mark Harvest Home.
But the Hon Diana "Dido" Harding, daughter of Lord Harding and ranked in BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour 100 most powerful women wife of Weston-super-Mare MP John Penrose, laid out her family's farming roots where she was the second generation not to have worked on the land.
The director of Cheltenham Race Course also shared a story about her defining equestrian moment
She said: "When I was 24 I bought a horse for £7,000 to ride in a point-to-point myself. That horse was five-years-old and hadn't won anything. In the first year we won two races. Then in the final year I lost the ride on him and the year after that in 1998 he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
"He is 25 now and lives on our field in Winscombe. His name is Cool Dawn. He was an outsider. Some put odds of 25-1 on him. One church roof in Dorset got re-roofed due to the winnings.
"And you get to keep the cup. They make one every year. After the race we were sat in the pub waiting to get the racing special train back with the gold cup, which is made out of gold, in a hat box.
"We got on the train and took the cup out of the box and everyone had a drink out of it. We didn't tell them the horse had eaten Polos out of it."
Revealing her corporate roots with Sainsbury's and Tesco, the speaker said admitting buying your food from the latter was close to swearing at Mark Harvest Home. But she pointed out that Tesco wants a healthy farming industry, for it would be lost without one.
She credited her dual motto of luck and determination to her horse and to her grandfather, Desert Rats commander Field Marshal John Harding.![]()
In response, Mark man and parish councillor Nick van der Bijl delivered his own wartime tale as a tank crew member helping West German farmers out by riding the treaded weapon through the fields, with all manner of vegetables being flung out the rear and into the arms of waiting farmers.
Mark Harvest Home is due to end today with music from Riverbrew, a new children's disco, and the resurrection of tug-of-war after 25 years. No doubt the teams on both sides of the rope will be a little heavier after the day's feast.Next Friday: Wedmore Harvest Home.
In response, Mark man and parish councillor Nick van der Bijl delivered his own wartime tale as a tank crew member helping West German farmers out by riding the treaded weapon through the fields, with all manner of vegetables being flung out the rear and into the arms of waiting farmers.
Mark Harvest Home is due to end today with music from Riverbrew, a new children's disco, and the resurrection of tug-of-war after 25 years. No doubt the teams on both sides of the rope will be a little heavier after the day's feast.Next Friday: Wedmore Harvest Home.