If you want a true experience of what the Lake District is about beyond the tourist traps of Windermere and Sawrey, make time to go along to one of the summer agricultural shows that still draw large crowds and fierce competition amongst the local farmers and cake bakers of Cumbria. Most shows began in the mid 1800s, as a rare opportunity for hill farmers in this very remote area to meet and exchange news and gossip, and many of old traditions persist. Entry is a couple of pounds, but the insight into the way the countryside balances its past and its future is fascinating. Ploughing challenges and Herdwick sheep, with traditional red iron ore on their fleeces and chalk on their stumpy legs, stand next to high-tech feed stalls, and NFU tents. And, in the west of the county, there are also Hartleys ice cream vans - easily the best local ice cream in the country.

Gosforth Show is my own local, and I've been entering cakes and rum butter for long enough to know the right way to stage a cherry cake (small paper doily, cherries coated in flour to stop them sinking). The produce class that attracts the greatest number of entries is rum butter, an old Cumbrian speciality, concocted, it's said, to hide contraband demerara sugar and rum smuggled into Whitehaven, the port up the road, mixed into fresh butter. Discussion as to the 'correct' colour and texture of rum butter provokes seasoned competitors to near-fisticuffs; Seascale WI is still boycotting the group WI class, after an 'exchange of views' over some knitting four years ago.

Gates open at ten-ish, but the morning starts way before for the farmers bringing their livestock and the ladies unpacking their cake tins in the huge tent erected at the bottom of the show field. (And it is a field. Cowpats abound, and if it rains, as if often does in Cumbria in August, the tractors do double duty hauling cars out of the mud.) The horticulture tent displays fat marrows and globe onions that Wallace and Gromit would be proud of, as well as fragrant roses and sweet peas that mingle with freshly crushed grass and ozone to fill the cool tent air with an unforgettable smell. Hang around until 3pm and most of the flowers and vegetables are auctioned off.

Little kids will love the farmyard array of animals on display in the many judging pens lining the length of the field - the usual assortment of sheep and cows, plus a whole poultry tent of pantalooned cockerels and fluffy hens and ducks, show jumping and heavy horses, and for some reason llamas, all in pristine show condition. Local history tents, stalls, raffles, the ubiquitous 'Guess the weight/name/age of the pig/horse/Young Farmer' competitions, Radio Cumbria tent, arts & crafts stalls will keep adults occupied. And there's always the beer and catering tents...

Sitting with a Jennings beer, watching the show jumping as the heat of the day mellows in the late afternoon, with the heather-blue Western Fells in the background and a picnic tea in the foreground is about as summery an experience as you could wish for in rural England. It's also very real, and worth supporting. Most shows - Wasdale, Ennerdale, Irton, etc - take place in August, but check the local papers for details if you're in the area. The teas, in particular, are often worth the trip, and the settings, in the heart of the most unspoiled and beautiful part of the Lakes, are breathtaking.

Later in the year, in the last week of September, is the ultimate sheep show: Eskdale Show. It's famous for the displays of the sturdy, rugged native breed which dot the unyielding fellsides, the Herdwick, as bred by Beatrix Potter and protected by the National Trust. It's just a small show, but worth a trip if you're in the Lakes in the autumn - the best time to go, anyway, as the bracken turns golden, and the air turns crisp enough to make the cosy little pubs a welcome haven.