Watermelons aren't really synonymous with the cool climate of the Central West but Roy Smith's mighty melons were the stuff of legend.
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The life-long Carcoar resident boasted arguably the greenest thumb in the shire and, at its peak, helped cultivate and harvest a veggie patch that spanned across nine acres - or around seven football fields.
He grew anything and everything in his prized market garden, which was handed down through generations of his family, and did it extremely well. To the point just about everyone in the region would have eaten one of Mr Smith's legendary oval moleskins.
"We'd run the veggies through the area," his wife Margaret Smith recalls.
"Woodstock, Carcoar, Lyndhurst; we'd put all the veggies on the back of trailers and then sell them.
"He loved his garden. Even when it was time to give it away, he still had a small area. Pumpkins, watermelons ... he loved his watermelons. Everyone knew his watermelons."
Roy Smith died on Monday, October 9 at his family home in Carcoar, not far away from where he was born on October 19, 1930.
He died of a heart attack at night at the age of 92.
Mr Smith had spent the day fishing with a friend and returned home with a bag full of fish. Mrs Smith says her late husband sat down that evening as "happy as a Larry".
And that would be for two reasons.
The first, as Mrs Smith puts it, "he wanted to die on the farm" and the second would be simply because he was with her - his wife.
The pair went everywhere together.
We didn't go on holidays much. We just loved being together.
- Margaret Smith
Mrs Smith describes her late husband as a "very loving, caring person" and "a gentle, genuine man". They would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in June, 2024.
"We were never apart. Anything we did, we did together. We worked together on the farm. I used to try and be there with him. It will be hard for me now," she said.
"We didn't go on holidays much. We just loved being together."
One of nine children, Mr Smith was born and bred in Carcoar and once he was old enough to leave home he didn't go far - just across the Belubula River, in fact.
He married Margaret in 1954 and they had four boys - Gordon (now deceased), Ian, Tony and Timothy.
He worked on the railways, predominantly, but was a more than handy shearer as well. He played rugby league as a boy with Carcoar and later in life would go to Group 10 games in Blayney every second Sunday.
He and Mrs Smith both loved their golf, too, and he was also a life member of the Carcoar Show committee, where he endeavoured to do as much as he could for the community.
His son, Tony said his dad was known as a hard worker, right up until his death.
"I'd go out to the farm and help him cart wood. I'd chop the wood, and he'd load the trailer - not bad for a 92-year-old," Tony said.
"He was just a community-minded man. If anyone needed anything, he'd do it. There was no fanfare.
"We knew Dad did a lot when it got to the point, in later years, if there was anything we needed for Dad everyone would be down here doing it for him."
Mr Smith's death marks the end of a generation in Carcoar. He was the last of his nine siblings in the region.
But he is survived by a large family, including his wife, three remaining sons, grand children, great grand children and even great-great grand children.
"There's a fifth generation now. He loved his family," Mrs Smith said.
A celebration of Mr Smith's life will be held at the community church in Carcoar on Friday, October 20 at 11am followed by refreshments at the Royal Hotel Carcoar.
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