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Kick-start National Watercress Week and celebrate the start of the British watercress season with a visit to the beautiful Georgian town of Alresford, in Hampshire, on Sunday 11 May for the 6th annual Watercress Festival.
2008 marks the bi-centenary of the British watercress industry and the town will be pulling out all the stops to make it a day to remember.
Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson will be carrying out free cookery demonstrations in Broad Street and signing copies of a new anniversary watercress recipe book. Hampshire Fare will once again be organising a fabulous food market of local producers, many of whom will be competing in The Watercress Food Awards with new and innovative products. Watercress pesto, watercress scones, watercress quiche, countless variations of watercress soup and even a watercress trifle and watercress ice cream were among the entries last year.
There will be live music, street theatre, face painting and a bouncy castle.
Grown in mineral rich spring water, drawn from deep under the chalk downs of Hampshire, watercress is one of our natural super-foods, gram for gram containing more iron than spinach, more vitamin C than oranges, more calcium than milk and more folate than bananas. Visitors can find out more on a free watercress farm tour at either Pinglestone watercress farm or Manor watercress farm. Both are just a short stroll from Alresford’s Broad Street. Tours are running at 11.30am and 1.30pm at Manor Farm, (call 01929 463241 to book a place), and at 11.00am and 2.00 pm at Pinglestone, (call 01264 732034 to book a place).
Alresford is the UK’s “capital” of watercress farming as well as being home to The Watercress Line heritage railway, which acquired its name because of the vast quantities of watercress it used to transport up to Covent Garden Market. Nowadays it carries tourists rather than watercress and for the festival it will be operating a free “park and ride” scheme from the nearby Ropley to Alresford station. See www.watercressline.co.uk for all day ticket prices if travelling from Alton station.
Admission to the Watercress Festival is free, although there will be a £2 charge for parking. The event, which runs from 10am until 4pm is organised by Alresford Chamber of Commerce, New Alresford Town Council, The Watercress Alliance (made up of Alresford Salads, Vitacress Salads and The Watercress Company), Hampshire Fare, The Watercress Line and a host of other community groups. The Watercress Alliance is also the principal sponsor.
There are so many things to enjoy in Alresford and visitors can easily make a whole day of it:
- Take a wander round Alresford’s many wonderful specialist shops, selling food, gifts, antiquarian books, arts and crafts.
- There are a number of beautiful walks around Alresford. Venture away from the town centre and follow one of the trails taking in the River Arle and the Weir.
Check out the fun at our 2007 festival.