Let’s hear it for veg at Hampton Court (From Enfield Independent)

Let’s hear it for veg at Hampton Court

11:00am Sunday 24th June 2007

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As the world's biggest flower show is just around the corner, JUNE SAMPSON previews this year's display of perfect blooms

I've been to every Hampton Court Palace Flower Show since the event was born in 1990, and found each better than the one before.

This year's hasn't happened yet - it opens on Tuesday, July 3 - but I know already it will offer even more than its predecessors. For it will not only enchant our eyes and noses, with the sight and scent of more than a million perfect blooms (it's the largest show of its kind in the world, remember), but will also set our mouths watering.

This is because of a re-kindled passion for edible gardening. In Kingston, for example, there are hundreds of allotments spread over 23 sites, while in the UK as a whole there are 300,000, with more than 13,000 people waiting up to 10 years for a plot.

"For the first time, sales of veg seeds are outstripping those of flowers," says the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) which took over the Hampton Court show in 1993. Three million viewers a week watched the RHS/BBC TV series, Grow Your Own Veg, while the RHS's publication of the same title reached No 2 in the best selling books list.

All this, plus mounting concern over the carbon emissions required to transport foodstuffs, has prompted the RHS to make grow-your-own a major component of the show.

There will be a growing and showing marquee, with a competition open to all amateurs who grow fruit, veg or herbs in allotments or domestic gardens.

It will have more than 60 categories and the closing date for entries is June 29. So ring the RHS Shows Department on 020 7821 3328 if you want to take part. The marquee will also re-create the 3m x 3m plot featured on the RHS and BBC TV series, showing how even a small patch can produce seasonal veg all year.

Many of the show gardens will also reflect the trend. The Torres Tapas Garden will be devoted to Mediterranean veg suitable for tapas dishes. The Mange Tout garden will be almost entirely edible, including the flowers.

A Hampshire Garden, designed as a place to experiment with veg seeds, will show a range of cucumber cultivars grown by schoolchildren. The Giving Garden is aimed at foodies keen to grow complete organic meals.

And the Sadolin Garden of Regeneration, created from recycled materials, will include a "cook's dream space", devoted to the organic growing of fruit, veg and herbs.

Having grown your produce, what's best to do with it? A new feature this year will be Quaglino's Kitchen, in which Craig James, head chef of the famous Quaglino's Restaurant in St James's, will give five demonstrations a day on preparing gourmet meals from summer veg, herbs, potatoes and soft fruits.

At the end of each sessions visitors will be able to take away a set of recipe cards, featuring dishes such as raspberry mille-feuille and carpaccio of beef with sorrel and cress salad.

That might be a good time to visit In Digestion, a garden designed by Tony Smith "to challenge the viewers' perspective of how we digest food and information." A central tunnel-like structure will represent a digestive tract, with cut-out sections reflecting different aspects of the digestive process.

Britain's last love affair with grow-your-own was in the hungry years during and after World War II. Thus the Daily Mail Pavilion, always the huge centrepiece of the show, will take us back to rural Kent of the 1950s, complete with an oast house, village post office, garage, chickens, pigs and a market garden.

But flowers, of course, will still reign supreme. The Festival of Roses, the largest annual gathering of roses in the world, will see the launch of a dozen new blooms, and as usual there will be more than 50 show gardens, four floral marquees and the unique heritage plant collection.

• The show runs from July 3 to 8 with the first two days reserved for RHS members and their guests. Opening hours are 10am to 7.30pm except on the Sunday, when it will close at 5.30pm. Public Tickets are £25 all day, or £16 from 3pm (2.30pm on the Sunday. Children from 5 to 15, £5. Under-fives free. RHS members.

Tickets: Tuesday all day £30, afternoon £19. Wednesday all day £25, afternoon £16. Thursday-Sunday all day £20, afternoon £13. Tickets for Tuesday and Wednesday are in advance only and members' tickets are also in advance only. For tickets call 0870 842 2227 or book online www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows or pay at the gate. Car parking available.

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