Cookery to the fore - an experience not to be missed

The Wot's Cooking purpose-built Cookery Theatre

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. If you have never experienced a cookery demonstration organised and presented by the Wot’s Cooking team, then you have missed a truly memorable experience. For a start, husband and wife team Katie & Glyn Johnson have their own fully-equipped mobile demo kitchen: all mod cons and purpose-built to allow everyone in the audience to see and experience what is happening live, on stage. Whilst Katie ‘presents’, Glyn is  behind the scenes taking care of the ‘technicals’. Last Autumn, I was so captivated, I could have spent the entire Show watching and thinking food.

Presenter and compere,
Katie Johnson of Wot's Cooking

This year sees an even more eclectic programme - with the Wot’s Cooking theatre at the heart of the ‘Taste It’ section of the Show. Featuring a range of knowledgeable practising chefs (some appearing at Malvern for the first time), who could fail to be inspired by the delectable selection of specialties they will be showcasing?  You will need to check your Show Guide for exact times. Bookmark any of the following …

Watch bread being made in the Cookery Theatre, 
and then buy something fresh and tasty - 
there's such a selection from which to choose

Appearing twice on Saturday (27th) is Rob Swift of Swift’s Bakery from Clee Hill, whose family have been baking artisanal and speciality breads since 1863. Rob is fifth generation and passionate about the bread-making process and their wide range of finished products: white, wholemeal and brown, French, international, speciality, and a particularly tasty-sounding ‘healthy eating’ range. Rob’s demos are always fun, and afterwards you can visit their stall to stock up on whatever takes your fancy.

Liz Knight at last year's Show

Also twice on Saturday’s bill of fare is Liz Knight of Forage Fine Foods. She uses ingredients plucked from her garden and local Herefordshire hedgerows. What a pleasure to discover that you don’t necessarily require expensive ingredients to create a feast when what you need is right there on your doorstep. Liz makes flavours and special seasonal treats, loving the taste of wild ingredients and the thrill of discovering new combinations of flavours - her products are a celebration of the best of the wild, adding a new, wildly irresistible dimension to home cooking.

Always popular - take your seats in good time, ladies and gentlemen

Whilst compiling this preview, I learned from Katie Johnson that Chris von Landkammer - head chef at The Elms in Worcester, is the most widely travelled chef that she has ever engaged to work with. Not in terms of Malvern to Worcester (a mere hop) but from as far afield as New Zealand. If the hotel website is anything to go by, you’ll be in for a treat, for he infuses many of their delectable dishes with touches of Asian cuisine garnered from his experience in the Far East.  Using the freshest of ingredients, and fruit, herbs and vegetables from The Elms’ extensive kitchen garden, he conjures up a daily smorgasbord of fabulous meals. What will he offer us in the Wot’s Cooking kitchen?

Calling all vegetarians - oh so tasty (pumpkins to the fore)

For the vegetarians amongst you, Lizzy Hughes of  Our Lizzy Cooking - a Malvern-based vegetarian cookery school - will be there to entertain you on both Saturday AND Sunday. She enjoys using a wide range of locally grown seasonal produce and loves exploring new ingredients whilst developing new recipes. She says, “Autumn is my favourite time of year. I especially love trying out different pumpkins and squash as they work so well in vegetarian dishes.” At the show she’ll be demonstrating a three course Autumnal feast will a warming Roasted Pumpkin and Chilli Soup, Squash and Spelt Risotto, Hubbard Squash and Fava Bean Casserole. (Lizzy also loves using fruit and will show the traditional Malvern Pudding using apples from her own tree.)

Fish - a refreshing change?

Tom Court of Sticky Fig Catering will be appearing twice on Sunday (28th). Established in 2013, their services have grown to include event catering, from intimate dinners to large celebrations, to weddings and parties in the privacy of home. Their aim is to provide the best quality food and service at all events, creating memorable experiences for guests. Sticky Fig is committed to sourcing the best local and sustainable produce from local suppliers whist being mindful of budget. There are bound to be plenty of useful tips from this midlands-based chef who is used to cooking for clients or with them in their home kitchen.

From seed to plate: metres rather than food miles

Andy Link - the award winning head chef, gardener and bee keeper at The Riverside Inn, Amestery (a rural Herefordshire restaurant) - aims to create a true hub for local seasonal produce, showcasing the best the area has to offer. As part of this the chefs have developed over an acre of land to create traditional and experimental vegetable, fruit and herb gardens - which even include their own bee hive. These working kitchen gardens are an essential part of their facilities, offering chefs the opportunity to experiment with different ingredients and plant types, whilst introducing new flavours alongside a great level of freshness, The result?  Some dishes travel only metres, not miles.  Andy says that during the Malvern Autumn Show, he will be “discussing the sustainable way in which the restaurant uses this seed-to-plate approach to create a few seasonal, home grown plates of food using only ingredients from the restaurant grounds."

Oh the shame of it!
 Even journalists have to eat!

Watching food demos is hungry work, or at least one craves food afterwards, or at any time of the day. There are plenty of refreshments on offer around the Showground, clearly marked on the map that accompanies your Showguide. As these are all conveniently located, there’s no excuse for not stopping for a bite and a cuppa – indeed, your visit may well benefit from so doing when you arrive, allowing you time to glance through the Show Guide and formulate a plan of what you most want to do; Cookery Theatre timetable included. Familiarisation can save time and possible frustration, allowing you to pack far more into your day out.

All images are copyright - with thanks to all the photographers who have co-operated with me to produce this cookery preview.


Just to remind you: Show opening times on both days are 9.00am to 6.00pm and there’s a free shuttle bus from Great Malvern rail station. There's also no charge for standard car parking.  Book your Show tickets online, or phone the ticket hotline (01684 584924). More next week - so do bookmark this page.

Lights, Camera, Action - well almost!

Action! Shifting timber (or how it's done now)
Image courtesy Stuart Purfield

Cute little dog (image
courtesy Stuart Purfield)

It’s all too easy to regard the Malvern Autumn Show as being devoted solely to gardening and harvest. But it isn’t. Although those aspects are certainly the main focus, there is so much else going on - in fact if you visit for only one day, you will be hard pressed to cram in all that is on offer. You will need to be selective.

Jumping multi-coloured sheep - it's true ... (or was in 2013)

There’s always a hum of activity in the ‘Experience - Live Shows’ area of the Showground, with a number of small parade rings where you will be able to enjoy all manner of activities. Maybe not the same as pictured here (these images were taken at the 2013 Show) but comparable with the fun I have observed and enjoyed at past Shows. Can you imagine a flock of sheep in coats of many colours jumping over hurdles? Dogs and horses, yes, but sheep? (Or it could have been runner ducks whose upright stance is both comical and endearing.)

Somewhat more traditional - but just as entertaining 

Dogs, supposedly man’s best friend (when well-trained), will be much in evidence. It is fascinating to watch intelligent breeds traditionally used by farmers to herd sheep - enjoy their antics as they are put through their paces. Indeed there is all-day entertainment in the Activity Arena featuring dog agility, and gundog displays. 

What little girl hasn't dreamt of riding - or racing with - a pony?

Indeed, if you and your children / grandchildren love animals, don’t miss the daily animal parades in the Teme Arena and the fur and feathers of the Poultry and Rabbit Marquees! This year the Poultry Show has been upgraded to a Championship Show by the Poultry Club of Great Britain. There are usually horses as well - and there are always knowledgeable owners and trainers on hand to answer questions and point you in the right direction to discover more.

Horseshoes or wrought iron garden ornaments - working with metal is a skill
as old as the hills, and still much in demand today

Horses need horseshoes and making them is an age-old craft which is much the same today as it was centuries ago when the horse was a beast of burden, in peace-time or in war. Farriery is just as much in evidence today (maybe at this year’s show), but smiths also work decoratively in iron - a wrought iron gate, or decorative garden ornament. 

An army of men to plank a tree trunk, with ease and precision

Staggering to see close at hand (within the ‘Nostalgia’ element of the Show), and quite amazing: old and modern machinery used past and present for farm and forestry activities. We are probably all too used to going down to our local friendly D-I-Y store for the odd plank of wood, or decking for the patio, little realising how such timber is transformed from tree to felled trunk to a packaged product. In days gone by, planking would all have been done by hand, often using a pitsaw - one man above ground, the other standing beneath in a pit with the log midway on trestles; extremely hard work.

Cider harvest with mobile facilities for
pressing (it could be straight out of a
Thomas Hardy novel). Image courtesy
Stuart Purfield

Whatever your interest in times past, check out the fabulous vintage vehicles on display including a collection of old commercial vehicles and steam engines, plus threshing and cider machines. Also back in the past, to trigger memories: historic lawn mowers - remember struggling to push those across the lawn? - and caravans that had all the style but few mod-cons. In the ‘Country Pursuits Marquee’ you can discover wood turning, stick making, spinning and other age-old delights at the very heart of the Show. Some of Britain's most traditional rural activities, skills and pastimes that have survived the years - truly a case of Relive and Revive.

Just to remind you: Show opening times on both days are 9.00am to 6.00pm and there’s a free shuttle bus from Great Malvern rail station. There's also no charge for standard car parking.  Book your Show tickets online, or phone the ticket hotline (01684 584924). More next week - so do bookmark this page. (All images are reproduced by kind permission of Ray Quinton, unless credited otherwise.)

And now ....

We are between Shows, looking back at, and assessing, the last - and forward to the next. As this is an interim post, we thought a photo-collage of each would provide a reminder of the one, and an opportunity for you to buy tickets in advance for the other.

My final collage from the many images that I and my 
photographer husband took during 
the 2013 Royal Three Counties Show

The ‘Royal’, as it has become known, or to give it its full name - the ‘Royal Three Counties Show’ was a roaring success, as 95,000 people came from all over Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and beyond, to enjoy the very best of British food, farming and countryside! Show organizer, the midlands-based Three Counties Agricultural Society, said it was delighted that its newly titled event had gone so well, and that it was looking forward to building on that success in the future. (A date for your diary: Next year’s Royal Three Counties Show is set for 13th-15th June, 2014) – three jam-packed days of family entertainment and fun, all in celebration of our great British farming world and countryside.)

Previewing this year's Malvern Autumn Show - more to follow
in the weeks ahead. (Images courtesy Ray Quinton)

And so to this September, and the ‘Malvern Autumn Show’ – 28th-29th September, 2013. A veritable feast for the senses in more ways than one, focussing on a true celebration of harvest: food, the countryside, gardening - and nostalgia. It’s a show for food and gardening lovers, and hosts a range of gardening talks, vegetable displays, cookery demonstrations, vintage tractors, crafts and, as ever, so much more.  I start Show Previews in earnest next week, so do keep visiting to discover all the various aspects being arranged for your enjoyment. Click here for advance ticket sales.

Interim post: pre- 'Royal Three Counties Show'

All it needs now are the visitors and action in the main arena

I'm back on the Showground in readiness for the opening tomorrow of the 'Royal Three Counties Show'. Trawling through an advance copy of the Show Guide, it is going to be bigger and better than ever before. (If only my technology hasn't been misbehaving, I could add more photos and up to the minute news.) All should be sorted once I am in the Press Area tomorrow. Meanwhile, do click on the Show website, and do come along and enjoy the very best in "Food, Farming, Countryside" - Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire at its most beautiful.

Clear signage all around
the Showground will
facilitate your visit

My husband (photographer Ray Quinton), has been all round the Showground, taking images which he is now downloading and which I will have ready to post tomorrow. Though there is so much I want to see that it may not be until evening that I get around to it! He has also been talking to many of the farming community - it really IS a farming show, and how magnificent that it should be so.

My other announcement is that I have created a photo scrapbook of images we have taken at the various shows we have attended here over the years. It's called 'Malvern Three Counties Showground Scrapbook' and as yet it has only two images in it! We have thousands which I will add bit - a memory of the enjoyment that we - and so many others - have gained from visiting here. Log into it here.

Royal Three Counties Show - first preview

Previewing the Royal Three Counties Show
(food, farming and countryside)

Welcome back to those of you who have been following my gardening posts, and ‘hello’ to those of you who are joining me for the first time. Ann’s Malvern Jotter (this Blog) now encompasses other activities on the Showground.

Much more to entertain visitors than just food and farming:
The Red Devils in tandem as they descend towards the main arena

I’ve been visiting the June show every year for as long as I have the gardening shows. Of course, it wasn’t the ‘Royal’ then, but plain ‘Three Counties Show’. In its new guise (and since the demise of the royal event at Stoneleigh), the Malvern ‘Royal’ is growing; so much so that it now utilises almost every square metre of the 98-acre showground. Bursting at the seams in fact with a profusion of fantastic activities to inform and entertain you. I will need all three days to see it all!

There will be six food
and cookery demos
every day

Food, Glorious Food: Billed as ‘the best of British food, farming and countryside’, I am concentrating in this preview today on the food aspect. Centrally placed within the Showground is the ‘Regional Food & Drinks Village’ in the Severn Hall. Included in this spacious permanent building, and in no particular order, will be artisan food stalls; the Three Counties cheese competition – open to producers in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire and neighbouring counties.

Feeling hungry? Stalls to buy local produce will tempt you ...

Meat lovers will enjoy the butchery demonstration from EBLEX plus the Three Counties Cider Show together with a People’s Choice competition; local cider makers selling their produce and giving tastings; education on cider and how to make it, plus cider making equipment; a new class for Hotels and Restaurants and a stand featuring the HEFF Diamond Food award winners 2013. Additionally, farmers’ market stalls will lead into Severn Hall from Avenue F to create the Food Market. (For the uninitiated, EBLEX: the organsiation for the beef and lamb industry; HEFF: Heart of England Fine Foods.)

Cookery Theatre hosts
Glyn & Katie Johnson

Returning to the Show will be the immensely popular 'Cookery Theatre' (also within the Severn Hall) featuring local chefs and products in an immensely packed programme of demonstrations. The theatre programme will be hosted by experienced broadcasters, Katie & Glyn Johnson of ‘Wot’s Cooking’.

The 2013 Cookery Theatre in the Severn Hall 
(image copyright Wot's Cooking)

Reading through the advance list of what is on offer in the Cookery Theatre is tantalizing. On Friday 14th: Robert Swift, a 5th generation baker, who has recently opened his own artisan bakery and baking school in Ludlow, producing some of the most delicious and inventive breads imaginable. Vegetarian Cooking ideas will be demonstrated by Lizzy Hughes who runs ‘Our Lizzy’ Cookery School in Malvern Link – discover how to prepare simple, tasty, nutritious food. Daren Bale of The Hop Pole in Bewdley, recently recognised for his commitment to cooking by Worcestershire and Warwickshire Life Magazines, will feature Cooking Local & Seasonal; Rayeesa Asghar Sandys runs Herefordshire’s first and only authentic Indian Cookery School from her home in Mordiford and is a regular at Herefordshire Farmers' Market.

Bread - a necessity of life

Saturday 15th: Daniel Jones – All About Chocolate – worked at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage but his real love is as Master Chocolatier and Owner of 'Daniel Jones - Artisan Chocolatier'. Felice Tocchini – Ready Steady Cook; Felice has appeared on numerous TV programmes including The One Show, Countryfile, and The Gadget show as well as in the media worldwide for his innovative creations. Robert Swift (Artisan Baker) also returns on Saturday.

Cider, fruit juice and
perry all on tap

Sunday 16th: Steve Brown – head tutor of the cookery school at Daylesford Farm; following years of cooking in Michelin-starred kitchens, Steve followed his passion for local, sustainable, organic food, allowing the ingredients to do the talking. Matt Slocombe – It Has To Be Local – serves the very best food and drink that Herefordshire has to offer at the traditional Crown Inn, Woolhope; he is a huge supporter of the region’s produce, especially the cider! Daniel Jones reprises ‘All About Chocolate’.

Starting young - chefs in the making

A Recommendation: With less than three weeks to go until the opening of the Royal Three Counties Show, may I suggest that you purchase tickets now, for advance purchases come for as little as £8.00 per ticket (based on advanced family ticket price) – tremendous value for a grand day out for families: food, shopping and entertainment – and not forgetting the farming side of things.

All the fun of the fair - and Adam Henson (second left -
presenter of BBC Countryfile) will be
at the Show on Saturday 15th June)

And if you love Malvern and their shows as much as I do, it’s worth considering purchasing Showground Membership for yourself or family, or as a gift for friends. For this, you obtain free admission to three Show days in total per year, VIP Parking, Members VIP Areas at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show, Royal Three Counties Show and Malvern Autumn Show. Most importantly save some money!

Up close and personal with the sheep

I’ll be back in two weeks with my second Show preview, and look forward to welcoming you again, Meanwhile, do also follow the posts of sheep-loving young farmer Jack, in Jack’s Blog. And for all aspects of the Show continually updated visit the Royal Three Counties Show website.

Spring Gardening Show Scrapbook - day one (Thursday)

What a setting - the Malvern Hills are a backdrop 
to this Show Garden

Scrapbooking a day late - by the time we had downloaded and sorted all the images we had taken, struggled with the wind and the rain and generally decided how I would create today's post, the light had gone. Today is calmer, and now bright and sunny.

Such a surprise !

I find it impossible to visit all areas of the Showground in one day - had I been solely visiting for my personal delight, I would have done as I advised in an earlier post and concentrated on a specific area. Fortunately, I am here for all four days so can pace my areas of enjoyment. (Today was actually my 'shopping fix'! But more of that tomorrow.)

Collage of some of today's photo-shoot

Show Gardens: seeing them actually finished, as opposed to watching how the various plots emerge from a piece of bare turf, was a revelation. I am not going to cover them all, but have picked our my favourites - your choice might be entirely different. I am personally not concerned about medals but look at any garden as a source of inspiration. Inspiration for more than our own acre, but for my sketchbooks and hand-made journals.

The BBC were filming in the rain yesterday

I have to admit to three favourites, each quite different in style and planting and each lovely to me for various reasons. It's surprising what will trigger a response when viewing any garden - here at Malvern, or at Shows large and small around the country. And as a visitor it often has nothing to do with evaluation, or size, or the amount of work that must have gone into the design, creation and build, but something that sparks the imagination, evokes a memory.

Nostalgia

Mark Eveleigh's 'Boathouse No.9' (page 24) has such a gentle simplicity about it, as Mark's gardens always have. A garden with atmosphere that grows out if its surroundings; as near to nature as a patch of ground can possibly be, with hedgerow shrubs, nettles and wild flowers; a clinker-built wooden dinghy gradually decaying. A haven for wildlife, and for me reminiscent of the walks I took as a young child with my grandmother in the early 1940s. Mark's boathouse has been created from an old gardener's shed that has stood overlooking the River Severn for the last 65 years. Props complete the feeling of a bygone age.

Back in Cornwall (via Malvern)

And then my teenage years and visits to Cornwall, continued in early married life, when my new husband and I visited so many gardens and drove around the countryside in an old Austin Seven. Such different scenery, so lush, and plants I had never then heard of. Paul Taylor of Alchemy Gardens sourced materials from Cornwall for his 'Room with a View' (page 27) which was inspired by the gardens at Trebah nestling within a valley near Falmouth. Both the 'real' Trebah and this recreation have a subtropical feel - indeed the contractors were so determined to feature the correct plants, they visited the gardens to check authenticity. The colours of the stone imported by the ton used are subtly beautiful, just as is the stone found on the Lizard. It's doubly poignant for me to feel I am back in Cornwall, as I am currently re-reading 'All the Day Long' by Howard Spring, set in a landscape so near to Trebah.

And so to France (also via Malvern)

And so to southern France and camping trips in olive groves, picnics down little side roads - a memory that instantly came to mind when I saw the build-up - and now the finished garden - of 'Reposer Vos Roues' (Rest your Wheels) which Villaggio Verde has created: a rustic cafe which has played host to professional cyclists for more that 100 years. Now an important  refreshment stop along the route of the Tour de France for riders and their teams. There's an interesting story to the age-old olive trees used to create this garden: they are re-cycled. Greek farmers are offered a subsidy to grub them up and replant with young, more productive stock - ordinarily they would be burned, but their reprieve means they have a further life, bringing joy to lovers of the Meditarranean, and to show garden visitors.

A glorious Spring arrangement

I have been back to all the 2013 Show Gardens many times since we arrived on Wednesday, but had not realised that in fact these three, coming together as they do this year, encapsulated three ages in my life - and I am almost back to my theatrical scenario, and Shakespeare's "seven ages of man". Tomorrow, my 'Shopping Fix around the Showground' (WiFi permitting).

Spring Gardening Show Preview - Reprise and Welcome

Sunny and breezy and marvellous to be  here again

Everyone and everything is ready, awaiting all the Show visitors who, in less than a fifteen minutes will be streaming through the gates, heading towards Show Gardens, Floral Marquee, the Plants & People theatre and trade stands galore.

Scrapbook collage of my first build-up visit

The build-up is over, the judging done. Wraps are removed from exhibits, the final tweak to plants and people; everyone is waiting to greet you. And oh, what a transformation, not only to the Show Gardens but all around the showground. I have just walked up to the Press Centre past rows of artisan local food producers (made my mouth water!); the hills are bathed in sunshine, and all is looking glorious.

More buildup images from the last two weeks ago

Here to delight those are visiting this blog for the first time is a Reprise - the four collages I posted on Facebook, brought together as an online scrapbook of the Show build-up period, or at least of the two days I visited the Showground.

And more ....

I hope my collage scrapbook will equally delight those who have kindly been following this blog - it has been a fascinating experience pulling it all together. 

And not forgetting the children who create 
the most amazing gardens, too
(these images are from last year; shortly awards will be presented
to the 2013 winning schools)

And now, as I start to blog live actually from the Showground, I have a dilemma: am I seeing it all through my authoring eyes, or as a visitor, perhaps someone here for the first time. Am I audience or backstage crew? (And I have my notebook and tiny sketchbook all ready, and a raincoat, just in case ....) I'll be back 'on stage' every day of the Show, with images of finished gardens, activities, and more of all that goes into making The Malvern Spring Gardening Show a wonderful experience.