CELEBRITIES from TV and film joined The Duchess of Cornwall for a harvest festival celebration, with a little help from pupils at Ringwood School and the New Forest Marque.
The event at Westminster Abbey was organised by Love British Food as part of British Food Fortnight.
Ringwood earned its place at the service, the first harvest festival service to be held in the Abbey since 1966, after taking part in the ‘Harvest Lottery for Schools’, a competition requiring schools to fill a box with their best local produce and send in a photo or video for judging.
The New Forest Marque helped pupils put together a produce box and the hamper for the harvest celebration itself.
The Marque is a quality assurance scheme supported by the National Park Authority and promotes authentic New Forest fare, while encouraging people to shop locally.
The Marque supported the 16 Ringwood pupils as they took part in the growing and cooking of food for the hamper. To create their hamper the youngsters used local ingredients from a variety of New Forest producers, including New Forest Smokery and Trout Farm and The Pig Hotel, Brockenhurst, as well as produce grown at the school itself.
The wicker hamper was specially made for the festival and featured goats cheese tarts, bramble loaf cake and hedgerow jam, as well as many other tasty treats and a traditional harvest loaf.
Ringwood’s hamper drew glowing praise from the Duchess of Cornwall, and contributed to a very successful event.
Ringwood Pupils Lily Haradine and Georgia Akroyd said: “We were really proud of our Harvest hamper and it looked great among all the other entries.
“We got to meet Martin Clunes, Gregg Wallace, Phil Vickery and Dave Myers, which was brilliant fun. We also talked to The Duchess of Cornwall, who said we had ‘done a very good job’ and the hamper ‘looked delicious’!’ New Forest Marque project officer Jenna Bessant said: “The atmosphere in Westminster Abbey was incredible and to attend a service that is dedicated to food and farming was truly inspirational.”
For more information on supporting local producers, visit newforestproduce.co.uk or lovebritishfood.co.uk
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