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Many thanks to all who visited or took part in this special event run in partnership with the Ledbury Poetry Festival.   The weather cleared, the displays on the food stalls were fabulous, and once the music and poetry started so the beer, cider, perry and Derek’s special elderflower and lemon liqueur Proseccos started to be appreciated.

Many thanks especially to our stallholders who worked a long day to make this all possible for us to enjoy.  It was a true celebration of our local food and drink blended with good music and poetry.

Please let us know what you thought of the day and ways in which we could make a future event even better by email to ask@ledburyfoodgroup.org or via our Twitter feed. More photos appear at the end of this article.

Some thoughts on cherries and plums.

Chrissie Bentley asked for poetic contributions on cherries and plums.  Here are some of them together with some more authentic ones:

Stalks

Two cherries on the cherry-tree hung there quite enchantingly

And anyone who looked could see that cherries would blush so easily

When tickled pink to think of pies and twinkles in each other’s eyes.

Two cherries on a cherry tree tasted very good to me.

John Edward Smallshaw

Cherry Ripe

Cherry-ripe, ripe, I cry

Full and fair ones; come and buy

If so be you ask me where they do grow, I answer, There

Where my Julia’s lips do smile;

There’s the land or cherry-isle, whose plantations fully show

All the years where cherries grow

Robert Herrick

Cherries

Handed to me in soft paper sack,

I transferred them

straight to a bowl.

Life can be a paper sack

of cherries,

but why live in Solihull

when you can live in Barbados?

They were EXQUISITE.

I ate them as quickly as I could

without taking in too much air,

squeezing the stones finger and thumb

over the vicarage wall.

I felt life

coursing through me

several hours later.

Poetforhire.net

Some thoughts on plums…

…my head looks like a mouldy plum

I think that’s why I look so glum

I am going to sit on my bum

And eat a plum

My love is like a plum

• Plump
• Lustrous
• Unusual
• Moist

Eat them slowly and enjoy their goodness

While the summer warmth lives in my heart

Cherries are red,

Plums are blue

That makes purple

Just like you!!!

Life is what you make it…

Plum pie is how you bake it.

Ode to Herman the Plum

Intense, round, plum coloured, ball of plumpness…with a stone

This is just to say…

I have eaten the plums that were in the ice-box

and which you were probably saving for breakfast

Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

William Carlos Williams

This is just to say

I have eaten the plums that were in the ice-box

then wrote a poem that was anthologised and read by millions

You were so understanding in the divorce court so sweet and cold

Barry Lane

[Show slideshow]

Unlike many allotments, there is not a long waiting list for a plot at Ledbury Allotments.

Ledbury Allotment Association owns two fields of allotment plots of various sizes. The allotments site is off Burtons Lane, Wellington Heath about two miles from Ledbury. Plots are available to rent. The rent is £100pa for a full size plot of 90 x 30 feet. Smaller plots are available at a lower rent. The allotment year runs from October to September and it is anticipated that several plots will become available this autumn so now’s the time to put your name down. Should anybody wish to rent an allotment, please contact Isobel Gibson on 01531 635139 or Ian Smethurst at itsmethurst@aol.com.

The Ledbury Food Group are delighted to invite you on a beer tasting journey with Master Brewer and Beer Judge Derek Orford, starting in the Three Counties with local beers, and continuing with some international classics.

Derek recently returned to Herefordshire after brewing ales, lagers and stouts in the UK, Caribbean, Ireland, and Australia. He qualified as a Master Brewer in 1991 and is an examiner of the Institute of Brewing & Distilling. He is hoping to become recognised formally as a Beer Sommelier later this year. He currently runs Bosbury boutique liqueur maker Three Counties Liqueurs with his wife and daughter and is also hoping to get back to hands-on brewing soon with his own recipes.