Last week, I wrote about the events in nature’s calendar that signal spring and summer. Another event I’d add to my list is the Watercress Festival – the third Sunday of May each year.
It’s an annual celebration of the peppery salad greens, held in the town of Alresford in Hampshire, the watercress capital of the UK, to mark the first crop of the season. Watercress, as the name suggests, grows in water, and it flourishes in the chalk-filtered spring water in the Alresford area.
The 2024 festival had 18,000 visitors! It’s a lovely, happy day out, and this year and last year it’s been super sunny weather too. There’s live music (including the sweetest brass band!), cookery demonstrations (including Lesley Waters off-of Ready Steady Cook!), and nearly a hundred market stalls.
One of the festival events is the watercress-eating competition. Huge shout-out to my friends Greene Machine and WaterChris for seriously impressive efforts today! They were trying to beat the record of eating 80g of watercress in 31.29 seconds (whaaat?!), set by reigning champion, Glenn Walsh, who has held the title for fifteen consecutive years!! (I’ve not heard if he was crowned again this year, as we had to leave before the final heats) …
I had a look this evening at some of the history of the area’s watercress growing; there’s a good overview at alresford.org, although it is from 1976 so read it with that in mind.
Looking at other related sites online, I want to commend whoever wrote the homepage tagline, ‘Love watercress? You're in the right place’ for the website www.watercress.co.uk
Whether or not you’re a watercress fan, you’ll marvel at the variety and number of watercress-inspired creations available at the festival. I noted down all the different ones as I wandered around the stalls today, and have listed them out at the end of this post, more or less in the order I saw them.
In my editing work, I love to tidy and smooth a list / set of bullet points by removing repetition, making sure it’s easily skimmable, and bringing the focus to the unique points, not the common starting words. However, now and again, there’s an exception to that editing rule, and here is one such occasion. How uncanny does the word ‘Watercress’ seem once you’ve read it twenty or more times?
Watercress smoothie Watercress scones Watercress mojito Watercress margaritas Watercress quiche Watercress gin Watercress pasty Watercress scotch egg Watercress sausage roll Watercress fishcake Watercress marzipan Watercress vodka Watercress cheese Watercress bread Watercress salad Watercress venison Watercress fudge Watercress pelau Watercress soup Watercress quiche Watercress chimichurri Watercress pesto and ... Wooden/resin coffee table inlaid with watercress
God I bloody love watercress!! Haven't had any since last summer...! Adding it to my shopping list. Yum. Love that you have a whole festival about it. And I might set myself a timer for 80g...I have a feeling I might choke, though - the stems can loiter in the throat!