Asparagus presentation

This picture probably dates from the 1930s and was lent to us by Lorna Edmunds. This is how the Evesham Journal described the event:

"The Mayor of Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. E. R. Thomson) being presented with a bundle (or hundred) of Vale of Evesham asparagus by Mr. J. H. Bird, of our Evesham branch. Although a comparatively short distance from Evesham, the excellent vegetable for which the Vale is famous is almost as great a luxury in Stratford as it is in the Metropolis, which receives the greater part of local asparagus.

"The bundle seen in the picture was grown by a Badsey member of the Vale of Evesham Asparagus Growers' Association, of which Mr Bird is the hon. secretary, the annual show in connection with which is being held in Evesham Town Hall next Wednesday in aid of Evesham Hospital Extension Fund. It is interesting to note that asparagus was introduced into Badsey about seventy years ago as a marketing commodity, although it had been grown in home gardens in Evesham a few years previously.

"...Although the 'fancy' prices obtained for asparagus in the years immediately following the Great War do not now obtain, the vegetable is still one of the grower's most reliable commodities, and when the foreign product is off the market - as it soon will be - good quality Vale of Evesham asparagus will probably sell at about eight or ten shillings per hundred."

Details of the Asparagus video.