Dorset Cereals creates Edible Playground gardens at Chelsea Flower Show and Hampton Court 2008
Dorset Cereals, the UK’s fastest growing breakfast cereal company, is delighted to announce that it will be entering show gardens at both the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (20th-24th May) and Hampton Court (8th-13th July) 2008.
The two gardens will be based on the Edible Playground project, a Dorset-born initiative that provides schools with gardening equipment, seeds, experience and information to help them establish a food-producing garden in their grounds. The scheme was launched as a community project in May 2007 by Screen Bites: Dorset’s Food Film Festival.*
“We became aware of the Edible Playground initiative last year, and we are very keen to help expand this wonderful Dorset-based project to a wider number of schools. Our successful applications to build a courtyard garden for Chelsea and a show garden for Hampton Court are based on the theme of the Edible Playground. Both gardens will act as a platform to spread the message of how children can become involved in growing their own food at school,” says Patrick Horton of Dorset Cereals.
The Edible Playground was launched in 2007 at four Dorset primary schools, Thornford, Charmouth, Witchampton and Beaucroft Foundation School in Wimborne. With help from the Screen Bites team, including gardeners and chefs, the four schools were able to create small growing areas in their playgrounds to produce healthy salad crops, tomatoes, potatoes, herbs, carrots, leeks and beetroot, which pupils enjoyed eating. Dorset Cereals will help to build on this success in the new growing season from March 2008.
“The gardens for Chelsea and Hampton Court will have a truly Dorset feel, and to that end we are delighted to be working with garden designer Nick Williams-Ellis from Cerne Abbas and garden construction company Marshall James of Beaminster, both previous Chelsea medal winners. The Hampton Court garden will be constructed by Goddard Landscapes of Blandford. The plants will be grown and supplied by Poundbury Gardens in Dorchester and the co-ordination and publicity for the Edible Playground gardens will be handled by Sherborne-based Positive PR. We are extremely fortunate to have such a breadth of experience and skill in Dorset, and feel that we have the best team possible, both creatively and practically, to make this project a great success,” says Patrick.
For further information on Dorset Cereals, please contact Patrick Horton on 01305 751000, or email patrick@dorsetcereals.co.uk.
For further press information, please contact Mandy Cooper at Positive PR on 01935 389497, fax 01935 389498 or email mandy@positivepr.co.uk.
Note to Editors:
Screen Bites: Dorset’s Food Film Festival, was launched in 2005 by a group of locally based people who are passionate about film and local food. The festival shows documentary films about food and food-themed feature films from around the world, with tastings of some of the South West region’s wonderful and diverse food and drink. This year’s festival will run over four weeks in October and November 2008.
For more information telephone 01963 32525,
email screen-bites@thanksgiving.demon.co.uk
or visit the website www.screen-bites.co.uk.
The Edible Playground: The inspiration for the Edible Playground came partly from work being carried out by the Chez Panisse Foundation in the USA. In 1996, pioneering cook, restaurateur and food activist Alice Waters created the Foundation to mark the 25th anniversary of her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. The Foundation supports The Edible Schoolyard, an educational programme that uses food to nurture, educate and empower young people.
It currently has projects at schools in Berkeley near San Francisco and in a school being rebuilt in post-Katrina New Orleans. Screen Bites and the Foundation are in contact, and both hope to develop links between pupils at schools in Dorset and the USA involved in the projects. The second inspiration for the Edible Playground came from Angela King and Sue Clifford of Common Ground, the Dorset-based environment and arts charity which campaigns to promote the importance of local distinctiveness.
Dorset Cereals: The Dorchester-based company sources only the finest quality ingredients from around the world, and is committed to making premium cereals. Each recipe is carefully blended and balanced and packed full of crisp flakes, crunchy nuts and soft succulent fruit. The blending process used by Dorset Cereals ensures that the ingredients remain whole, resulting in as little “dust” as possible in the pack. Only natural ingredients are used in each of the cereals, which are Kosher and approved by the Vegetarian Society. Last year the Dorset Cereals’ brand was completely re-launched in new contemporary packaging which reflects the uncompromising dedication that the company has to making premium products.
