Last week, The English Apple Man reported on news from the NFS 2021. With so much activity, it will need 2-3 weeks to do justice to this year's show, especially as it was the first 'live event' since 2019.
Below: The Minister Victoria Prentis MP opens the 2012 Show accompanied NFS President Teresa Wickham
The 2021 show was opened by the Minister for Farming, Fisheries and Food, Victoria Prentis MP (Cons, Banbury & North Oxfordshire), with NFU Vice President Tom Bradshaw also in attendance. The Minister met growers and toured the show, accompanied by other key figures including representatives of POs and the new ELMS programme.
There were just under 90 exhibitors at the show and the NFS team is delighted that many businesses who have supported the event for several decades have returned, while there are also a great number of new sponsors and exhibitors attending for the first time.
The pictures in this week's Journal were all supplied by Martin Apps - Countrywide Photographic - Official Photographer for The National Fruit Show The English Apple Man thanks Martin for his brilliant photos!
Below: L-R: NFS Joint Vice Chair Annette Bardsley - NFS Executive Chair Sarah Calcutt - Minister Victoria Prentis - NFS Joint Vice Chair Estera Amez - NFS President Teresa Wickham and right: Victoria Prentis inspects the REVO Harvest Rig with Radu Tandarescu from Adrian Scripps Ltd
A number of entrants to the Show Classes have become serial winners over the years and Annette Bardsley from Bardsley England continues the family tradition stretching back 4 generations as she collected 14 awards for her entries. Once again dominating the Bramley Classes.
Below: Left; Sarah Calcutt poses with Annette Bardsley as she receives the trophy for Bramley Class from President Teresa Wickham and right: Clive Baxter receives the Trophy for Class 7. Jazz
The National Fruit Show encourages novice entrants and this year Jeremy Linsell from Braiseworth Orchards in Suffolk won several awards in the Novice Class. In the Under 40 Class regular winner Katie Langridge and newcomer Charnee Butcher won multiple awards.
Below: left; Jeremy Linsell with the Henshall Rose Bowl for Dessert Apples, Novice Class and right; Charnee Butcher and Katie Langridge U40 Class Winners
There were far to many prize winners for individual praise, but the group below highlight this year's NOVICE winner, JEREMY LINSELL and Under 40 winners KATIE LANGRIDGE and CHARNEE BUTCHER who are on the path to being 'Show Princesses' in the wake of 'Show Queen' ANNETTE BARDSLEY.
Name BRAISEWORTH ORCHARDS
34 Henshall Rose Bowl for Dessert Apples, Novice Class
35 The F P Matthews Prize for Dessert Apples,
62 Novice Class John Henshall Salver for the Best Exhibit of any Dessert Apple grown in UK outside Kent
75 Agrovista Regional Champions Cup - Grower most points from the Eastern Midlands
Name CHARNEE BUTCHER
38 Western International Market Shield for Dessert Apples, Exhibitor Under 40
39 The Sue Daly Novice Trophy
40 Haynes Agricultural (Kent) Ltd Prize for Dessert Apples, Exhibitor Aged Under 40
68 W Bruce Challenge Cup for the best exhibit of Dessert Apples excluding Cox & Sports in Class 2
Name KATIE LANGRIDGE
41 A C Goatham & Son Memorial Trophy for Bramley Exhibitor under 40
42 A C Goatham & Son Prize for Bramley Exhibitor under 40
Name MALLIONS FARM - Katie Langridge also prepares the show entries for Mallions Farm
5 Dufaylite Developments Cup for Culinary Apples
6 The Wealden AM Prize for AOV Culinary Apples
17 Foreman Salver for Russets
18 The Fruit Grower Prize for Russets
23 George Harlow Cup for Any Other Variety Dessert Apple
24 Invicta Petroleum Shield for Any Other Variety Dessert Apple
25 New Spitalfields Market prize for Any Other Variety of Dessert Apple
70 The David Burd Memorial Trophy for entrant gaining most points in Classes 18/19/20/21
Below: Pre show, Press preview: members of the press with Executive Chair Sarah Calcutt with NFU Vice President Tom Bradshaw on the right
What was new at the show?
Below: Mark Lumsdon-Taylor from MHA MacIntyre introducing the NFS Conference
On Day one there was a new conference event in partnership with the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, kindly sponsored by MHA MacIntyre Hudson.
'How can Farmers go green when they are in the red?'
The event saw Master Fruiterer Laurence Olins chair a panel of speakers including PhD students and Nuffield scholars, with the session culminating with food policy expert Professor Tim Lang discussing the challenges of feeding Britain and the dichotomy of food and environmental policy.
The UK government's current food strategy is an incoherent mess, according to food policy expert Professor Tim Lang
Emeritus professor of food policy Tim Lang has lambasted the UK government's food strategy, calling it "a basket case" and describing Westminster's 'Global Britain' initiative as "a complete joke".
Below: Professor Tim Lang
Addressing the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers Conference at the National Fruit Show in Kent, Tim Lang, who founded City University London's Centre for Food Policy in 1994, told delegates that UK fruit consumption and production was too low, and that government mantra that tech and innovation are the solution is wrong.
'Cloud cuckoo land'
Lang described the UK fruit economy as "a picture of imports and underconsumption". He said that the government was in "cloud cuckoo land" if it thought the answer to increasing UK fruit production lay in "water-stressed Kent", and said Westminster's 'Global Britain' policy was as "a complete joke".
"The government is encouraging us to get food from more water-stressed, climate-stressed countries. This is parasitic," he said.
Lang said the UK should be trebling fruit and veg consumption, and that the UK needed to adopt "multicriterial thinking" about its food system.
"We have a locked-in bad-food culture with no incentives for poorer people to buy fruit," he said. "At the same time we have a labour crisis in the UK fruit sector
Reframe UK food culture
Over the next 20 years we need to double what gets to the primary producer, and we need to reframe UK food culture so that fruit and veg is the consumer's first choice, not the last, Lang added.
There is a mismatch of demand, markets and policy, he continued. "We've got to get fruit into the framing rethink. We need to have more awareness as consumers about whether our food is ethically OK. We need to do long-term planning in the UK to become more food secure.
"We need more orchards, not in Kent, but in areas where they have surplus water. We have to plan to move vegetable production going on in regions, such as the Fens, that are about to be submerged by rising sea levels to other regions.
"All this is sobering, but we can find a way through, but not using technology," he concluded. "To paraphrase Bill Clinton, the answer's with the people, stupid."
Love Cider Competition 2021
Below: Left: Cider Judges, Nigel Barden, Melissa Cole & Adrian Harris; Right Cider Winners, Taunton Cider and 'May Turner'
Ahead of the National Fruit Show, the Love Cider competition took place in September. Unlike the trade-focused show, Love Cider is a consumer-facing contest open to all cider lovers who follow us on the show's social media channels. The chair of judges this year was a well-known food broadcaster Nigel Barden, supported by drinks writer Melissa Cole and MFSS committee member Adrian Harris from NIAB EMR.
The winners were The Taunton Cider Company and May Turner, Turners Cider Marden Ltd
Name THE TAUNTON CIDER COMPANY
96 Engage Agro Cup for Traditional Cider
Name TURNERS CIDER MARDEN LTD
97 Engage Agro Cup for Pear/Perry
98 Mixed Blend
Below: left; Taunton Cider Company and right; Turners Cider Marden
On that refreshing note, we will end this week's visit to the National Fruit Show, but next week make one more visit to the show
Take care
The English Apple Man