Community events

As farmers we have a duty to look after our farmland and also within the wider community. Our community events will be posted here as well as links to get involved and join us!

An evening with New-Man Prostate Cancer Support

On the 12th of February 2020 we were invited to present to the New-Man Prostate Support about the benefits of eating watercress, and ways to enjoy as part of a balanced diet.

A great evening was had by all and James really enjoyed presenting as well as serving some delicious soup and some watercress smoothies.

The talk was organised by Penny from the Dorchester County Hospital Urology department as part of our involvement with the NHS. You can read more about this here.

The group meet in the second Wednesday of February, April, June, August, October and the last Wednesday in November and have a lot to talk about so it was a privilege to be given the floor for the evening, thanks chaps!

Over £4.8k Raised for Joe Glover Trust at The Alresford Watercress Festival

Local children’s cancer charity, The Joe Glover Trust were delighted to announce that they raised nearly £5,000 in donations at this year’s Alresford Watercress Festival, held on Sunday 19th May.

The Winchester based charity, established in memory of 8 year old cancer sufferer, Joe Glover, has been the official charity for the annual Watercress Festival for over 10 years.  Each year festival goers are encouraged to donate what they can spare in exchange for bags of fresh watercress, watercress smoothies or pesto.  Over the years well over £30k has been raised at this one event.  The charity helps children diagnosed with cancer to cope with the disease and all it throws at them while supporting their families as they deal with difficult times during treatment and sadly, for many, what may come after.

Jane Wilmshurst, Fundraising and Event Manager for the Joe Glover Trust said: “The final total at this year’s Festival was a massive £4828.14, which is absolutely fantastic.  The Watercress Festival is one of my favourite events to attend and we are incredibly grateful for the generosity of the people who come to Alresford for the day.  There’s always a great atmosphere and we’ve been lucky with the weather which adds to the happy mood.  We feel very honoured to have been the organisers’ official charity for so many years.”

Watercress is grown locally in Hampshire and Dorset.  Alresford is the location for the annual Festival celebrating the start of the UK watercress season because in Victorian times, when watercress was at is peak of popularity, Alresford was known as the ‘Capital of Watercress’ with its own railway line carrying tonnes of watercress up to London. 

However, it’s not just because watercress is a local crop that partnering with the Joe Glover Trust seemed appropriate but there is a scientific reason too.  Over a decade ago medical research demonstrated that a compound called phenylethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), which occurs in high levels in watercress, was shown to reduce the level of DNA damage and also increases the ability of cells to resist DNA damage.  More studies are underway to better understand the connection with certain diseases but one thing’s for sure, eating watercress can only do you good!

Watercress is one of the healthiest, if not THE healthiest vegetable you can eat – it’s packed full of over 50 vital vitamins and minerals and gram for gram contains more calcium than milk, more vitamin C than orange, more folate than banana and more vitamin E than broccoli.  It’s also high in fibre and a rich source of iron. 

Tom Amery, MD for The Watercress Company explains: “The Festival is all about shouting about these health benefits, demonstrating the versatility of watercress in cooking and just encouraging trial.  This is where the relationship with The Joe Glover Trust is so good for us - their team is fabulous at getting people to try watercress and the public are glad to donate something in return to this wonderful charity.  I am delighted they raised so much.”

The Festival was packed with an estimated 16,000 people converging on the beautiful Georgian market town.  They enjoyed live music, food stalls with locally produced products, cookery demos, informative health talks and much more including the infamous World Watercress Eating Championships.

Jane Wilmshurst concludes: “I have to thank the wonderful team of volunteers from businesses such as Nationwide and law firm Trethowans who helped engage the crowds and tempt them with the watercress, smoothies and pestos.  They all worked incredibly hard, but it was definitely worth it.  See you next year!” 

For more information about The Joe Glover Trust and its work visit www.thejoeglovertrust.org or go straight to their VirginMoneyGiving page and to find out more about watercress and its health benefits, or delicious recipes, visit www.watercress.co.uk

Watercress sales for Dorchester & District Annual Show 2019

“Thank you so much for your kind donations for our Annual Show last Saturday! The weather was kind to us, which always helps, and we managed to stage a rather impressive display with the Mayor presenting the awards at the end of the afternoon.

Your watercress was sold to help our funds along with three of the wasabi plants, (which were quite a talking point) and we also put one of them in the raffle. I made sure that your company’s name was on display and that some of your recipe leaflets etc were available.

Our Show is usually the biggest drain on our Club’s limited resources as hiring the Hall on Friday evening/Saturday costs a fair amount. Your help was certainly appreciated.

Thank you again for being so generous”.

Mrs Jane Cheeseman - Secretary, Dorchester and District Gardening Club

Watercress sales for Warmwell 2019 Village Fete

“It was great to meet you recently when I picked up the salad for the fete.  I just wanted to say thank you so much for so kindly sponsoring us.  It was a great success, we had over 1000 visitors and raised over £3000 for local charities.  Many people bought the watercress and the salad which is delicious!  Also the Brace of Butchers lunch voucher was a much sought after raffle prize, that raised over £400.  I imagine that most of our visitors will have noticed your sponsorship which was advertised by the master of ceremonies and also on the programme and posters.  

Thanks again, best wishes”

Sam Ross-Skinner -Warmwell House

Watercress sales for Charminster 2019 Village Fete

Our annual outing to Charminster Village Fete was a huge success this year. Well positioned in the warm fete garden on East Hill we sold out of watercress and met over 140 visitors that thoroughly enjoyed sampling and discussing the information available on the stand. Raising over £80 was a great achievement and supported the overall total of nearly £5000 raised in the 3 hrs. We received a lovely letter from the Chairman of The Fete Committee Lt Col (Retd) R H East and look forward to seeing you next year .

Watercress sales for Charminster 2019 Village Fete

Our annual outing to Charminster Village Fete was a huge success this year. Well positioned in the warm fete garden on East Hill we sold out of watercress and met over 140 visitors that thoroughly enjoyed sampling and discussing the information available on the stand. Raising over £80 was a great achievement and supported the overall total of nearly £5000 raised in the 3 hrs. We received a lovely letter from the Chairman of The Fete Committee Lt Col (Retd) R H East and look forward to seeing you next year .

Watercress talk for NCI Portland Bill

With an estimated 1000 shipwrecks over the centuries, the Dorset coast can be treacherous and nowhere more so than Portland due to the fast tides around the isle known as the “Portland race”

NCI Portland Bill is a National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) lookout station on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England and run entirely by a staff of volunteers, every day of the year from 7am-7pm working shift of 4 hours.

We were delighted when they contacted us to give a talk on watercress following their monthly meeting. The talk, given by James, was extremely well received and it was great to support the members of such an important charity with some free watercress to add to their sandwiches whilst keeping watch!

Fancy joining the Portland team? More information can be found here

Dorchester Big Spring Clean

Plastic Free Dorchester is a community project being led by the Eco Crew at Damers First School with support from Dorchester Town Council, Litter Free Dorset, Litter Free Coast MP Sir Oliver Letwin and local business including us!. The Eco Crew achieved ‘Plastic Free Schools’ status in May 2018 and are determined to see their town follow in their footsteps.This year’s event will focus on collecting and disposing of single-use plastic from our streets, parks and beaches, recycling as much as possible.

On Saturday 30th March Tom, Jason, James and Tom’s son George joined The Big Spring Clean collecting litter from our streets and verges. Team TWC concentrated on the Weymouth relief road heading into Dorchester and recovered 13 bags of rubbish over a relatively short stretch. Watch this space for further updates and how to join in our regular plastic collections.