Date/Time: 1.30pm, Wednesday, January 27^th, 2010

Venue: Shades of Black Allotment, Oxhill Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, B21 8HB

The Edible Garden Show 2010 Press Launch with the ‘First Lady’ of allotments Eunice McGhie-Belgrave MBE

Inspirational

‘First Lady’ of allotments and ‘Pride of Britain’ winner Eunice McGhie-Belgrave

will give local schoolchildren a master class in home-grown vegetables during

the official press launch of UK’s ultimate ‘Grow Your Own’ event ­-The Edible

Garden Show 2010.

Eunice,

who has inspired countless children to grow and cook their own vegetables, has

given her full backing to the first-ever national show dedicated to exclusively

to ‘Grow Your Own’ fruit and vegetables. 

And

on Wednesday January 27, this amazing 75-year-old community worker will be

joined by youngsters from Birmingham’s Rookery Primary School at the Shades of Black

allotments in Handsworth to promote The Edible Garden Show. 

Eunice

says:  “I’m delighted to support this

fantastic new event.  It’s high time the

gardening world had a national show to celebrate the work of gardeners who grow

their own fruit and vegetables.  I know

how popular ‘Grow Your Own’ is with the public and I’m sure there will be

terrific support for the show.” 

The

Edible Garden Show is being staged at Stoneleigh Park,

Warwickshire, from March 19-21 2010. 

Eunice

has become a cult figure in Midlands’

gardening circles since she launched the Shades of Black allotments project in

1985 to heal and unite an area devastated by the Handsworth riots. She was

awarded an MBE in 2002 for her work and last year won the Daily Mirror Pride of

Britain award. 

Her

thriving allotments scheme introduces city youngsters to the joy of growing

their own food. Teachers and pupils from Rookery Primary School

make regular visits to her Handsworth allotments to learn about gardening. And

produce from the allotments is distributed to elderly people and local day care

centres. 

Just

as Eunice continues to encourage young people to develop horticultural skills

alongside their academic work, The Edible Garden Show 2010 is dedicated to

providing a one-stop-shop for anyone harbouring an inner desire and passion to

grow their own fruit and vegetables.

As

UK’s

first-ever national garden show launched amid the phenomenal explosion of

interest in home-grown food, The Edible Garden Show is a ‘must-see’ event for

seasoned gardeners and complete novices. 

The

show has already won official endorsements from two of the most high-profile

organisations in the gardening and agriculture world – the National Society of

Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG), which boasts 103,000 members in the UK

at over 2,000 allotment societies, and the Royal Agricultural Society of

England. 

The

National Federation of Womens’ Institutes are also supporting the show with

cookery demonstrations to be conducted at the event by the WI’s National Cookery School.

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