ASPARAGUS is to be featured in a Vale of Evesham Asparagus Festival on Sunday and Monday, May 25 and 26.

Hosted in the Workman Gardens, Evesham, by growers Bomfords, the festival will be opened on Sunday morning and chef Brian Turner will be there on Monday to cook up some mouth-watering dishes in the cooking demonstrations.

There will be an asparagus restaurant and bar, asparagus barbecue samples, an "asparagus bus" to see the crop in production, along with demonstrations and stalls.

On Sunday evening there is the first of the annual asparagus auctions at the Fleece Inn, Bretforton, and the Cotswold House Hotel, Chipping Campden, is serving special asparagus dinners.

Bomfords, a privately-owned business at Luddington, farm about 5,000 acres in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, growing spring onions, peas, runner beans, broad beans, purple sprouting, broccoli and sprouts, as well as asparagus.

The climate in the Vale of Evesham ensures optimum conditions to achieve the perfect-tasting asparagus spear. As it is grown locally, the vegetable can be transported from field to plate quickly, making it the freshest and tastiest during the May and June season.