ASPARAGUS, Queen of all the vegetables, 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 by Tony Tobin 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 BBQ 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.

Marketing manager Lucy Mellor said: "Bomfords are pleased to be hosting the Asparagus Festival in Evesham this year. After a successful launch to their first asparagus crop last year with an Asparagus Run in a Morgan car to London's top hotels, finishing with a four course asparagus meal cooked by Anton Edelman at the Savoy Hotel, it was decided it would be nice to hold an event in the area that our asparagus is grown."

She explained: "The main objectives for the festival are to raise the profile of this versatile and easy to prepare veg that can spice up your love life while also being very healthy."

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

Full-flavoured, deliciously sweet and tender, local asparagus is the best in the world. The climate ensures optimum conditions to achieve the perfect tasting spear, and being local is can be from field to plate quickly, making it the freshest and tastiest during the May and June season.

Asparagus not only tastes good but it does you good too - it contains no fat, cholesterol or sodium and is rich in vitamin C, folic acid, iron and potassium. Asparagus is reputed to have aphrodisiac properties, especially when eaten with the fingers and dipped in a smooth sauce to accentuate its sensuous texture.

"Asparagus means that spring has sprung and that summer is around the corner," said Tony Tobin, of BBC Ready Steady Cook. "My favourite way of using asparagus is taking it hot from the pan and covering it with some good olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese."