Best of St Neots Chilli expert wins Grower of the Year Award 2011
Bedfordshire’s chilli guru, Joanna Plumb has just received yet another accolade as ‘Grower of the Year 2011’, when her Chawston based nursery Edible Ornamentals won the award for the best Trade Marketing Campaign of the Year.
Over 500 professional growers from across the UK attended the award ceremony which was held at London’s Lancaster Hotel and hosted by TV celebrity Paul Ross. Arranged by Horticulture Week, and sponsored by national brands including ASDA, the National Farmers Union and BBC’s Gardeners World Live, ‘Grower of the Year’ awards are considered the Oscars of the horticulture industry.
Joanna commented, “Quality and freshness underlines everything we do. We have always encouraged our customers to pick chillies or any of the other vegetables we grow at Edible Ornamentals straight from the plant and use them immediately to get the very best flavours in their home cooking. Our campaign has been successful, because the demand for our chillies keeps growing, and this award just proves that you don’t have to be a giant in the industry to make a difference as we were competing against 13 Asda growers. Good produce is about quality, not quantity.”
Renowned for the fresh chillies she supplies to Fortnum and Masons, Harrods and leading London restaurants, Joanna was voted Local Food Hero for East Anglia. She has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes, and has been visited by many of the UK’s leading culinary experts.
