Herbs
The Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) search for the best young herb photographers is to be sponsored by the fresh produce giant
Vitacress is to sponsor The Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) search for the best young herb photographers.
The competition is aimed at schools taking part in the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, a UK-wide initiative that aims to inspire and support schools to provide children with gardening opportunities to enhance their skills and boost their development.
Photographers are invited to capture a ‘living’ herb growing in the wild, garden, in a container or in a setting of their choice. The herbs may be growing in the UK, abroad or across any season.
There are two age groups for the competition – 11 to 17-year-olds, and an under-11s category.
Entrants will compete for the respected title of RHS Young Herb Photographer of the Year, and the prize of an iPad Air, worth approximately £300, will be awarded to the winner from each age category.
The winning photographer’s school in both age groups will also receive £500 of horticultural materials for their gardening clubs. In addition, the runner up in each age category will win an iPad Mini and £250 of horticultural materials for their school.
The judging panel for the RHS Young Herb Photographer of the Year 2015 will include representatives from Vitacress, the UK’s largest grower and supplier of fresh herbs for the UK retail market, Jekka McVicar and Lady Bacon, chair of the RHS Herb Group, Alana Tapsell, schools’ communications officer for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, and Jason Ingram, who was voted photographer of the year 2014 by the Garden Media Guild.
Chris Moncrieff, production director for the Vitacress herbs division, said: “We’re obviously very passionate about herbs so to be part of this competition is exciting. We’re really looking forward to seeing the entries. Herbs offer such vibrant colours and shapes, we hope they will offer some fresh and creative opportunities for the young photographers.”
The closing date for entries is 25 September 2015. Entry is via the campaign’s website, and budding photographers will be able to submit their herb pictures via this link.
R&G Fresh Herbs secures contract to supply foodservice giant with 16,000 100g bags of herb varieties on a weekly basis
The UK’s leading supplier of fresh cut herbs to the supermarket, foodservice and wholesale sectors has landed a deal with a major new customer.
R&G Fresh Herbs has agreed a contract for its Nature’s Flavours brand with foodservice supplier Reynolds to fulfil a weekly order of approximately 16,000 100g bags of 16 different fresh cut herb varieties.
The order represents a substantial part of the overall herb requirements of the foodservice business.
Dean Fowler, R&G’s general manager, said: “With a long history of supplying the finest fresh cut herbs in the UK, R&G is extremely well positioned to fulfil such an order.”
Representatives from Reynolds visited R&G’s main Woking site and toured the production and packhouse facilities as part of the due diligence process.
“The Reynolds team were very happy with what they saw, as R&G adheres to the most stringent quality control standards and operates a state of the art processing and production facility,” Fowler added.
The first branded fresh cut herbs to consistently feature micro-perforated packaging – something that allows the herbs to respire and thus prolong shelf life – has enjoyed significant commercial success since its November 2012 launch.
The Nature’s Flavours brand has supplied Whole Foods Market, Harrods and Ocado amount its retail customers, in addition to ingredients box suppliers such as Hello Fresh, a raft of wholesalers, and now Reynolds, as it makes significant inroads in the foodservice sector.