Mayor’s luncheon celebrates locally grown vegetables

The chef put together a three-course menu of locally sourced seasonal vegetables. The mouth-watering meal started with a spicy squash soup, followed by garden quiche, jacket potato and sautéed chard, finished with a dessert of poached pear, vanilla ice cream and apple fool.

Special guests invited by the Lord Mayor included representatives from Hull Food Partnership, community projects, the Soil Association, allotment growers, large scale vegetable growers, councillors, Hull City Council staff and Veg Cities campaign.

Councillor Gwen Lunn explains, “We wanted to show everyone that you can create a delicious and complete meal without needing to include meat or fish.”                       

The supply of vegetables was coordinated by Veg Cities Hull. Allotments on Clough Road and County Road, and community gardens Rooted in Hull, Constable Community Allotment and Pickering Road Community Orchard donated produce. 

Veg Cities Hull coordinator John Pickles added, “Hull has a rich tradition of putting on city meals using produce from allotments. The Lord Mayor’s team put on a superb event, and the fact that the ingredients were locally grown provided a great talking point.”

It is hoped that discussions during the meal will lead to closer links, future collaborations and the strengthening of community initiatives around cooking and eating and growing more vegetables in Hull. 

Sustain are encouraging more areas to launch Veg Cities campaigns and get local businesses and organisations making veg pledges. Veg Cities is a feature campaign of Sustainable Food Cities and is run in partnership with Peas Please.