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July 2022 July 2022

BERE REGIS FLORAL GROUP DORSET COUNCIL- WEST PURBECK REPORT

The next meeting of Bere Regis Floral Group will be on Trading Standards helps
Tuesday 12 July at 2pm at Tarrant Keyneston village local Company
th
hall, DT11 9JE. It is the club’s special Open
Demonstration with National Demonstrator Michael The Watercress Company - described
Bowyer MBE, who is also our NAFAS National President. as a 'significant player in the industry'
and based at Waddock Cross near
His title is Summer Inspirations. Tickets are available for Dorchester - has become the first
this at £6 for club members and £12 for non-members, watercress grower to be successfully
and this includes a cream tea. For tickets or more audited against the new Watercress
information contact chairman Bob Holman on 01305
848262. Traditional Speciality Guarantee (TSG).
The TSG guarantees watercress has
Congratulations to the Bere Regis club team for gaining been grown using particular standards
a Silver Gilt award at the Malvern Spring Festival at the beginning of May. and methods. It means that only watercress grown in flowing water will be allowed
to be sold as watercress in the UK. Following the successful adoption of TSG for
Two club members, Bob and Diana Holman watercress in September 2021, Dorset Council Trading Standards began an
enjoyed a really special holiday lead by Michael auditing programme to establish whether the farms run by The Watercress
Bowyer in Dublin in May: Company met the required standards - and now they have become the first
The holiday had been planned before the grower in the world to be officially recognised as TSG certified. Well done!
pandemic, and subsequently postponed and
altered in format as numbers diminished. There
were just four of us left, and we were all beginning Dorset Innovation Park (DIP).
to wonder whether this was going to be the A new state-of-the-art innovation centre was formally opened by Minister for
holiday we had looked forward to as everything Defence Procurement,
seemed to have been changed.
Mr Jeremy Quin MP, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month. The Ministry of
However, in addition to bus trips to the lovely
gardens of Powerscourt, Hunting Brook, June
Blake’s garden and Kilmcurragh Botanic Gardens,

Michael had a special surprise for
us all. We were to go to Phoenix
Park and meet the President of
Ireland, Michael Higgins at his
palace!

Well, none of us really believed we
were really going to meet the
president! Why would Ireland’s
president agree to meet a motley
group of flower arrangers on
holiday? (We all packed smart 839209
outfits though – just in case!)

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