Asparagus paraded through train by 7ft vegetable

All aboard the Asparagus Express - a surreal event marking the start of the British Asparagus Festival

A bundle of the first 100 asparagus grown this season in the West of England has been paraded through a train as part of an eccentric English tradition to mark the launch of the British Asparagus Festival.

Passengers were delighted to see the javelin-shaped vegetables carried by a man dressed in a 7ft (2.1m) tall asparagus costume, accompanied by another man dressed as England's patron saint, St George.

The steam train, of course it was, set off from Broadway railway station in the Cotswolds to deliver the delicious stems to nearby Cheltenham.

The rows of fresh green spears were then donated to the National Star College in Ullenwood, where students turned them into soup.

The British Asparagus Festival runs from St George’s Day on 23 April until Midsummer’s Day, astronomically speaking, on 21 June, when the vegetable is harvested in the Vale of Evesham.

The tradition started in 2008.

Gus, the giant asparagus that cheerfully carried the spears through the steam train, said the festival was going “from strength to strength”.

Members of the public, Morris dancers and dogs were among those celebrating the launch of the festival

“The Vale of Evesham asparagus is the best in the world,” he said.

”It’s got the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status like Champagne and Jersey Royal potatoes, because it has a unique flavour, because of the climate we grow it in.

“It just seems to grow really well and have this distinct taste.”

Ian Crowder from Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway said it was an “exciting” trip back in time.

“This very railway, once upon a time, used to carry hundreds of tonnes of asparagus from the Vale of Evesham to market,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of very happy people on the railway today and, indeed, asparagus has been sold in the buffet.

“It brings the railway and a traditional product from the Vale of Evesham together in one place.”

The asparagus was donated to the National Star college in Ullenwood

Every year, on St George’s Day, the asparagus begins its day at The Fleece Inn at Bretforton, and is then donated to a charity.

This year it was donated to The National Star, whose students with disabilities, brain injuries and learning difficulties, were given the chance to turn it into asparagus soup, while gaining work experience in a kitchen.

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