ALTON’S annual harvest festival was overflowing with produce grown by Alton Local Food Initiative (ALFI), which also provides free gifts of food to the community.

Vegetables were grown on plots of land around the town and the fruit that ALFI grows behind St Lawrence vicarage is “also all for the taking”.

Committee member Melissa Pitchard said they had a lot of visitors at the festival venue – the Methodist Church Hall – many of whom wanted to talk about gardening. The refreshments, coffee and cakes in the morning and vegetable soup for lunch, were popular, she added.

A highlight was the Sparsholt apple display with apple identification, apple tasting and advice on how to prune and grow English heritage apples. Chris Bird, of Sparsholt College, Winchester, was on hand to offer "historic apple wisdom”.

Many of the apples in the collection at Sparsholt originate from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Heritage apples are varieties not found in shops and supermarkets that were grown 80 or so years ago when the UK had many more orchards.

Today, Heritage apples are usually grown in the gardens of private homes and houses such as West Green House, The Vyne, and Houghton Lodge.

ALFI doesn’t stage the festival to make a profit, Melissa explained, but to show the fruits of its members’ efforts, although it is grateful for donations to cover costs.

Although not all expert gardeners, ALFI members grow a full range of crops on their plots – small areas of unused public land – and place bags of produce in busy parts of the town, such as at Alton station, for people to help themselves.

ALFI has been awarded £197 by Waitrose as part of the supermarket chain’s initiative to support local charities.

“This will be used to buy plants and related equipment for our plots and planters around the town,” said Melissa.