Heinz brought the gardening culture to the heart of London with its Heinz City Allotment on August 3-4. As a part of the promotion for the brand’s Salad Cream product, the iconic food manufacturer created a ‘crop-up’ plot in Soho Square and invited passers-by to pick a mix of vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce, celery, carrots and many more) just from the patches and several minutes later try them in a salad or sandwich, which was dressed with Heinz Salad Cream at the special on-site cooking facilities.

Image Courtesy: davidjonesuk’s Flickr photostream

Researches show that around 50 percent of Brits do not have an opportunity to do gardening at their own plots, and so Heinz decided to give them a chance to have this extraordinary experience, which was quite usual in this country a couple of centuries ago. The movement is expected to be taken all across the big cities of the UK to remind the local people of the agricultural traditions of the state. The participants of the Heinz City Allotment activity in Soho were invited to donate £1 to the Help a London Child charity for the fresh and crispy salad or sandwich they got.

The project was supported by Matthew Fort, a culinary expert, who helped make all the nice freshly-cooked food. “If there’s one thing that makes food even more satisfying, it’s the feeling of taking ingredients straight from nature and experiencing the journey from plant to plate. With this allotment we’re hoping to give Brits a fresh, healthy and fun experience, and show that picking and eating the freshest of foods is something that everyone should have the chance to enjoy,” he said. “With more and more people being denied the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of their own veggie patch, we felt it time to give some of these people the chance to paint their fingers green and tuck into a tasty salad of their own design,” added Nigel Dickie from Heinz.

This project has a lot in common with the Lay’s Mobile Farm initiative, which taught gardening basics to the residents of 6 major cities of the US.