TENBURY is preparing for its big bake off. As reported last autumn plans are afoot to launch a Tenbury Tart at the Teme Valley Food Fair in the early summer.

It is hoped it will replicate for Tenbury what the pork pie has achieved for Melton Mowbray, the Bakewell tart for Bakewell or Yorkshire’s famous puddings have for that county.

And you could be the creative force behind the tart.

Alex Wall of the Tenbury Apple Group wants people to submit their recipes and they will be invited to a judging, staged in March or April.

A Tenbury baker will then be invited to make the winning tart for launch at the Food Fair.

The judging panel has still to be chosen but is likely to include at least one professional baker, as well as mayor Sue Corfield.

“There will be few conditions but the tart must include a fruit or combination of fruits that are grown in Tenbury and the Teme Valley,” said Alex.

“It can be an open or closed tart but it must be able to be made commercially by a baker so that perhaps rules out anything that is too complex.”

it is hoped that the winning tart can be baked in large numbers and sold widely in the local area and further afield.

“There are also kinds of possibilities including apples, plums, damsons and berries or a combination of these fruits,” added Alex Wall.

The Tenbury Apple Group came up with the idea last year of having a tart that could be used to market the town.

Now an established part of the town calendar, the Teme Valley Food Fair is modelled upon the much larger Ludlow Food Festival staged in the rival south Shropshire town every September.

The food theme is also being used as the basis for a programme of ‘Taste of Tenbury’ events staged throughout the year.