Musical talent in the greenhouse

Whilst performers in the long-running international Stomp show, currently in London, use anything from Zippo lighters, plastic bags, bin lids and even the kitchen sink to hammer out an explosive rhythm.

But vegetables?

The London Vegetable Orchestra has achieved such renown that they have performed at places such as Hampton Court Flower Show, the Essex Food Show and the London Harvest Festival, organised by the Royal Horticultural Society in London.

Instrument maker Tim Cranmore, along with other vegetable carving musicians, creates the items on the day of the performance, using fresh vegetables.  There is a courgette trumpet with red pepper mute, carrot recorder, sweet potato percussion and pumpkin bass drum.

If you have a harvest store of good sized veg, why not try carving an instrument of your own?

For more information, read http://www.londonvegetableorchestra.com/index.html

Tim said: “A fresh vegetable tends not to vibrate quite fast enough, so it’s my job to make the air vibrate inside the instrument by either hitting it or blowing into it.  In the future we may branch out into the more exotic Chinese vegetables, but at the moment the possibilities of home grown veg are just entertainingly endless!”

So for all of you who thought that carving a Jack o’ Lantern for Hallowe’en was the limit of your expertise, just accumulate a range of suitable carving tools and chip away.  It’s got to be easier than wood turning!

Any photos of your creative exhibits would be greatly appreciated at the Gabriel Ash offices, so do send them along to us for inspiration and amusement, and – you never know – they may appear in our blog posts one time.