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When I moved to Cornwall in 1987, I did so convinced that after
ten years of flying around the world I was coming somewhere for a quieter
lifestyle. As Woody Allen says in the film Annie Hall: 'God's idea of
a joke is watching humans making plans for the future'. I should have
moved to New York.
I was fortunate, I found something that turned into an obsession; the
restoration of what became known as 'The Lost Gardens of Heligan'. 'Peter
Rabbit' meets 'The Secret Garden' in a green ocean of plenty. The visitors
came in their droves and, moved as they were by the sheer romance of
this wonderful place that had become an horticultural Mary Celeste,
it was the productive gardens with more than three hundred varieties
of vegetables and soft fruit that truly mesmerised them. A decade later
and the Eden Project is set to open its doors to the public and what
a cornucopia awaits them in our incredible conservatories. Cocoa, coffee,
bananas, to name but a few, are among hundreds of exotic fruits and
vegetables that capture the imagination and send the taste buds into
ecstasy.
One of the points Eden wants to make is that we should cherish what
is in our backyard, after all the most exotic fruit in the world to
an Amazonian Indian is the apple. Exotic simply means unfamiliar. Cornwall
with its mild climate plays host to the widest range of plants in the
world and its coast colonised by improbably beautiful fishing villages
are a testament to the cleanest waters in Europe.
Cornwall is a place of plenty where only now a rich culinary tradition
is coming to the fore to be placed in front of a discerning public by
a new breed of restauranteurs. They are fired by the quality of the
local produce, and eager to spread the word that Cornwall is a place
of ambition with a cultural self-confidence that is a match for anywhere
on earth. However, please don't tell everyone about it or they will
come and spoil it for those of us who are in the know!
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