Slurping was the order of the day when hundreds of bowls of soup were dished up during a harvest festival.
Residents went soup crazy during the annual Harvest Fair in Bewdley, and more than 600 portions had to be served.
Visitors to the harvest festival were asked to vote on six different home-made soups.
The winning recipe was a spiced beetroot and apple soup from The Mug House, served with apple chips and beetroot crisps. Other contestants were The Bailiff’s House, The Food Foundry, Grannystap Victorian Tea Room, The Hop Pole and The Little Pack Horse.
The Harvest Fair, which ran over two days, was organised to promote locally grown produce and local food outlets.
The soup competition turned out to be the most popular event, as residents queued up to sample the recipes and then put their votes into ballot boxes.
One of the organisers, Neville Farmer, said: “Complete strangers were standing in the streets discussing soup.Everybody from the chefs to the public really threw themselves into the spirit of the event. It was a great promotion for Bewdley produce and Bewdley culinary skills.”
Winning chefs Pavol Koci, Mark Rhoden and Lewis Stanley churned their own butter from local cream, and customers from the The Mug House pub supplied the home-grown vegetables. They were presented with a trophy by the town’s Mayor, Jan Adams.
Another organiser, Chris Griffin, said: “It was a real Bewdley event. Even the trophy was a collaboration of the Bewdley museum artisans, Chris Connor and Eric Lyons, with engraving from the Bewdley Cobbler.”