IT WAS a very super, superfood that brought 15,000 visitors to a mouth-watering festival at Alresford.

All things watercress were savoured and celebrated on the street as the town hosted its 13th annual ode, the biggest ever, to the nutritious green stuff.

There was even a competition to find the most “innovative, mind-blowing” use of watercress, with Alresford butcher John Sole excelling with his pork, watercress and ale sausages.

Also a hit were the strawberry and watercress macarons whipped up by The Hampshire Confectioner.

Jane Devonshire, who won BBC’s MasterChef in 2016, was among those giving popular cookery demonstrations of watercress-based recipes.

It is truly a festival for foodies with 50 stalls from Hampshire Farmers’ Market piled with top quality produce, including masses of locally grown watercress.

Alresford is known as the UK centre of watercress farming and is home to the Mid-Hants Steam Railway – The Watercress Line.

Event manager Clive Burgess enthused: “We had everything from watercress bitter and watercress soup to watercress tortillas and burgers.

“Everything you can do with watercress, someone will have done it.”

The first of the new harvest is distributed to the hordes by the Watercress King and Queen, who sit in a horse and cart at the head of a cavalcade of musicians and Morris dancers.

This is a highlight of the festival and sees crowds lining Broad Street as it passes by.

Organisers are keen to promote the event as a family-friendly festival and new for this year were more children’s entertainers and activities including a Punch and Judy and a magician.

“The kids’ zone was very, very busy and popular, and we had a lot more musicians, bands and choirs performing, all manner of things,” said Clive.

The Alresford Ukulele Jam, the Alresford Community Choir, Winchester Rock Choir and Godalming Brass were among the acts that went down well.

Festival-goers also had a chance to take a look at Alresford’s historic Fulling Mill and Eel House.