Aparamancer visits Emma Lavelle’s yard to make summer predictions

To celebrate the launch of the two-month asparagus season asparamancer Jemima Packington visited her namesake, racehorse Jemima P. to make her big British Asparagus Festival predictions for the rest of 2021.

Aparamancy is a type of fortune-telling, using sticks of asparagus to predict the future. Here is what the spears say the rest of the year has on offer:

• One of the hottest summers on record will mean hosepipe bans, over-crowded beaches and wildfires becoming the norm in the UK.
• More people will give up eating fish given the growing concerns about the impact of the fishing industry on our ocean’s sustainability.
• Late autumn will see the UK return to lockdown although schools will not be affected. New Covid variants will be the main cause of lockdown coupled with people who refuse vaccination.
• As people tire of social media, the digital giants will look for ways to engage with people on a hyper-local level to encourage them back.
• Christmas will be more low-key and intimate as people realise that lockdown celebrations in 2020 better captured the essence of goodwill.

As well making her predictions and meeting Jemima P along with her respected trainer, Emma Lavelle, Jemima Packington read the spears to let the stables know how their horses would perform in future races – but those forecasts were for the trainer’s ears only!

A much pared-down British Asparagus Festival launched on 23rd April with the first-cut round of asparagus being donated to the NHS. An asparagus auction is planned for May along with an asparagus walk to honour Captain Tom.