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  • Another Village Show Tale

    It was our Village Show today, and after just spectating last year I decided to take the plunge and enter a few classes. I didn't grow anything specially for it, just looked round to see what was ready and suitable, and ransacked the 'Preserves' cupboard & did a bit of baking for the Baking & Handicrafts section.
    I worked hard yesterday, harvest & cleaning up the veg, and baking & decorating cakes. It was a late night, by the time I got finished and everything packed into boxes with plastic bags etc for padding it was about 1.00am. I went off to bed and set the alarm for 8am - everything had to be staged by 11.15. So, imagine my face when I woke up this morning and realised I'd somehow slept in 'til 10.10am!! Managed to be out of the house by 10.25, but gosh I felt dreadful!
    Got to the Village Hall to find it a hive of activity, with trestle tables set up outside for the Dahlia & Crysanth exhibitors to groom their blooms on, and people wandering around with the hugest onions etc. I staggered in with my box of stuff and went to register with the Show Secretary who took my entry form & money and gave me a stack of tickets with my Exhibitor Number on to place next to each entry, all nicely anonymous. Within half an hour, I had set up the following entries;

    Vegetable Section

    Tastiest Tomatoes, Cherry - Sungold, Millefleur

    Tastiest Tomatoes, Standard - Bloody Butcher

    Plate 5 Tomatoes - Shirley

    A Vegetable Marrow

    3 Onions Dressed from Sets - Red Emperor (Learnt lots about how to stage onions, could have done much better with these)


    Baking & Handicrafts Section

    A Decorated Chocolate Cake

    A Victoria Sponge

    Jar of Jam or Jelly - 2 entries, Strawberry Jam, Bramble Jelly

    Jar of Chutney - Earthbabe's Special Green Tom Chutney


    We had to leave the hall at 11.30 for judging and had to come back when the show opened to the public at 2.30 to see who'd won what. I was glad to get back home - I felt like a stinker of a migraine was hovering in the wings, so a couple of painkillers, plenty of water and a small lunch headed it off before the vice tightened. The we all jumped in the car to head back to the Hall. I was fairly sure, after seeing the standard of entries, that my veg wouldn't be winning any prizes - some of our local plot-holders show at the big shows like Harrogate & Southport, one even beating Medwyn Williams last year. But I thought I had a chance in the Tastiest Tomatoes, and the baking section, so I was hopeful going back into the hall of seeing maybe one card.

    I was totally gobsmacked, and over the moon to see;
    Strawberry Jam - First Prize
    Jar of Chutney - Third Prize
    Decorated Chocolate Cake - First Prize AND Best Exhibit in the Section!

    Wow!! My veg had come nowhere, but honestly, against that competition, I couldn't be disappointed, and it hasn't put me off trying again next year
    At the end of the Show, in the Trophy giving bit, I got called to the front and was given a medal & shook hands with the representative of the National Vegetable Society & the W.I. lady who judged the Baking section, and got a whole £12 in prize money.

    What a day...
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Well done!

    You clever girl!

    It does take a fair bit of preparation, doesn't it - but didn't you do well!

    Isn't it great, peeps, that from our very own grapevine people have decided to 'have a go' when perhaps a year or two ago they wouldn't have even thought they could!

    And as far as veg go for next year, I bet you've got a 'feel' for how to present stuff (my biggest stumbling block) now, and so onwards and upwards!

    Yummy looking cake, btw, no wonder it won best exhibit!

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    • #3
      wow that cake is gorgeous, and well done sounds like you deserved to do so well after all your hard work ...... and it's £12 towards next years entries

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      • #4
        Well Done Sarah!Great stuff!
        Our kiddies always choose the worst days to give us layins too!!
        the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

        Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

        Comment


        • #5
          Congratulations Lady, that's a bladdy fine looking cake if I may say so. But you know what they say about having your cake...

          Well done.
          A simple dude trying to grow veg. http://haywayne.blogspot.com/

          BLOG UPDATED! http://haywayne.blogspot.com/2012/01...ar-demand.html 30/01/2012

          Practise makes us a little better, it doesn't make us perfect.


          What would Vedder do?

          Comment


          • #6
            well done, that all looks mighty fine, especially that choco cake yum yum x

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            • #7
              congrats on you sucesses glad your hard work paid off x
              The love of gardening is a seed once sown never dies ...

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              • #8
                Well done you!! Cake looks great.

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                • #9
                  Very well done. what a lovely looking cake too!
                  Happy Gardening,
                  Shirley

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Well done you, I'll bet you're mighty proud but also quite a bit knackered after all that!

                    So... how's about a bit of that cake then
                    A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Well done, that cake looks stunning.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Wow!!! Brilliant stuff! Did you make the chocolate rose and leaves yourself?
                        I was feeling part of the scenery
                        I walked right out of the machinery
                        My heart going boom boom boom
                        "Hey" he said "Grab your things
                        I've come to take you home."

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                        • #13
                          That cake sure puts my chocolate and beetroot cup cakes to shame! Stunning.

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                          • #14
                            A very well done, it all looks great!
                            Keep records of what you did, some pics too, how you presented them etc....head start for next year!
                            big pat on back from Headfry!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Cheers chaps
                              I made the leaves for the cake myself (painted melted chocolate onto the back of washed & dried rose leaves, then peeled the leaves off once chocolate was set), but cheated with the rose & bought ready made

                              The veg classes, gosh....; The marrows were all twice the size of mine; the tomatoes, mine weren't all exactly the same size; the onions, I should have stripped the outer skins off at least a week before the show, not the night before, plus I had too much string on the top, and no 'rings' to display them on; I took runner beans to enter but they weren't a matched set and were up to half the size of everyone elses so I didn't bother staging them... As for the leeks, carrots, parsnips, heavy onions I'll leave those for when I'm retired/kids left home! How much time do these people have? The leeks, some of them are as big as a small child!!
                              Anyway, it was good fun, and helps to make you part of the community. A lot of friendly camaradarie and p***-taking going on - my lovely little marrow was the butt of some very size-ist jokes
                              Roll on next season.

                              Comment

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