Top Tray

After a weekend of heavy rain not much could be done on the plot so thoughts turned to the shows. The Show Schedules should start dropping through the letter box soon.

At most shows you will see a class called 'Top Tray', which is often popular and well contested.

This is for 3 sets of vegetables chosen from a list as follows:

3 onions

3 potatoes

6 pods peas

6 runner beans

6 tomatoes

3 caulis

3 carrots (foliage cut back to 3")

3 parsnips (foliage cut back to 3")

The veg must be displayed within an area of 24"x18" which is usually a piece of board cut to the required dimension with a lip all round. Alternatively, a piece of cloth can be used. No 'aids' such as onion rings are allowed and the carrots and parsnips cannot be bent round to fit within the allotted space......so sometimes you have to cut the tails of the roots down to size.

It was originally sponsored by Garden News and a seed company, and seed vouchers and small medals were competed for. Lots of shows have kept the class and now have a specific trophy for it.

It can be a popular class for beginners but you should still bear in mind that good quality veg needs to be shown. Each set of veg will be marked out of 20 points according to RHS rules, and the tray with most points wins first prize. The pic shows one of my winning 'Trays' at Sutton Bonington Show......I got 10 points for my onions and potatoes and 13 for my carrots. Not a brilliant total and perhaps a bit harsh but good enough on the day. It just goes to show how difficult it is to get anywhere near full marks for a 'dish'. I think the most I've ever scored was 15 for tomatoes last year.