Littleover trophy winners

Many thanks to Paul Harvey for emailing these pics after my camera failed on the day.

Winning trug at Malvern

Not as good as Leesa's !

Vote Al Murray?

Am I the only person in Britain who thinks this fella is the only bloke who talks any sense these days?

Big Al for PM I say!!!!!

Sweet Candle again!

For some reason I didn’t take a picture of the winning stumps at the Midland NVS Championships at Malvern so it’s given me a good excuse to show my best in show set from Sutton Bonington.

Needless to say that Sweet Candle was everywhere (except for Dave Thornton’s Gringo in 3rd). The thing that struck me was the huge variation in size. Some exhibitors managed to get them well over 12” long whilst the norm was 8” or so. Sweet Candle also won all the cards in the separate Malvern Championships and was prominent in most of the collections so it would appear that most people are growing it.

Whilst I was at Malvern I took the opportunity to purchase a packet of Sweet Candle from Medwyn’s stand. I didn’t want to risk being without it next season!

Medwyn did it again! Best display in RHS hall.

Also at Malvern....a new EUROPEAN pumpkin record!

Arsenal 1 Hull City 2

One good thing about this result is that I'll now have one less competitor to worry about in the dahlias at Sturton.......Kev Broxholme won't have sobered up until about next Sunday!

Sherie Plumb - Queen of the Spuds!

Malvern best in show

For several years I've been going to Malvern and marvelling at the exhibits and thinking I'll never be able to compete with the big boys. However, after yesterday I think I may be able to. The winning parsnips of Trevor Last were also named best exhibit in show (NVS Midland Championships) and quite honestly I think my Leicester parsnips were better.....not as big around the shoulder but certainly cleaner. So, next year I've making the commitment here and now to have a go !

Having said I wouldn't have given them 'best in show'. In my humble opinion the runner beans and potatoes staged by Sherie Plumb were incredible. She won every single class going for spuds not only in the NVS Midland Championships but also in the Malvern Championships also. Her Winston spuds looked like pieces of marble.....pics in next posting.

Top Tray successes

I’ve won 4 out of the 6 ‘Top Tray’s’ that I’ve entered this season and one of the reasons is that I’ve been able to exhibit some bigger onions because of a relaxation in one of the rules around here. It used to be that onion rings/supports/stands were not allowed to be used which meant that people were reluctant to show their onions in this class as they were prone to rolling about on the board and therefore getting damaged…..especially if the benches weren’t level. However, on both the show committees I’m involved with we have allowed small, discrete supports to be utilised which meant I could display these onions at Sutton Bonington without fear them coming to any harm.

I staged these same onions at Littleover last week with carrots and tomatoes and a woman came up to me and said she thought they were stunning. She really needs to get out more!

Millennium Class

This is the winning exhibit in the 'Millennium' class at this year's National at Harrogate staged by James Pearson, of Whitburn, West Lothian. It's a recently introduced class for 4 each of 250g onions, tomatoes, round beetroot, stump carrots and potatoes. The idea is to encourage new exhibitors to have a go at a higher level with these vegetables that most people grow.








The varieties are:
TOMATO Shirley
ONION Canto
CARROT Major
POTATO Amour
BEETROOT Pablo



If I am to step up next season then this is certainly one of the classes I'll be considering, but judging by this set then I'll need to make sure every dish is in tip-top condition to stand any chance of even a 5th place card!

Aaaagggh! Why am I the only sane person in my place of work!

Final countdown

There’s nowt like a bit of pressure! My last show (Sturton) is a week on Saturday and because of that it ‘gets’ just about everything that’s left. That means I can often make multiple entries in carrots, parsnips, tomatoes, cucumbers and dahlias. So far I’m up to about 70 entries which means a lot of planning so I have to make sure everything is ready in plenty of time for loading on the Friday night. As staging is from 7.30am until 10am it doesn’t leave a lot of time for error so I need to be up and away by 6am. There’s nothing worse than having something go wrong when you have so much to do so I will have to make sure everything is packed safely and neatly and that my flowers are well supported for the 54 mile journey.

With so many entries I like to stage my flowers first as they take more fiddly effort to get right and it’s best to spend the time at the beginning rather than rushing at the end….that’s when stems can easily get broken. If I have to rush it can be with the veg at the end as they usually just need plonking down on the benches!

Sturton is unusual in that many entries are staged on the grass outside the school…….root crops, pumpkins, leeks, marrows, cabbages and caulis. I’ve never come across any other show that does this but it does allow them to spread things out and is fine as long as it doesn’t rain. In all the years I’ve been going I can only ever remember one drizzly day. And come 10am I’m usually bushed and ready for a kip so my routine is always to buy a paper at the village store, park up for a bite to eat and a read and then to get my head down for a couple of hours until I go back after judging. It’s a well run show and this year will be the 121st annual show which is some going. There are only a handful of shows older than that in the whole country!

And as I have many, many more 2nd's or 3rd's than 1st's from Sturton down the years it just goes to show that gaining a red card at Sturton really has to be earned.

Week old carrots win again.

At last week's Littleover show I did something I don't normally do, which is I exhibited these winning Sweet Candle stumpers that won best in show at Sutton Bonington the week before. In the past I've pretty much always pulled new carrots and parsnips for each show but these were just so good I decided to see if I could store them as I was running short on carrots. I wrapped each one in dry kitchen towel and then wrapped them in cloth towels and stored them in a fridge.

Come the following Saturday they won the carrot class at Littleover also and hadn't lost too much of their previous good condition. Unfortunately, our camera didn't have a battery in so I couldn't take a photo but it's certainly something I shall be doing in future if I have a particularly good set.

Any other veg

I've grown a few peas this season of the variety Dorian, and it's picked me up a couple of wins in the any other veg classes, as well as some other place cards. It's notoriously difficult to grow peas to show in late August and September because of mildew attack but I managed to get these 7 pods (the class wording is 'any other veg, minimum of two) at Sutton Bonington. Peas are one of the 20 point veg and so are worth growing if you can avoid mildew as they always seem to beat other crops such as sweetcorn, squashes, turnips etc.

To get peas on the showbench you need to sow them about 90 days before the show (varies with variety) and pick off any flowers up to 3 weeks before the show. Growing so late also means you tend not to be bothered by pea moth but when you pick them hold them up to the light to make sure there is nothing squidgy lurking inside and that the actual peas are fully formed. Only handle them by the stalks in order to retain the natural 'bloom' on the pods and transport on trays of moist tissue paper to the show.

I noticed that the judges haven't been opening any this season so I wonder if there is a new rule that advises against this, because it always used to be the case that one was 'popped' to see the peas inside.

Spuds bashed

This 3rd place at Sutton Bonington has been my only card with potatoes this season. The variety was Malin and these were the only 4 decent sized tubers I managed to salvage from about 50 bags this season.

I got talking to a great spud grower at Littleover who reckoned that I may have made my peat too alkaline when I sterilised the bags with Armillatox. I did this to try and kill any blight spores that may have overwintered after last year's attack. In any case he said you need to get fresh peat in every 3 years or so and mine is now about 4 years old so I've spread it over the flower borders and will be buying new stuff over the winter and sieving it as I go.

He also uses calcified seaweed and Vitax Q4 in his bags......about 4 oz of each per bag!!!!!

End of the road for my shallots

Whilst I was pleased with the shape of my shallots this season they've simply not been large enough to compete against my main competitors. In fact they nearly qualify for the pickling shallot class so I need to get some new bulbs in and start again from scratch. A top NVS grower has promised me a few of his so hopefully I can grow some decent ones in the not too distant future.

I believe my method of growing them in pots has lots of merit and I shall be persevering with that idea in future.

Oh, and I nearly forgot......

15) Wind up organic growers at every possible opportunity!

Notes and plans for next season

1) Don’t give precious growing space to caulis. You’ve never been able to grow them successfully. In fact, you’re shit!
2) Build wooden retaining walls for the parsnip and long carrot drums and do away with the old metal frames.
3) Grow Pinnacle parsnip and sweet Candle stump…..definitely…..no if’s, but’s or maybe’s!
4) Buy new peat for the spud bags…..but start soon so you can be sieving over winter.
5) Get some cow muck dug in this autumn to the brassica and onion beds.
6) Put netting over cabbages. Only thing that stops cabbage whites.
7) Dig up some shrubs and trees up the garden for extra space for growing dahlias in.
8) Erect a proper f*cking bean fence…..preferably one that doesn’t go ‘ I can’t stand it any longer’ and falls over at the first breath of wind!
9) Growing broad beans for August and September shows…..it can’t be done! Stop it!
10) Aubergines…..waste of effort. Stop it!
11) Grow ‘Vento’ small onions if you can find some seed. Saw some at Littleover and they looked very good for the under 8oz class.
12) Pluck up courage to have a go at the NVS Midland Championships at Malvern in September 2009….probably in tomatoes & parsnips only for now….don’t go mad at first!
13) Get the polytunnel sorted once and for all so that you can grow better quality onions and leeks.
14) Sell the kids….they’re expensive.

Carmen

For the second year in a row I took 1st, 2nd and 3rd at Sileby with cucumbers. I have mixed views on this. I don’t really like doing it as I prefer to see different names on each prize card but if you have 3 good exhibits and the show allows it then on the other hand I think why not? I’d only have given them away otherwise. I’ve won my last 3 shows with cu’s and they’re still coming thick and fast. In fact my main problem has been finding enough fleece material to insert between the fruit and the foliage to stop them being marked. The variety is Carmen and is growing direct in my greenhouse border soil that had plenty of well rotted horse muck dug into it in the Spring. I tie it to a cane framework slightly angled so that the fruits hang down and away from the stem which is quite rough and prickly.

Sungold

Grown this cherry tomato variety for the first time this year and notched up a couple of wins with it. It’s an orange/yellow variety rather than the usual red but it does tend to give uniform sized fruits about an inch diameter with nice fresh calyces.

When exhibiting these many exhibitors simply plonk them on a paper plate so that they’re rolling about all over the place. I display mine on dishes of dry sand, nestling them into it neatly around the edge as shown. The other exhibitors may well have better fruits but what I’m doing is just making the judge think…’Hey, this guy knows what he’s doing. I’d best have a proper look at these ones’. If the judge is honest and thorough he will only judge fruit against fruit but I have won against what I would consider superior exhibits simply because I staged them in a pleasing manner (although you’d never get the judge to admit that!)

Give it a rest!

I've won 14 trophies this season.....but I haven't heard the last of the one my wife won for photograpy at Littleover. I mean.....anyone can point a camera and click the little button! Can't they? LOL

Unbeatable?

My tomatoes at Sileby signalled a 5th win this season with the variety Cederico. I won at Littleover the same weekend. I continued with the tactic of thinning out green fruits on the trusses during the summer to give the remaining fruits room to develop a more rounded shape. It seems to pay off although you need a bit of nerve as it seems such a waste at the time.

Salt and vinegar pays off!

I've won a couple of beetroot classes this season proving that my method of soaking overnight (sometimes 2 nights) in water with a dash of vinegar and salt really does work!

Having said that, I've had an awful lot of misshapen roots this season and it's taken a lot more effort digging up enough roots to make a matching set.

Runner beans so so

I really do envy people who can grow high quality runner beans but I guess it’s all down to the attention that you give them. I won at Sileby (pic) and Sutton Bonington but both sets were not of a high class as far as I’m concerned. My problem is that whilst I’m rushing around in the run up to the shows I’m not giving the beans much thought and usually pick them on the morning of the show. You really need to be ‘manipulating’ the best ones on the vine in the days before the show to make sure they hang straight. If they come up against their own foliage they can soon start to bend. You also need to make sure you pick beans regularly to make sure you keep new beans coming. If you leave large, ‘beany’ beans on then the plant may well stop producing new young beans.

Having said all that I’ve just been through my fence today and found 3 of the most perfect beans I’ve ever grown….all about 16” long…… with plenty more coming. And I don’t have a show for 3 weeks. TYPICAL!!!!

All is spookily quiet.....

Hull are somehow above Man Utd and not a peep yet from Broxholme!

Parsnips at Sileby

No one else to compete against in the parsnip class at Sileby but I had a nice set nonetheless. If I'd been judge I'd have gone for these as best in show instead of my leeks. Every single one I've pulled this season has been totally blemish free and a joy to clean up.

I have about 12 stations left to pull a set or two for my last show in 3 weeks at Sturton so if the last few weeks has been anything to go by I should be able to get a cracking exhibit together.

I'm certainly on the lookout for the variety Pinnacle in the catalogues as I will definitely be growing it again next season.

(Snigger!)

I also picked up a bonus win in the ‘funniest veg’ class at Sileby for this twisted carrot although my other entry next to it (the one with the willy!) was making everyone titter more! I suppose the judge assumed it belonged to some dirty old pervert with a childish mind…..and essentially he was right!

Winning onions at Sileby

As you can see not the most uniform onions ever exhibited but in pretty good condition and all about 2 ½ lbs each. Next season I’m going to make sure I have my polytunnel finished so that I can give my onions optimum ‘titivation’. At the moment they are grown in my two greenhouses in the borders but they can get swamped once the tomatoes and cucumbers start to grow, so I lose a few weeks extra growing time. By having them in a line in my polytunnel I can make sure I can construct some sturdy support systems for keeping the foliage growing erect and hopefully exhibit even better specimens this time next year.

Tired but happy

When I first started showing I couldn't understand why most of the top exhibitors would leave straight after the show and not stay for the auction. I know now. After another 2 shows on one day for the second weekend running and another 60 or so entries I'm absolutely shattered! I had another successful weekend however, winning 19 red cards and 4 trophies including 'Best in Show' for these leeks at Sileby. I also won my first ever red card for large onions at Sileby although I do think I was a little lucky as my onions weren't that uniform although they have ripened quite nicely in the past week.

I lost out on 'Most points in Show' by a single point to Mick Mills again. Mick says he's had a disastrous year. God help me when he has a good one! The show has gone from strength to strength since starting up again 2 years ago and attracted over 270 entries, due in no small part to the hard work of Melvyn Hoyes and Stephanie Green. Sadly, and perhaps predictably, my Victoria sandwich was just outside the cards in a class of 4 entries! Looks like the Hairy Bakers haven't got much to worry about there then!

At Littleover I won two of the main awards for the 'Grange Collection' for 3 flowers and 3 sets of 3 vegetables, and the Littleover (Top) Tray award. Having travelled all the way there I received a call from my wife to inform me I needed to put the battery in the camera.....the battery that was still at home! So I'm indebted to Paul Harvey taking a few photos for me which he'll be emailing in the next few days I hope.

I now have a few weeks off from showing until my last show at Sturton in Lincolnshire in October, so I can now do some tidying up in the garden and some walking, starting with a walk in Derbyshire next weekend.

Another busy weekend

I've just got back from staging at Littleover in Derby where I put in 24 entries. It's a lovely little show with very high quality exhibits so any cards here are well earned, especially in the dahlias that are as good as you'll see anywhere. The problem with staging on a Friday night is that you cannot make last minute alterations once you've been able to assess the opposition......for instance moving carrots from the main class onto your Top Tray if you feel they'd have a better chance there, but it's a chance I have to take. My thanks to Brian Eagers for waiting for me to finish and for the coffee!

I'm now just waiting for my Victoria sandwich to cook in the oven for the 'men only' class at Sileby tomorrow (it's a long story!). I'll need to be up early to get some more parsnips and carrots up and washed, as well as a pair of leeks. I also have some corking Kenora Sunset picked and safely stored out of this bloody rain! It's going to be another busy day! And thanks to talking to you lot I've only just remembered my Vickie sandwich....tis a bit scorched around the edges but a bit of icing sugar should mask that!

Now that's embarrassing......

.....or is it? I won the cup at Seagrave for the best dressed onions for this small set of three that won me the class for onions 'grown from sets'. When my name was called out I couldn't believe it as the winning onions in the 'exhibition dressed' class must have weighed 4 or 5 lbs each. However, the judge obviously felt my tiny specimens warranted it for condition and uniformity so as I keep saying a good small 'un can always beat some dodgy looking big 'uns!

(I still can't believe it though.....brave judge!)

Preparing beetroot

I grow quite a lot of beetroot as even then it can be quite a task to get a matching set of 3. I may have to pull up to 20 to get a set as some will be round, some have flattened bottoms and some won’t have long, central tap roots.

Once you’ve selected your set take them to the kitchen and run tap water over them to remove any soil and remove any dead or yellowing leaves cleanly. Invariably, the shoulder of the root will be ‘corky’ as in the LH photo and is considered a fault. The way to combat this when they’re growing is to draw moist soil over them but this can be quite fiddly. Instead, after washing I rub them with the rough side of a pan scourer very carefully to remove the corkiness. This doesn’t take long and soon makes the beetroot look much more attractive (see RH photo). They are then tied together in sets (very important if you have more than one) and immersed in large buckets of water to which I have added a splash of vinegar and some salt (stir well). The roots can then be left like this for a couple of days if need be so it’s something you can do on the Wednesday or Thursday before your show if you think you’re going to be pushed for time. The root then seems to take on a deeper purple colouring, but make sure you give them a rinse under a tap before staging to wash off the vinegar smell!

The last thing you need to do is check the schedule…….some shows demand the foliage be left on whilst others that the leaves are cut back to 3”. Doing the wrong thing can lead to a dreaded NAS card (not as schedule) being left against your well prepared exhibit.

Well done Steve.....

I’ve had an email from Steve Turnbull in County Durham complete with this pic of his winning pot leeks from a recent show. Durham and Northumberland is the real hot bed of pot leek growing and if you ever get a chance to visit a grower up there then grab it. I had an uncle up there who used to take me to a few growers’ gardens and the dedication of those guys is incredible. The annual pot leek show is THE major social event on the calendar and everything is geared to having the biggest and best leeks for that day.

Not many people round my way grow pot leeks and I’ve never quite understood the ‘cubic inches’ thing, but a well grown pot leek that hasn’t been stripped too much is quite a sight to behold.

Sunny....like me!

Once again I’ve been very pleased with the lettuce ‘Sunny’ that has gained me 3 wins in ‘any other veg’ classes this season already. It’s a real ‘zingy’ lime green colour so does stand out on the benches but you need to take one or two precautions when displaying it. It’s quite a loose leaved variety that hasn’t got a solid heart as such, so it is a bit like trying to hold a jelly when you’re digging it up. You need to get a fork under it, lever it up so far, put your hand at soil level above the roots and pull it out with the roots intact. It pays to have a hosepipe running in anticipation so that you can wash off the soil and pull off and yellowing leaves from around the base. Wrap a few sheets of kitchen towel around the roots and wash off any muck or slugs that may be lurking in the leaves.


Display on the bench with the moistened kitchen towel still on the roots so that it stays fresh as lon as the show lasts and doesn’t wilt.

Dahlias blooming at last

I won two classes at Sutton Bonington after being able to cut my first blooms of the season. I only grow 20 or so plants, 8 each of Jomanda and Kenora Sunset and a few more of Emma's Coronet that is only just starting to colour up.

The vase of Kenora Sunset won best dahlias in show after opening up overnight in my living room. I'm hoping to have plenty more flowers ready for this weekend's shows at Littleover and Sileby.

World Record marrow!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7604482.stm

Typical!

10.00pm last night – Go on Murray. Do BRITAIN proud!
11.52pm last night – You useless, miserable SCOTTISH twat!

Sutton Bonington 2008

The show was almost cancelled as the rain fell and no-one knew whether the field would survive the traffic of the exhibitors’ vehicles but everyone decided to press on with some Dunkirk spirit! I thought I was being ambitious with 45 entries but a fellow competitor Polly Gibb put in over 70 and duly walked away with the Society Cup for most points in show. Whilst I won 16 ‘red cards’, more than most years, she managed many more 2nd’s and 3rd’s than me and deserved to win the cup. However, my Sweet Candle stumpers certainly impressed the judges to win Best Veg in Show and I also won Best Dahlias with a vase of Kenora Sunset that didn’t look too brilliant the night before but opened out quite a lot in the warmth of my living room !

Happily, the actual day of the Show (Sunday….staging was Saturday) wasn’t too bad weather wise and over 2000 people visited.

Seagrave 2008

First the important news……we raised over £1200 for local charities which is another record. The generosity of the villagers never ceases to amaze me. This in spite of the fact that show entries were slightly down on previous years which was understandable given the atrocious weather conditions on the day. Having said that standards were still high and Mick Mills won Best in Show with his stunning yellow crysanths and also the Smith & Byatt Shield for most points in show. I had a mixed day but I was happy that I managed to beat Mick for the first ever time with my blanch leeks, as well as other wins for beetroot, cucumbers, parsnips, onions from sets, any other veg (lettuce) and the heaviest pumpkin. I thought I should have won with my tomatoes(3rd), carrots(2nd) and Top Tray(2nd) but hey, you can’t win ‘em all!