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:
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. I favour a well made board with a good coat of matt black paint to set off the colour of the veg.No 'aids' such as onion rings are allowed (unless the show allows it) 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.
7 comments:
I never really did understand how on earth we are meant to fit high point veg on this board.
I cant fit long carrots on (unless I have a really bad year) parsnips is a joke, and 3 cauli's??.
Our local show changed it this year to 1 cauli as lets face it 3 is pretty hard to get on unless yu grow them small dwarf things.
Well I think that was the point....to encourage novices to have a go.
I had to cut 18" off 3 magnificent parsnips on a tray last year and it made them look awful.....I came 2nd as a result.
I've had a go at every tray in every show I've ever attended...got a right set of medals now. Not many golds though!
Watch out for the odd saboteur who knows his exhibit won't win,so moves your runner bean or carrot outside of the tray area when noone's watching.
This, coinciding with a proper sad jobsworth judge who then decides that your exhibit is not valid as you have "exceeded the display area" will result in all your hard work going to waste.
As you can tell this was a personal experience of mine and resulted in the "Judge" who was probably a Traffic Warden during his day job never being invited to attend again after loads of folks basically called him an anally retentive rule abiding prick when it was obvious that I wouldn't leave a carrot hanging 3" over the edge !!!!
His response was "Rules are Rules".
Sad Bastard !!!
Judges like that obviously aren't trained properly. They should be RHS or NVS qualified. He should have said to a steward 'i'm going to turn my back and when I turn round that bean may well be within the board'!
Cheats are the pits aren't they? What pleasure do they get from it? I haven't had too many problems thankfully but I was told from early on which guys needed watching. I put a thread on the NVS forum asking for examples of cheating and sabotage and was amazed at some of the stories. This included guys at National level winning for stuff they hadn't actually grown. Bizarre!
Hi,
Can you tell me where I can get a list of the maximum points available for specific vegetables whilst judging, as some seem to have less than others ??
Cheers.
Dave,
I've just put a posting on this issue. Hope it helps.
Simon
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