I've been experimenting with my spuds to see if I can save them from show to show. It's accepted that you can show things like onions and shallots in many shows, from August through to November and generally they tend to look better as they ripen. Marrows and pumpkins usually last several shows although you would have to take care transporting them. I have shown carrots on two different weekends but you do lose some colour and condition by the 2nd weekend.
I've always felt that spuds can only be shown once but got talking to a guy at Sturton who maintains he uses the same spuds throughout the growing season, by wrapping them individually in dry kitchen towelling after each show and storing them in a fridge. In fact, he pointed to a set at Sturton that had been out of the ground since early August and had been to several shows including Harrogate. By that time (3rd October) it was looking a bit rough at its base but it did manage a 2nd place (behind my fresher looking set). The potato in the photo was one of my winning set of white spuds from Sturton, the variety Winston, that I wrapped up and stored in the fridge. It's now 3 weeks since that show and I think it's looking pretty good and could certainly compete at local village level. I think if it's a single day show you could get away with it, but if the show is any longer than that then the spuds will start to go green quite quickly.
I shall certainly be trying this more and more next season. It will mean I can keep my better spuds for the more important shows and then show these same ones a week or more later at other shows, and also save me time as I won't have to scrub as many.
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