Lockdown

Right then, I won't be on here all next week as I need to spend my precious time making sure all my exhibits are prepared to the optimum for the National Championships. What i'm trying to say is that I can't be wasting my time talking to you lot! And i'm also treating the whole experience as a mini-holiday with some walking planned for the Sunday.




I've over-ambitiously entered 14 classes at Llangollen namely;



White spuds

Coloured spuds

NVS Sherine

NVS Amour

French beans

Runner beans

Shallots

Pickling shallots

Peas (yeah right!)

Long carrots

Stump carrots

Parsnips

250g onions

3 x 2 class (20 pointers)



If I actually manage to get 6 of those on the bench I'll be a happy man. I'm still miffed that I made such a dog's dinner of my tomatoes as they would have offered me the best chance of a ticket...but there's always next year! Therefore, I have zero expectations in terms of tickets but consider this a must-do exercise in order to compare my stuff against the very best growers in the land. A single 5th place ticket would have me creaming my pants and kissing Dave Thornton and Ian Stocks which is highly unlikely (thank f***!) when you look at the cast list of suspects, but as long as i'm not disgraced then all will be well with the World.



I shall certainly be taking at least two entries of spuds and will be interested to see how my skin finishes compare to the likes of spud specialists such as Sherie Plumb and John Bebbington, whose entertaining talk I attended last night at North East Derby DA. I already have sets of 5 Casablanca and 5 NVS Sherine set aside, with my Kestrel and NVS Amour to be emptied out this Sunday and graded into sets. I am absolutely itching to empty them out and have a look but you MUST resist any urge to do this as you have to give the skins time to set. I stopped watering two weeks ago, cut the haulms off 3 nights ago, then got the bags into the garage two nights ago so that no more rain can get at them. Most growers are tending to try and get the bags as dry as possible towards the end of their growth to give them spuds in the best possible condition. Ideally i'd like to leave them longer (7-10 days after lifting) before emptying out for the skins to set but if i'm gentle I should be ok. They'll certainly be set by next Friday evening when i'll be washing them. I had a sneaky peak into the bags and couldn't spot any scab on the Kestrel or Amour so I'm hopeful of also getting an entry into the coloured potato class (with Kestrel) and the NVS Amour class sponsored by JBA.



Now then, about these peas..........