Showing Off

 

I have never entered anything made or grown in a Show before.  I made an exception this year.  My runner beans were insistent.

After a slow start, they took control and leapt up their canes, flowered like crazy and began to set with a vengeance.  By the end of August  one bean was large enough to feed one person.  Clearly these beans had aspirations and were probably related to Jack’s.  How could I disappoint them – given that the promising broad bean crop was devastated by black fly at a crucial stage of their development, the peas didn’t show at all, and the sweet peas sulked for so long they missed their chance?

I had seen the notice for the Woore Flower and Produce Show at the Woore Garden Centre.  On the morning of 7 September 2024 at 8.30 a.m. I set aside all misgivings and ferried them to the Victory Hall in Woore, the venue of the Show.  They were entered for two classes – the runner bean and longest runner bean.  

Already marrows large enough to live in had arrived as had the dahlias bigger than a human face and onions the size of St Paul’s Cathedral dome, London.  And that was only the vegetables.  I wished them all luck, not that they needed it.  My beans, maybe.

At 3.00 pm the show opened and what a show!  The standard was phenomenal across all categories which ranged from cakes to jams and savouries, art and craft work to photography, exquisite needlework, poetry and of course fruit and vegetables.  Who knew that the countryside harboured such talent and so many green fingers?

Walking around the tables some names became very familiar – clearly experienced exhibitors.  That said, someone I got chatting to over a cup of tea, also a first timer, had won two firsts and a second for her jams and piccalilli.  She also won a cup.  My long runner bean came second.  So not always a foregone conclusion.

After the presentations of cups and shields, came the raffle and finally the auction of produce.  I left with a bag of interesting apples, a giant cucumber, a very fluffy Victoria sponge, a bunch of nodding dahlias and a jar of piccalilli.

Inspired, my new BF and I are meeting up over coffee to discuss what we will enter for next year’s show.  The beans were quite pleased with themselves too.  Roll on 2025!

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