Showing Vegetables

Grahame Wagstaffe is a National Vegetable Society Judge and Lecturer and spoke on growing, preparing and staging vegetables at Horticultural Shows.   Ably supported by his wife Jane, who organised the slides and occasionally joined in herself with thoughts and tips, he lead us through details designed to give us the best chance to win at any show – local or national!

Grahame suggested that you should intend to get the Judge’s eye with your presentations, quality and freshness. Pay attention to the schedule rules as different shows have different specifications. Check measurements of your exhibits for uniformity of length, shape and size and heed directions on such details as trimming vegetables like carrot and leeks. If rules permit, you could consider enhancing the exhibit with a background such as a black cloth which works well with white potatoes.

For national events exhibitors often prepare a stock box containing all that is needed for show preparations - knife, scissors, measure, pen, raffia, kitchen roll, ‘J cloth’ material, cotton wool and buds, small sponges, perhaps a large needle to tease out roots or bits of dirt amid stalks when washing the vegetables. Labels are needed if there are a lot of entries of one vegetable so they can be found quickly when putting them out for show. Add a spray bottle to mist exhibits just prior to show opening to prevent drying out and losing freshness.

Regarding planting your chosen vegetables for the crop to be ready for showing, Grahame advocated growing in containers rather than as a row where you might have to dig up the whole row to find the size and shape you need!   He grew his potatoes in buckets of compost layering them 3 to a layer, always marking the bucket with the variety. Carrots were grown in sand containers, parsnips in deep boxes and leeks in cut up plastic drain pipe lengths. As an example of a method to identify the plants likely for exhibit, he loosened the sand or soil round a plant carefully so that he could check the shoulder size   and then planted a thin plastic label by those chosen. This was 10 days to a week before the show. Beetroot needed the shoulder covering during growth to prevent the weather causing a corky shoulder area - just check and cover gently with compost.   Ideally beetroots should be of comparative shapes and sizes with one long single tap root.

Washing the vegetables, e.g. carrots, firstly prepare tops as required by the show schedule. Rinse to remove debris, place in a bowl at a sink in water containing a little ‘Fairy Liquid’. Wash each root carefully with a small soft sponge, using cotton wool buds to remove any black specks particularly in the eyes or ridges. Use cotton buds or small needle-like sticks to tease out roots and poke out any dirt or debris in the shoulder stalks. Circular sponging was safer on root vegetables not up and down as this could scratch the surface!   Every care must be taken to ensure an undamaged exhibit. Rinse each one in clear water, then dry with kitchen paper gently and wrap individually in squares of ‘J cloth’, placing in boxes lined with sponge, topped with brown paper bags. Fit a firm lid for transporting to the show.

Grahame obviously had a variety of prepared containers which he used regularly to take his exhibits to shows. One of his ideas was to use varied coloured kitchen rolls to wrap potatoes in if he had several varieties, the colour of the kitchen roll matching the potato variety; this helped for easy recognition when staging. Parsnips should only be wiped with a dry ‘J cloth’ as water turns them yellow. Shallots needed wiping, the tops shortened to specification, be raffia tied near to the top of the bulb, the skin peeled back to a clean shiny healthy layer. Display on a sand base. Onions treated the same but tops trimmed off and utterly clean with no decay on scales or roots. They can be packed in sand based boxes wrapped in kitchen paper. Leeks - a pillar column is desirable with no bulges or tapers. Hose and take to kitchen to tease out roots under running water, dry gently with kitchen roll. Spread on garage floor on old sheets? Pack in tights for transport!

Peas & Runner-beans. When picking, only handle the stem, otherwise you will spoil the natural bloom.   Make sure you have equal lengths for all specimens.   Make sure you have a row of seeds in each pod. Holding them up to torch light will help to check that and any with signs of grubs should be discarded.   Mange-tout will be flat and no seeds as they are under developed pods. To stage, face all pods the same way on your plates. An original idea of Grahame’s was to transport these in boxes lined with nettle leaves to save losing the bloom and freshness !

Cauliflowers, Cabbages, Lettuce etc . Th ese will need outer leaves and roots on generally; misted polythene will help to retain freshness and leaf bloom.

And if all this doesn’t quite work out – you have plenty of delicious veg for a stew or hot-pot!

Good sources of seeds for exhibition vegetables are as follows:-

Castlemill Seed Potatoes

Westfield

Castleton Road

Auchterader

Perthshire PH3 1AG

Tel 01764 662930

Exhibition Seed Potatoes

26 Bakehouse Lane

Ockbrook

Derby DE72 3RH

Tel 01332 678857

Medwyn Williams

Llanor

Old School Lane

Llanfair P G

Anglesey LL61 5RZ

Tel 01248 714851

Select Seeds

58 Bentick road

Shuttlewood

Chesterfield S44 6RQ

Tel 01246 826011

Shelley Seeds

5 Speedwell Close

Huntington

Chester CH3 6DX

Tel 01244 317165