The village show.

  This year I am planning (hoping more to the point) to take the village show by storm (kind of depends on how good my produce is to be honest though ;) Sarah and I tested the water last year, and came away with two red 1st place cards for our efforts :)

(non show related photo... just a veg box for friends :)

 On the morning of the show, Sarah decided on the spur of the moment that we should enter some produce from the garden. We raced down to the veg plot to see what we had that was up to the task, then ran over to the village green to enquire about entering. The people were really helpful actually, and told us a bit about presentation and what we had to do for each class (although I don't think they told us quite enough for us to be in with a chance of beating them :) Another frantic dash back to the garden (that reminds me.... I need to get fit :) and some produce was hurriedly snatched from it's home. It was then whisked up to the kitchen and given a bit of a clean (polishing vegetables does seem a bit weird when you do it for the first time:)  We didn't have enough time to clean and present everything we had picked from the garden, so I think we ended up with about eight entries. We just got back to the village green and the show marquee in time to throw our stuff on the tables before judging started. Some of the competition looked really good, I knew we wouldn't win some of the classes :( but it's the taking part that counts! :)
 We had to wait until 3pm to find out whether our home grown beauties were worthy of any recognition on the show bench or not.....  tense was an understatement!!!

 On our return at 3pm we were greeted by a 1st for our french beans and a 1st for our dessert apples..... a lot of "Woohoo's" and some big smiles later, and I was already thinking about doing it again this year :)

 I've just received my copy of the  "Horticultural show handbook" today, and i've got a copy of last years village show schedule to plan what classes to enter (all of them :), so i'm ready to win more this year if all goes well.

 Medwyn's of Anglesey have supplied some of the seeds, and i've a few of my own saved from last years prize winners, the garden is shaping up nicely, the new polytunnel will be up soon, and i'm hoping for some nice weather, so fingers crossed I should have some eligible fruit, veg, flowers and preserves for the show come september.

 I also need to try and beat the record I set at the show last year for the most expensive jar of chutney sold on the day..... my beetroot and orange preserve went for £5 in the auction at the end (it didn't win a card unfortunately) .... but it was delicious!! :)

 I shall keep you all posted on my progress..... and if we win the village show "challenge cup" you are all invited round to ours for a barbecue! :)