Page 43 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2021

Why not exhibit your fruit?
GERRY EDWARDS FNVS
For once I am not going to write
about growing fruit but asking you
the following question - have you ever taken part in your allotment show or local horticultural society show? If you haven’t I am hoping that during the next few paragraphs I am going to be able to persuade you to have a try at exhibiting some of your fruit and at the same time for you and those readers who are already exhibiting I will suggest a few tips on how to best show off your produce and win a first prize.
Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to explain that exhibiting is not just about winning prizes - OK
I know that this could be an ultimate aim - but generally speaking it is all about putting your best produce on the showbench, showing the general public just what can be grown and how it can be grown at its best and perhaps at the same time winning the odd shilling for a pint or two.
So why exhibit at a show? Well the origins of exhibiting garden produce are found in the age of the Victorian Head Gardeners who were determined to show to the public how good they were and to other Head Gardeners that they were the best. The result
was a feast of horticultural produce which the public could only gasp
at in amazement! However, what it
did was to show just what could be grown and as a result many gardeners started developing similar aspirations. Although it was not until the twentieth century that the ordinary gardener started to seriously emulate their Victorian predecessors they did it with great gusto and although gardening has changed directions a myriad of times since there is still a great display of horticultural produce at certain times of the year all over the country. I am pleased to observe that after a lull in enthusiasm in exhibiting over perhaps the last fifteen years or so there has been an upsurge in interest and many younger allotmenteers and gardeners are becoming involved in exhibiting and having fun.
And yes I do mean fun! There is always an amazing camaraderie
between exhibitors and this, in my opinion, is at its best at the allotment shows. I firmly believe that the majority of allotmenteers cannot wait to prove that what they have said about their produce is actually true having put up with insults over the growing year! Other gardeners who belong to horticultural societies, garden clubs etc. have an equal amount of fun and this is often best observed as each exhibitor proudly brings their produce to the show. To me the show is the culmination of the growing season, whether it is for daffodils, roses, vegetables, fruit etc. and that is why I find it such an evocative time.
I suppose it is the late summer or autumn show that is my favorite as
it is then that growers exhibit their fruit and vegetables - each of them resembling mini Harvest Festivals! These are the shows where produce
fit for the table or even better is carefully displayed along with the jams and wines often made from the same stock! And it is these shows
that are probably of most interest to the readers of this magazine as what better place than to show just what can
Winning 5 Pears Concorde John Branham
be grown in the kitchen garden!
To me the best thing about the local
shows is that for fruit in particular is that everyone has the same chance of winning as everyone is growing in the same conditions - there are no real specialist growing techniques for fruit unlike those used by some chrysanthemum, dahlia, vegetable growers etc.
So having persuaded you to enter some fruit what do you do? Well
Eating apples exhibit Steep Show
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