Page 55 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2022/23

West Yorkshire DA
At our September meeting, prior to the Harrogate show we held a social evening which included, John Smiles and David Peel giving a demonstration on getting vegetables ready for the show bench. This included the knack of lifting and washing parsnips and carrots, grading them and looking out for what the judges are looking for!
David also spoke about lifting, grading and washing his potatoes emphasising the difference in the varieties and again what to look out for. He also demonstrated how he ties his onions up and a few people in the audience showed everyone the way they do it too. All of this was followed by a quiz which John Smiles had kindly put together, we had Andrew Cunningham as our quiz master. It was a fun evening rounded up by questions and answers.
Our DA put a stand up on the Thursday morning for the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show at Newby Hall with some very willing volunteers, to which we are very grateful
as it is extremely hard work, so thank you all. We were awarded a Silver Gilt medal. We held our annual DA show on the
1st of October at Paxton Hall, which was well supported, and the prizes were well distributed with the Silver Medal and Card going to John Smiles for his stump carrots. Although we didn’t have as many exhibitors as usual it was still a lovely show. Thank
you to anyone who helped in any way. In October Andrew Cunningham gave
us his first talk! This was on propagation, growing and showing dahlias. It was very informative and interesting, and I think everyone will have learned something
from it. Andrew has been heavily involved with the dahlia trials again this year at Golden Acre Park so there was some lovely
West Yorkshire Harrogate Show Stand
pictures in his PowerPoint presentation and lots of useful information. The evening was rounded off with refreshments and a good time was had by all.
Our meetings are at 8pm every second Tuesday of the month at Paxton Hall, Kirkstall, Leeds. Everyone is welcome, and refreshments are served. Come along and join us, we are a friendly bunch.
Westmorland
& North
Lancashire DA
Hi Everyone. After marking out the classes in the afternoon James and
I did our usual overnight stewarding duties at the Northern Branch Championships at Newby Hall. It was very cold overnight, probably the coldest I have known it to be, some of the stewards in the flower marquee were in sleeping bags!
The entries were down on pre Covid, but the standard was still high. It was
Bill Proctor’s casablanca potatoes
nice to see some of our D.A. members entering and doing well in both the North of England and the N.V.S. sides of the show. Newby Hall is a wonderful venue and was well supported by the public and of course entry to the gardens is included. Next year we are hosting the National Championships there and look forward to seeing you all.
Bill Proctor’s meccano tomatoes
Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 19th January 2023
at the Club Inn, Endmoor LA8 0EU at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome but please do check the meeting is going ahead before travelling.
Further details: jim.robinson45@ hotmail.co.uk; tel. 015395 61053.
Bill Proctor’s North of England Potato Championship entry
James Park’s winning chilli plant
Overview of veg classes
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