Page 13 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2021/22

Should we reconsider how we exhibit our vegetables?
This last year, with no shows at which to exhibit, has made me stop and think about what we do. I am
an organic grower, so have never exhibited as successfully as some, without, perhaps, fully realising what a difference organic growing makes.
I became much more aware of the difference at the 2019 Nationals held at the New Forest Show, when I won my very first national certificate – if only for 5th place for my peas. The pea pods themselves looked very similar to all the other exhibits, but the stalks looked thin and dry compared with
all the other thick, succulent looking stalks. I asked a judge why mine were so different and he answered with a question – he asked me if my peas were organic. When I replied in the affirmative, he explained that was the reason for the difference – the only organic exhibit on a stand of about 15 entries!
I grow organically because the
food tastes better, does not contain undesirable residues getting into our bodies – which may be carcinogenic and of which little is known about the cumulative effect of mixed chemicals on our metabolism – and because of the impact on the soil, the ecosystem and the environment of the use of chemicals.
I use manure and my own compost on my soil and blood, fish and bone
as a fertiliser. I grow comfrey which I harvest into a dustbin, topped up with water and leave until the following season as a plant food and I remove blackfly by rubbing it off by hand or by making a ‘tea’ with rhubarb leaves to spray with.
But I also started thinking about other environmentally impactful methods we exhibitors use.
First on my ‘hit list’ is potatoes. We grow them in special bags, bins or other containers so they will be white and shapely, and we can manipulate their growth if we wish. We use peat as the growing medium – a material that is becoming scarce, its extraction
causes serious release of carbon to the atmosphere (peat has amazing ability to trap carbon in the earth) and it needs quantities of fertilisers to transform it into a good growing medium. And then, to expound that, we have to water the containers frequently as the
others. This could be just that I’m not sufficiently skilled. Or because my beds are not sufficiently deep. But I think it’s because there is a natural limit to how long they can get without artificial chemical stimuli and vast, wasteful amounts of water. But mine
potatoes grow to a much
greater extent than they
would otherwise. And all
so that our potatoes will
be very white or pure in
their colour. Is that so
important? Should we
not change the criteria
for ‘good’ potatoes to
allow for those stained
by growing just in the ground? Of course, they can still be shapely, they can still match perfectly and be blemish-free – just a more natural colour!
Like most exhibitors I grow carrots and parsnips in deep beds filled with sand. I drill my holes and fill them with compost. My compost is my own – it is purely garden and kitchen waste, with a bit of horse manure mixed in. It’s created by the action of worms and other creatures without any chemical reactants, and it is moved between bins to aerate it. At planting time, I
use my oldest, finest compost, riddled to try to ensure there are no ‘lumps’ and I mix into it a little blood, fish and bone and a little of the sand extracted when making the hole. Although I
do have a bed under cover which I therefore have to water, more of my beds are outdoors so that, especially in a summer like this, Mother Nature does the watering. While they are growing, my carrots and parsnips get a few doses of the diluted comfrey feed as a foliar feed. I get really competitive carrots. I win ‘firsts’ but have never won a certificate at national level. My exhibits are not glaringly different from others. My long carrots and parsnips are, I admit, not so good. They are shapely and match, but
do not reach the sizes reached by
definitely taste good and keep well.
Most of the articles
I read and the ‘how to grow’ leaflets etc. talk endlessly about which
of the vast range of chemical fertilisers to use and in what quantities.
I strongly believe that
we need, now more
than ever, to be mindful of our responsibility to the environment – after all, we are showcasing vegetable growing and should be encouraging people to garden in a more sustainable way. If this means that I, with my dedicated organic methods, only
skirt around the fringes of winning classes at Shows, then so be it. I am proud of what I do, proud to be able to produce vegetables that compare with those of other exhibitors (even if not closely enough to attract the Judges’ eyes). But perhaps it is time for the Rules to change or for the Judges to use different standards, looking for perfect, well matched vegetables, of course, but not unnaturally coloured or artificially enormous. Gigantic cabbages may draw “ooh’s and aah’s” from those who come to look – but at what cost to the environment!
We should be proud to embrace the vanguard of organic, natural growing and to showcase that to the people who come to see our shows, or who read our articles, or follow our advice. We should be proud to encourage sustainability and awareness of climate change. We are all, of necessity, going to have to do things differently if we want to survive on the earth and, as a national organisation, we should be proud to lead the way. Elizabeth Maunder
I grow organically because the food tastes better
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