Page 30 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2023

Reviving the local show
MICHAEL GORDON FNVS
Crossmolina Agricultural Show was
an important event in the life of our local community for over 50 years. It lapsed five years ago depriving future generations of the opportunity to display livestock and produce from their homes and farms in their local town. I used to enter vegetables at the show every year, beginning at a young age. After spending many solitary evenings working alone in a garden, entering a show presented a great opportunity
to meet other people who shared this interest. The chance to win a prize was also an incentive.
This year post-Covid a new committee of volunteers was formed with a view to reviving our Show. A new venue in town was secured and the Show was held
on Saturday 29th July. I was contacted
to see if I’d help to run the Horticulture section, because as secretary of the National Vegetable Society in Ireland, I’d have experience in this area. I devised a schedule of 11 classes which included a couple of classes targeted to encourage new or young entrants. There was a senior collection and a junior collection with just 3 varieties, and a second class of onions for the largest single onion.
In the previous shows the vegetable classes used to be displayed on a long outdoor bench, this was fine on a sunny summer’s day, but I remembered
days when the prize cards blew away and paper plates and boxes got sodden after heavy showers. After some debate I got
the vegetable section into the marquee, making it more accessible for
people with limited mobility or mothers with pushchairs and buggies. We also hired a top of the range marquee with a wooden floor, which we shared with the cookery, crafts, and flower sections.
Part of my role was to source sponsorship up front for prize
30 Simply Vegetables
NVS medal for best exhibit at show went to John Fox for his Collection of Vegetables
money for classes, this involved knocking on doors of local small businesses.
I concentrated on new or recently established ones, and I also rang up a couple of businesses I deal with. The sponsors each received two free passes for the show, which they were delighted to get, in addition to their names in the schedule for some advertising.
After the schedule went to print, the job didn’t end there. After a long absence, we couldn’t just expect all the previous exhibitors to just rock up on the day
of the show (this would be a miracle involving resurrection in some cases). I personally delivered catalogues to people with vegetable gardens in the area and contacted one of the local secondary
schools which has a Home Gardens competition, to encourage their
students to have a go at the local show. Based on previous
experience I planned out how much bench space would be
required in the marquee.
On the day of the show, we’d
need more help to run the event,
so I had to recruit a couple of stewards to help with setting up exhibits and assisting the judge. Before I got involved as a branch officer in the NVS, I used to be an officer
in Macra (a rural youth organization) – I used to be young! I secured the services of the local Macra club, who also sponsored prizes for the junior classes and invited the National Vice President of Macra to present the prizes.
The great day arrived. Despite the bad weather forecast, we were blessed with brilliant sunshine, while it seemed to be raining everywhere else. Exhibits began
to arrive from 8 a.m. onwards, and the bench quickly filled up. The entries in Onions exceeded expectations. Overall,
the allocated bench space had nothing to spare. The judge was impressed with the layout and standard of entries. When the tent opened to the public there seemed to be an unending stream of people filing past the exhibits, it was like the Queens funeral (but not that long). At 6pm the benches were cleared away to get the marquee ready for the show dance, the final benefit of getting the wooden floor!
One of our stewards Edel Boyd, Ardagh Macra Club busy writing results.
James Carson, St.Tiernan’s College with Macra North West President Robert Lally
Rian Reilly, St. Tiernan’s College, winner of the Largest Onion class.