Page 15 - Simply Veg Issue 3 2019

at leeks and so purchased a dozen potential prize-winners. Thinking they needed a good long blanch I planted them nice and deep, right up to the button, just like you would a culinary leek. They grew surprisingly well, considering they were heavily shaded by the runner beans, in fact I was very proud of my efforts at the
first local Autumn show but was marked down for over-stripping. When I queried this with an experienced grower and he explained that I should have been stripping throughout the growing period. I thought for a while and then asked how do you do that when half
of the barrel is below ground. The look I got beggared belief.
My local show entries were improving.
I was getting prize cards in shows that 2 years earlier would have been beyond my wildest dreams. My pre-show preparation was becoming more efficient and I was learning from my many mistakes. I mean who needs to double check before loading? I was certain that the matching pair of marrows were wrapped in the green and red towels, only to find when I got to the show that I had one long striped one and one short green one!
The highlight of 2017 was entering
Get 10% Off
Online With Voucher Code:
I must have looked a real newby as I wandered around and around the benches carrying my Veg boxes...
Made in the UK
@wmjamesandco
William James & Co, Gore Cross Business Park, Corbin Way, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3UX
SIMVEG2
Cloches & Cold Frames
Raised Beds & Planters
Call: 0800 1032800 or Email: sales@wmjames.co.uk Buy online 24/7 at www.wmjames.co.uk
the Midlands Branch Championships at Shrewsbury Show. I must have looked a real newby as I wandered around and around the benches carrying my Veg boxes because Jean Forrester and Pat Brown eventually asked “how many times are you going to walk past us carrying that b----- box? “
This was a real step up for me. Sure, most of my exhibits were out-classed but not all of them. Some of them held their own – I was getting better at this.
Mike and June Davies and all the show committee were great that weekend, so friendly and supportive. Me and my wife, Gill, were quite overwhelmed by the welcome. We felt we were amongst friends.
2018 saw the realisation of my ambition, to win an NVS ticket, with 3 second places at Malvern Autumn show – Novice, Pair of Marrows and Runner Beans.
The more I do this the more I love it. I can’t
explain why and looking in from the outside some of the things we do must look bizarre. As Gill said to me last year when I was sorting my show potatoes, “You have been staring those potatoes in their eyes for over 15 minutes now, why don’t you get a room?”
On the other hand, they are not bizarre at
all; the quest for perfection against the myriad things Mother Nature stacks against you. Every season brings a different set of challenges
and at the end of every year the slate is wiped clean and you start again, older, hopefully wiser and even more fired up to improve.
Many thanks to the many NVS members who have given their advice and encouragement so freely, in particular John Branham and Mick Penn.
The more I learn the more I realise I don’t know. Hopefully the worst of the schoolboy errors are behind me, but I am not holding my breath.
Fruit & Vegetable Cages & Netting
Garden Tools & Accessories
simplyvegetables 15