Giant vegetable growers rejoice in wet summer

Tag : vegetable



"This year has been pretty similar to 2005 in terms of weather, sothere is a lot of anticipation that we could be in for a bumperyear," said Ray Davey, organiser of the Championships, the mosthotly-contested of the country's giant veg shows.
"Last year was cold and wet – a real washout."
Among this year's entrants will be Joe Atherton, from MansfieldWoodhouse, Nottinghamshire, holder of the world record for thelongest carrot, at more than 19ft.
"You see more younger couples getting involved in thesecompetitions, which is nice to see," he said. "Normally youngpeople just want to replace their garden with a patio."
But the 54-year-old, who last year entered everything from parsnipsto leeks and tomatoes to onions, admitted his attempts to growworld-beating veg were "more of an obsession than a hobby".
Mr Bevan uses an old pair of ladies' tights to support his thickcucumbers. I tie one leg around the top of the polytunnel and thenthe cucumber can grow in the other leg without snapping off underits own weight, " he explained.
"I began planting last November. You start with the cabbages, whichneed plenty of time to grow, then it is onions in December,pumpkins in February and sunflowers in March and so on. I go to theallotment twice a day – first in the morning to checkeverything and then again in the evening to do the watering. Idon't do much watering during the day because it just evaporates.
"When it is all over I give most of the entries to my wife whocooks them or turns them into coleslaw and so on. The rest getgiven to neighbours."
He added: "There has been more interest in vegetable growing,partly because food from supermarkets is getting more expensive andpeople want to grow their own. There has been huge demand forallotments recently."
Patsy Scadding, horticultural organiser of the Royal Bath and WellsShow, which has hosted the Championships for the past 12 years atits venue in Shepton Mallett, Somerset, said greater numbers takingholidays in Britain had boost advance ticket sales at the event."More people are coming along because it is a good British dayout," she said.
Documentary-makers from Channel 4 will film this year'sChampionships, while writer Michael Leapman investigates the showsin a new book, The Biggest Beetroot in the World - all evidence ofthe surge in interest in giant veg.
Mr Davey, who will judge the produce at Shepton Mallett alongsidean official from Guinness World Records, expects to see some hugepumpkins.
"They like the humidity, so we could well see some very big ones,"he said. "It is hard to beat the world record because they growsuch enormous ones in the United States, but we could certainly seta new UK record.
"The only problem is the sheer size of these things. We often see aforklift truck being used to move them about at the show, althoughsometimes it is possible to get a tarpaulin underneath them andshuffle them along the ground."
He said some growers were sharing their progress by posting weeklypictures on the amateur growers' website, bigpumpkins.com.
But he added: "No-one is revealing too much about their vegetablesyet, because everyone is very competitive and you don't want togive anything away."
Peter Glazebrook, another giant-grower from Newark,Nottinghamshire, agreed 2008 had been "a very good for vegetablesso far".
He said: "There has been just enough sunshine and things arelooking good."
Rivalry between competitors is often overcome by the bond ofeccentricity. Mr Bevan gave two marrow seeds to a young Dorsetfarmer called Mark Baggs, who nurtured them into a marrow so big ithas held the world record for the past three years.
"You do what you can to help each other," said Mr Bevan. "There arestill four weeks to go, so anything could happen between now andthen."
12 vegetable world records (Source: Guinness World Records)
Longest parsnip: Richard Hope (UK) 520.7 cm (17ft 1in), 2003
Heaviest parsnip: Norman Craven (Canada) 5.7 kg (12lb 9oz), 2004
Heaviest beetroot: Piet de Goede (Netherlands) 71.050 kg (156lb10oz), 2005
Heaviest cabbage: Bernard Lavery (UK) 56.24 kg (124lb), 1989
Heaviest potato: Ken Sloane (UK) 3.5 kg (7lb 11oz), 1994
Heaviest cauliflower: Alan Hattersley (UK) 24.6 kg (54lb 3oz), 1999
Longest carrot: Joe Atherton (UK) 5.84 m (19ft 2in), 2007
Heaviest marrow: Mark Baggs (UK) 62 kg (136lb 9oz), 2005
Longest runner bean: Harry Hurley (USA) 1m30 cm (4ft 3in), 1997
Heaviest pumpkin: Joseph Jutras (USA) 766.12 kg (1,689lb), 2007
Heaviest cucumber: Alfred J. Cobb (UK) 12.4 kg (27lb 5oz), 2003
Longest cucumber: Alfred J. Cobb (UK) 89.2 cm (35.1in), 2006