Prizes and a calming cup of tea.Just after 4pm on Sunday I returned to the Farm City Fair to see the judging for the Harvest Competition - they told us it would go down between 4 and 5. But when I got there the awning was being folded up and stowed away. Rain. No vegetables were out, no people, just packing up Greenthumbers who said, You're too late.
Um?
I found the head wrangler, wrapped in a rain poncho, and she said that they'd done the judging at 2 because of the rain.
The good news was that I'd won three blue ribbons for the crops that were nowhere to be seen: for Best Tasting Tomato - the little yellow cherry beat the big red ones, Best Rose, and Heaviest Squash. Harri's cucuzza was entered in - and won - The Longest Squash category, so luckily my squash did not have to compete with his. And I got second place for Flowers and Bountiful Basket (now empty, had I mentioned that? - no red no black no yellow cherries, no red no yellow peppers, no eggplant that took weeks to ripen on the roof, sob) and fruit, for my strawberries (a canteloupe won).
I wish I could have taken pictures and seen the judging, and met the other gardeners, sniff.
I was told that it is normal for vegetables to be adopted by firstcomers but that if I really wanted them I could get them back?
So there it is.
I have ribbons. They have the crops.
Competition is fickle.
Clearly I have issues with letting go. And ownership.
I'd be a horrible Communist. Or Buddhist.
I know, I'm whingeing. Does that make me a Libertarian?
Whaddaya want, the ribbons or the vegetables?
I want, I want....I want it ALL!
First of all - congratulations on your wins! (I assume blue is first?)
ReplyDeleteAt the Cape Horticultural Society Shows no one is allowed to take anything until the show is closed - no matter what the weather, but then our shows ARE held indoors. But after the show is closed usually around 4pm, members of the public may take your veg, fruit, flowers etc, but not anything growing in a pot. So you have to be there to fend off the public if you want to keep your stuff, which like you, I do.
And members of the public who want to take stuff from the show have to pay - our Chairman stands at the door with his hand out.
Pee ess - PLEASE encourage Hen to enter our shows!
Congratulations on your winnings!
ReplyDeleteWell done Marie.
I am sure if you were there when it all went down, it would have been much easier to let go.
Next time, would it be appropriate to tell them about your wonderful blog & how you would love to promote their competition through story & pictures?
See! Look at that -winning vegetables and flowers!
ReplyDeleteYou deserve to keep everything, and the rain effed it up, no ones to blame but nature itself.
But, if this were a large country fair, your vegetables would have to remain on display for all the world to see. By the end, in the heat and lights, they may be rotten and undesirable -although your cucuzza, which was nicely shaped by the way, probably would have survived.
Conratulations -you won blue!
Congratulations! Talk about a glass half full though...
ReplyDeleteSo now you know, you've got to give it up to get it.
And how would they have know your tomato tasted the best if they didn't eat it?
The eggplant though, that's another story.
Way to go Marie, Congratulations
ReplyDeleteSide note...The SA award is until September 17, right? I am diligently placing my daily vote and was not sure of the closing date.
Congratulations on your ribbons, Marie! I've never entered anything in a fair either...although my impression is that everything is supposed to remain until the end of the show, when it's supposed to be picked up by the entrant. I can understand that they ate the cherry tomato...but not that somebody made off with your precious eggplant!
ReplyDeletewv: foxiesse
Very well done, you! Allotment Shows are the same here - everything gets sold off at the end, and winners can only rejoice in their ribbons or rosettes. Grit your teeth, Marie.....
ReplyDeleteWay to go! You deserve it ALL!
ReplyDeleteWe have a lot in common. I, too, want it all. Hee! Congratulations on your multiple wins and beautiful blue ribbons. I hope to see Estorbo draped in a cape made of those ribbons. : )
ReplyDeleteThank you, everyone, and I apologize for my tantrum. Hormones.
ReplyDeleteYes I know they had to eat my yellow tomato, Jane, but I gave them a whole dish of extra cherry tomatoes just for themselves to eat, too. Oops, there I go again!
Anyes, yes, the 17th. You are a trooper. I promise not to make you do this again next year.
I'm going to the roof now to yank out the squash and to plant more leaves.
Oh, no, not the eggplant!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on all the blue ribbons.
The nerve! I've been to many a TRUE county fair (NH, NM, FL, TX) and NO ONE (NO! ONE!) takes the produce, whether it wins or not. Freakin' New Yorkers...(and I say that as a freakin' New Yorker).
ReplyDeletebut congratulations!
Well done, and who cares if the judging was done early.
ReplyDeleteBut I still object to the pig farm on the roof...
Congratulations Marie! All the work paid off with beautiful blue and red ribbons! You deserve them.
ReplyDeleteMaria
Brava! That good cup of tea should have helped calm you.
ReplyDeleteBrava brava !!!! Well deserved and I wonder who was the peeg who stole the eggplant ?
ReplyDelete