A Guide to Showing Fruit, Vegetables and Flowers
There are some practices and conventions that help in the presentation of your entries. What our judges look for in general is condition, form, uniformity, size and cleanliness.
Runner and French Beans Can be wrapped in a damp cloth and kept in a cool dark place. Can be straightened (carefully) whilst damp. Leave a short length of stalk.
Carrot Free from dirt, ideally uniform in shape and size. Foliage cut to about 4” and tied with string or raffia.
Beetroot As for carrots - do not trim roots, except those small wispy ones that grow on the sides.
Courgettes Courgette flowers can be left on or removed.
Cucumber Ideally with 2cms of stalk attached and may have flower attached. Should be fresh, straight and not over mature.
Leeks Leave the roots on but cleaned. Tip from our judge, comb the roots. Leave the flags (foliage) intact but tied neatly.
Marrows Ideally displayed with at least 2cms of stalk and skin unblemished.
Onions Towards the end of July take off any unsightly skin, don’t damage the sound skin which will need final ripening. Ease from the ground about I week beforehand allowing then to harden off and finally ripen. Place them in the sun for a day or two once lifted.
Onions and Shallots Should have their roots removed and their tops should be trimmed and tied neatly with plain string or raffia.
Rhubarb stalks fresh and straight. Foliage cut leaving 8cm.
Peas Uniformity of size is good. Leave some stalk.
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Potatoes Clean and uniform in size and shape. Do not peel.
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Tomatoes Uniformity is important. Keep calyces (stalks) and do not polish.
Fruit shown with stalks intact. The same general notes apply for condition, uniformity, etc.
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Flowers Desirable merits and defects vary considerably between varieties and types however some general common hints are - Freshness, cleanliness and condition, form and uniformity, trueness of colour, size of blooms in balance with stems, stems clean and free from defect.