September 2017 – No Garden Tips

Our monthly tips are extended versions of the articles we write for the Cookham Parish Magazine.  In September we devoted the piece to promoting the village flower and produce show held in the middle of the month.  With almost 60 classes of vegetables, fruit, flowers and crafts and cooking, there is something for everyone, and with helpful organisers eager to assist new entrants, we wanted to encourage lots of entries.

The baking classes were, as usual, heavily subscribed and there seemed to be more entries in the vegetable classes than last year, but there were fewer flowers than last year.  One of the exhibitors said that the heavy rains in August and early September had meant that he had fewer blooms available than usual.  Nevertheless there were some lovely flower exhibits.

Top Vase Winner

Top Vase Winner

Flower displays

Flower displays

Amongst the vegetables, the chilli pepper class was popular, with a number of different cultivars entered.  On the fruit side, there were lots of lovely looking apples .

Chilli Peppers

Chilli Peppers

Apples

Apples

the heaviest pumpkin class attracted four entries with a winning weight of 37.2kg (or a whisper under 6 stone for those who prefer imperial measures).  this leads us to the second show of the month that we visited, the Malvern Autumn Show at the end of the month, which featured a giant vegetable show as well as more normal fruit and vegetable classes.

The Cookham pumpkins were just a little bit smaller than those in Malvern.  The winner at Malvern was over 400kg!

Cookham's Pumpkins

Cookham’s Pumpkins

Really Giant Pumpkins

Really Giant Pumpkins

Aside from the giant vegetables, there were lots of beautiful entries in the more standard classes.

A delicious assortment in a fantastic display

A delicious assortment in a fantastic display

The sheer number of entries shows the popularity of show growing, maybe next year’s Cookham show will fill the village hall even more fully.

All sorts of vegetables

All sorts of vegetables

Perfect leeks

Perfect leeks

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