This piece was written a couple of weeks before the village’s annual celebration of all things grown. This year the village show is scheduled for Saturday 16th of September and there are cooking, handicraft classes and a special children’s section as well as the traditional fruit, vegetable and flower classes. The more entries there are, the better the display in the hall.

2022 Show

As usual, we growers have complained that it has been too hot, too cold, too dry and too wet at various times of the year. However, the general rule is that every year some things will thrive while others won’t. Right now, we don’t know whether it will be flowers, fruit, roots, brassicas, squashes or the greenhouse crops that will do best, but something will be OK.

The show only makes a spectacle in the village hall if there are plenty of entries, so have a go and support the fantastic band of volunteers who make it happen. You never know you might just end up with a prize winner’s certificate or two. Don’t forget that if you’ve struggled with a particular crop this year then it is very likely that so has everyone else – you’ve got to be in it to win it and your disappointing harvest might just be the best. There is always the oddest shaped vegetable class for the things that went really wrong.

Prize Presentation

Entry Forms are in the Cookham Dean Fete programme or available from the organiser Helen Philip (07549 519246 helenphilip@hotmail.co.uk). Entry forms need to be with Helen by 6pm Thursday 14th September at 50, Whyteladyes Lane Cookham Berkshire SL6 9LP with entry fees (50p per class).