Saturday saw us up and about early, bleary eyed from a 6am alarm call, sorting out the chickens, feeding and walking the dogs ... and me frantically making a second batch of scones as my first came out like cheesy Frisbees.
Then it was a question of packing up all my carefully prepared choices from the polytunnel and veggie patch the day before and setting off for the show. Llanrwst is only a couple of miles along the road so it didn't take us long to get there, we did drive through two rain showers on our way though so that made us a bit concerned.
Last years show was virtually a washout with horrendous heavy rain and gale force winds, we did not want an action replay of that for the organisers to cope with. This years show just HAD to be a success to try and recoup some of the enormous expense it must cost to put on a show of this size.
My offerings were staged alongside lots of other peoples in the Horticulture and Homecraft marquee, and there was a lot of good natured banter as we all titivated our vegetables and arranged dahlias and flowers to within an inch of their lives, and then we set off for home.
Judging in the tent was from 10am until 1pm so we thought it better to be at home getting on with jobs and then come back to have a good look round the show in the afternoon.
We got back at about 2ish and made our way straight to the tent to see what the results were. To be honest I had not expected too much this year as the quality of the exhibits we had watched being unpacked earlier had been very high. But there in the egg class ...
... were our eggs with a Third place card.
In this class unlike John's at Trelawnyd the eggs have to be matching, and raw.
The judges are looking for super freshness, ie. the two layers of white being very distinct and the yolk bright and well domed. At Trelawnyd they have to be freshly cooked and displayed with the yolk central when the judge cuts into them.
I felt vindicated for doing a second batch of scones as the new ones got me a Second place :-)
I didn't enter a Scotch Egg ... but I thought I'd put this photo in ... just in case John comes over for a visit to this post. It's always good to see a man drool ;-)
Moving along the table I spied that my Blackberry Whisky had got a Second.
So in the Homecraft section I got two Seconds and a Third :-)
At the other side of the tent were the veggie and flower classes.
I got a first for '5 Tomatoes with Calyx'
A First for my Salad basket (must contain one lettuce and 2 others).
A Second in the Open Section for '5 Tomatoes with calyx'.
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you there are only four tomatoes on the winning plate!! Somebody pinched one of the winners tomatoes .... it wasn't me honest!! Seemingly the Judge conferred with the organisers and was told that there were definitely five tomatoes at the start of the day!!
A Second for my Truss of Tomatoes.
I was gutted that a lovely bright red, fully ripe tomato fell off the truss as I was putting it into the bag at home, that would most likely have made it the winner. I did debate sticking it back on with superglue .... but honesty won over ;-)
I got a Second for my pair of marrows.
A First for my jug of 'six freshly cut herbs'.
A Second for my Courgette, in the 'Any Other Vegetable Not on the Schedule' class.
And as the only entry in the Five French Marigolds class .... I got a First here too.
I used to feel a bit funny getting a winners card if I was the only entry, but it was explained to me that even if you are the only entry, the item entered has to fulfill all competition criteria and 'be a good example of it's type'.
So a total of four Firsts and four Seconds.
And £25.50 in prize money :-)
Before coming home we had a good look around the Show, chatted to friends and neighbours ...
... and drank cider and drooled over tractors Well that was mostly Alan not me, although I did join in with the cider bit ;-)
A good day was had by all despite the occasional shower of rain, and next year we will be back, with more vegetables, more alcoholic beverages and hopefully some wooden items from Alan's brand new workshop ... he has been challenged to bring home a winners card all of his own.
Sue xx
