The Village Produce Show 2023- progress update
The Wilbrahams and Six Mile Bottom Vegetable, Flower and Produce Show 2023
The date for this year’s Show is Saturday 15th July and will be held in the Memorial Hall, Great Wilbraham.
Hopefully there will still be lots of produce and perennials to enter this year as there have been many sad tales of woe from local gardeners due to the destruction of their hardiest of plants and winter crops in the December “big freeze”… so disheartening after all the effort of planting and growing. However, it is now great to see signs of Spring with the bulbs shooting up and the first daffodils coming into bloom. It is amazing how resilient Nature is!
Please note
We are making a few changes to the timings of the Show this year.
The times for receiving Entries at the Hall will be 09.00 -11.00 (not the usual 11.30) and the opening time for the Show in the afternoon will be 14.30 (instead of 15.00).
Prize giving will be at 15.45 followed by the Auction of donated exhibits at 16.00 and then the Raffle.
This will hopefully give younger families the chance to get home in time for tea and also to help us get the Hall cleared up before the start of the evening whist drive.
Planning ahead
In order for you to plan your entries for the Show in advance, we are, as usual, publishing a list of the Classes in this Spring edition of the Warbler. A more comprehensive paper copy of the Schedule and entry forms will be delivered to you in early June with the Summer edition of the Warbler. Have a good look through and see what you could do… you never know – you might be awarded a cup or two – there are 12 to be won.
Just a few things to mention
The popular “Spud in the Bucket” competition is running again (Class 22). For those of you who are not familiar with this, you are provided with a potato tuber to be planted in a 14litre/3 gallon bucket and then bring the whole bucket intact to 13, High Street, Great Wilbraham by Wednesday 12th July where the bucket will be emptied and the potatoes weighed. The heaviest crop of potatoes produced from one tuber will be the winner of The Richard Wright Cup.
Please see David Richer’s article on his success story of winning the Spud in the Bucket Competition last year!
We are also running the “Plug-plant Competition”(Class 41). The idea is that you nurture a plug-plant which is provided and then enter it into the Show. This year it will be a begonia, and the winner of the ‘best’ plant will be awarded the David Waters Memorial Cup (only the plug plants provided will be considered for this class).
**The potato tubers are available now (1 per person and 20p for entry fee) and also a supply of 14 litre buckets (£1 each).
Please collect from either:
Trish Davis at 13, Toft Lane, Great Wilbraham. Tel 01223 880854; mobile 07739415918; email trishdavis@hotmail.com or
Rosie White at 13, High Street, Great Wilbraham. Tel 01223 881293; mobile 07757982934; email rosiewhite77@hotmail.com
**The plug plants will be available early April (1 per person and 20p for entry fee).
When they are ready for collection there will be a notice in the window of Great Wilbraham Stores and on the Wilbrahams’ website/Facebook page or please contact Rosie/Trish as above.
Please let us know if you need potatoes/plug plants delivering to you.
**Don’t forget, you are allowed 2 entries per person for all the other classes. Show rules apply and are as listed.
Photography section
In order for you to have more time to take your photos, the classes have been set earlier than usual by Andrew Evans (previous multi-winner of this Section) and who will therefore not be entering his photos this year… so, you may be in with a chance of winning the Cup!
Please see his guidelines for each of the Class subjects below:
Class 70: “A Wheel or Wheels” e.g. a car, a waterwheel, a bike.
Class 71: “The Seasons” – something that captures the essence of one of the four seasons.
Class 72: “History” or “Vintage” e.g. a historical building, a re-enactment or a photograph of something retro/vintage.
Class 73: “Food” – images of ingredients, produce, fancy dinner.
Class 74: “A Reflection” e.g. a tree reflected in a canal or something sat on a mirror.
Please submit your photos electronically by midnight on Wednesday12th, July (3 days before the Show) to: vfpphotos@gmail.com so that the photos can be prepared for the external Judge to view and also for display on the large screen at the Show.
The Under 12’s
The Under 12’s Classes 75-79 will be circulated by Great Wilbraham Primary School to their pupils after Easter and will also be listed in the paper Schedule in June. The seeds for Class 82 will be distributed to the pupils at the School in mid April. (Seeds are available from Rosie White for children aged under 12 who live in the Wilbrahams or Six Mile Bottom but do not attend the School and who wish to enter the competition).
Help required!
As was mentioned in the Autumn edition of the Warbler we are now going for a team approach to run the Show. Many thanks to those team members who have volunteered already but if you would like to help/be involved or have any other ideas for the Show please let me know. The aim is to meet around mid March to discuss plans for the running of this year’s Show. Date and time to be arranged.
SOS!
We desperately need some new signs made for advertising the date and time of the Show which are placed at each entrance of Great Wilbraham so if you could help with this we would be thrilled to hear from you!
For any other queries or information regarding the Show please contact me, Rosie White (details above).
In the meantime, happy gardening, planting, growing, flower-arranging, preserving, baking, crafting and photographing – we look forward to seeing you at the Hall with all your entries on Saturday, 15th July!
Our thanks to Chris Fell for the use of his images www.chrisfellphotos.com