Many 'Firsts' and a Best In Show!

Oh dear. I failed to blog in July so I had better try to get two done in August.

The sheep are getting bigger, and heavier. They have enjoyed the outdoor life, sleeping under the stars with all the grass they could wish for. The poly tunnel is stuffed to the brim with vegetables and we are still expanding our chicken flock. The final batch of Araucana eggs hatched 5 out of 6 but as with this breed, we have no idea what sex they are and probably won’t until they either start crowing or laying eggs. I have mapped out their age on the calendar and have found that we probably won't know that until next year. But all in all, we should have 19 chickens. That has led to the construction of the BIG chicken house. We saw some interesting designs for chicken houses at the Suffolk Show this year but were generally unhappy with the thickness and quality of the wood used. As a result the construction of the BIG house has begun in earnest to accommodate our growing number of chickens. The current accommodation has 9 (including the two cockerels) with a potential additional ten still in the ‘pipeline’.

So many lettuce

In July this corner of Essex has 3 consecutive village shows and our local one (prior to the move) was the Tillingham Handicraft and Horticultural Show. This is a grand event with two marquees, one for handicraft and one for horticultural, a parade, tug of war, grand prize draw – all the usual stuff. I was particularly interested in entering our produce from the poly tunnel into the horticultural competition, but for the first year, as an outsider. Tillingham boasts many good growers but the outsiders class isn’t usually too well supported, so I might stand a chance. The schedule was feverishly pawed over and numbers of items duly noted. The entrants have to state their intention to enter on the Wednesday and Thursday before the event on Saturday. Those few days can make all the difference to the size or quality of a vegetable so I always enter as many classes as possible in the hope that things will come good by the day. I entered 15 classes but only managed to find enough quality vegetables for 9. It might be enough. As a previous winner of various trophies, I was invited along to help with the entries on the Thursday night and having said that I wouldn’t be entering anything in the handicraft sections, managed to make/find enough jams, chutneys and curds to make a sizable entry for the Cooking trophy. I like making these things as I think it helps to capture the flavours of the summer and brighten the winter months.

Saturday came and I gathered all my entries from the poly tunnel and kitchen. Unfortunately overnight there had been quite a violent storm and the ancient handicraft marquee was ripped to shreds. The remaining structure was deemed to be dangerous and was dismantled before the entrants arrived. Arrangements were hurriedly made and a new location was established to receive the entries ... handicraft in the horticultural marquee, horticultural entries in the village hall. Plans were in place to replace the handicraft marquee next year anyway, but I have fond memories of helping with the erection of the huge handicraft marquee. Shame.

When you want to see a red card

Entries safely installed in place, carefully arranged and labelled, the entrants have to retire from the marquees (and village hall) and let the judges do their job. Then the wait begins. The Show opens to the public at 2pm and I was back in the village around 4pm. First visit .... the horticultural section. Many Seconds and Thirds ... and one First for two lettuce. Hmm. Not enough to win anything but not a bad showing. The winner had many Firsts and I was left with the thought .... I’ll get you next year!!

It was a different story in the Cooking section. I won Firsts for most of my entries with the only exception being Four Cheese Scones which won a Second. That’s ok ... I don’t like cheese scones anyway. The real shock was a large white card which said Best In Show for my lemon curd. That was brilliant!! I frequently make lemon curd to use up some of the eggs and have perfected the recipe for just two jars - one normally gets given away and we consume the other one. Sweet!! The Best In Show has its own trophy and I was surprised to see my name already on it from 2002 - having racked my brains I think it was for a jar of strawberry jam, but that was 13 years ago and could be wrong.

So life in the poly tunnel continues – post Flower Show. The tomatoes are starting to ripen and I have constructed a drying rack for the purposes of sun-dried tomatoes. We have grown Roma and San Marzano. We have grown Romas before but San Marzano are supposed to be the best Italian tomatoes in the world. Having done some research, they are what Roma were bred from but they are relatively slow growing and take longer to ripen. But they do produce large, rounded, juicy tomatoes ... if they ever go red. We have also grown cucumbers, blue chillies and aubergines. Long may the summer continue and these things all get to maturity so that real fun of harvesting, pickling, chutney and cider making can begin!