Meteorologists regard the 1st of September as the start of the autumn season.
So how appropriate that our local EAST HOATHLY and HALLAND VILLAGE SHOW SOCIETY held its annual autumn show on Saturday the 2nd of September!
Our team has worked hard during spring and summer and the plot has provided an abundance of wonderful fresh produce to savour for our service users and the local food banks.
For two weeks we watered and sought out the best we could to show off the results of our labours at our local show.
Friday was truly manic with a long list of vegetables and flowers to be picked, accessories to be found and to prepare all to be shown off in its best light.
Who would have known that onions, freshly lifted and coated in earth can turn into shiny, rich golden globes with tops neatly tied with raffia!
French and runner beans were carefully rolled into damp tea towels and deposited in James's fridge and the abundance of herbs, salad crops and brassicas spent the night in buckets of water. Bread was baked, poems written, drawings selected and chutney jars relieved of their sticky residue.
Daliahs, which we planted to attract bees to our plot, spent the night resting on the window sill. The whole place looked like a green grocers!
Saturday morning arrived, as did one of our directors. Bringing with her a gorgeous Sussex trug to show off a harvest collection of edible vegetables carefully tended and then picked at their best.
Service users were picked up, whilst others busied themselves with setting up in our local village hall. A quick dash past the allotment to pick fresh daliah blooms (the others had succumbed to the early, hot morning sun), set up finished and the waiting began.
A few hours later more of our service users arrived, as did our allotment sponsors from Southdown Housing.
Imagine every ones faces, when we discovered that we had won
7 First places - including heaviest pumpkin - 4 Second places and 2 Third Places!
What a fabulous and rewarding way to finish the season for Our Community Garden.
We want to thank all of our sponsors, volunteers, our Parish Council and of course our service users for helping us, not only to provide fresh and healthy produce whilst forgetting our worries and challenges, but also making it possible for Our Community Garden to walk away with so many prizes.
ND
to top it all - a HUGE amount of the exhibited produce was donated by the exhibitors to local food banks!
THANK YOU ALL!
Comments