Is competitive growing large vegetables a northern thing like whippets ,flat hats, pigeons and tripe?
Steady on B3! The demented focussed chappie was in the Midlands not oop North where all my relatives had allotments and grew lovely fruit and veg (you should have seen the leeks my Uncle grew!) and rarely obsessed about them. Just because they hung the monkey people think they're all a bit odd
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
And tripe stalls which used to be so well patronised on Luton and Norwich markets are much missed by some of us southern softies 😢
My understanding is that competitive fruit and veg growing grew out of the vicarious competition between owners of the Big Houses whose gardeners, with greenhouses and hotbeds and ranks of under gardeners in their sheltered walled kitchen gardens, were expected by their employer to produce a more impressive display than their neighbour’s Big House at local shows
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Is competitive growing large vegetables a northern thing like whippets ,flat hats, pigeons and tripe?
I think you find competitive veg growing in most rural communities. There's certainly plenty of it down in this part of the world, especially Dorset way. It is more a pass time for retired people (generally men) than working people, but not exclusively so.
If you go to any provincial produce show anywhere in the country, you'll find (mostly) men competing with the longest runner bean or the biggest onion or the best dahlias, while (mostly) women are equally competitive over cakes and jam in the next room. It's a harmless (if rather pointless) hobby.
I suspect there's more nettle eating and wellie wanging at the southern fairs than pigeon racing, but whippet (and other hound) racing goes on down here as well.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
& don't forget his poor kids. He mentioned missing things like school sports days to stay home & nurse his fruit. How could he not leave them for an afternoon, I don't get it?
& don't forget his poor kids. He mentioned missing things like school sports days to stay home & nurse his fruit. How could he not leave them for an afternoon, I don't get it?
Different obsession, but a friend of mine refused to go on a holiday which had been booked by his wife when he realised it was during the World Cup. He wasn't prepared to risk not being able to watch all the matches.
Although I enjoy watching sport I've never understood that obsession, after all the result will be the same whether you see it or not.
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My understanding is that competitive fruit and veg growing grew out of the vicarious competition between owners of the Big Houses whose gardeners, with greenhouses and hotbeds and ranks of under gardeners in their sheltered walled kitchen gardens, were expected by their employer to produce a more impressive display than their neighbour’s Big House at local shows
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If you go to any provincial produce show anywhere in the country, you'll find (mostly) men competing with the longest runner bean or the biggest onion or the best dahlias, while (mostly) women are equally competitive over cakes and jam in the next room. It's a harmless (if rather pointless) hobby.
I suspect there's more nettle eating and wellie wanging at the southern fairs than pigeon racing, but whippet (and other hound) racing goes on down here as well.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I watched it this morning. Each to their own and all that.....
I'm off to wang my wellies....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...