large carrots

[submariner]

Did anyone see the village garden programme on Sunday? Apparently, the world record for the longest carrot was broken. It seemed farcical to me! There was such a long unedible root on it that it measured about 14ft, I believe! To me that is rediculous. Surely the carrot shound be measured as far as the edible part extends. Prince Charles asked him how he had done it, and then said, oh well you'll have to get a bigger house, if you want to beat it!
Having said that, there were some incredible wors of art in the cake decorating.

[Jenny Green]

I have never seen the point in growing huge vegetables (well, I do think I know the reason why - given that the vast majority of competitors are men ).
I grow mine to eat, and most of them taste best when they're picked young and small.

[Johnboy]

Hi Jenny,
The Carrot in question was mainly terminal root and the actual Carrot was rubbish.
I agree with Submariner that they should be on the usable Carrot not a less than 6 inches of mediocre Carrot with about 13.5ft on root. Absolute nonsense!!
A British record oh what a farce!
JB.

[Chantal]

They do the same with beetroot do they not? I seem to recall some nutters with a great long drainpipe filled with sand, a dinky beetroot on the top and some stupid spindly root running 10 feet down the pipe. It took hours to get the root out without breaking it. What IS the point? As Jenny says, they were men, so perhaps it IS obvious why they do it (sorry JB)

[alan refail]

How right you all are. And of course it's a "man thing" - the "ladies" are just needed to show due admiration

Then again, it's not much dafter than some of the other things people get into: potholing, sudoku, rugby, caravanning, learning Albanian, flower arranging - the list must be endless

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Alan, i was dreading you putting, playing the village idiot on your list.

[Sue]

Don't worry OH. Having watched a couple of the programmes in the series with said nutters devoting whole polytunnels to growing a monster specimen, I would say playing the village idiot was much saner

Did you see the 11lb leek and the 80lb pumkin - not exactly edible me thinks

I think the ladies were just as competetive though. Looks could have killed in the strawberry jam and cake classes Even the girl with the model garden who had mand made every brick for the wall - worrying I say

Life is too short.

Sue

[peter]

How right you all are. And of course it's a "man thing" - the "ladies" are just needed to show due admiration

Then again, it's not much dafter than some of the other things people get into: potholing, sudoku, rugby, caravanning, learning Albanian, flower arranging - the list must be endless

Surely not putting someone down for trying to learn another language Alan.

Anyway for extremes look up, via google, the American giant pumpkin growing societies/competitions.

[Tigger]

I'm putting my tin hat on as I speak....

It's been a largely disapppointing series but I have to say James was particularly gorgeous in the final, even if he was only given a handful of lines to deliver. Do we get the feeling that Alan T dominated the final at all?????

[richard p]

so whats wrong with caravaning??? at least it teaches the kids that you can exist without electricity and all the gadgets for a week mind youif you roam arround a caravan site in the early evening its very noticable just how many of the posh vans are wired up watching the soaps

[submariner]

I wasn't going to bite Alan, but putting the world's finest game along with flower arranging!
If you had included kiss ball,(football) instead of rugby, then I would have agreed.

[GIULIA]

In our neck of the woods the whole point of growing giant veg is the betting! There's a pumpkin challenge on our allotments that has a tin of chocolate biscuits riding on the outcome. How can you call that a man thing? (SHE said, archly.)

[strawberry tart]

Having just spent 4 days at a very muddy New Forest show.I say long live shows! in what ever form they take, village shows, RHS shows, NVS shows,Allotment shows and any other flower,agricultural, W.I. or garden show you can think of and I agree the skinny carrot thing is a joke but it is just a small part of the terrific diversity and enthusiasm (and money making) thing that is the Great British Summer show.

[Johnboy]

Hi Submariner.
I do hope that it is League that you are referring to!
JB.

[alan refail]

Johnboy
What a wind-up

Alan