Village Produce Show - Ideas and Suggestions Please.

Since we moved back here to the village where I grew up, a little over 15 months ago, I've tried to involve myself in helping out with various village activities and events as much as possible. Although the village has lost both its shop and pub, there is a core of dedicated, community minded folk who are always willing to organize something to benefit the local community.

With this is mind, I've been approached by one of the parish councillors who is looking to organize a village produce show, some time in September. Obviously word has got round that I have a modicum of gardening knowledge, and he's asked if I'd also be prepared to be one of the judges!

Having never been involved with anything like this before, I thought I'd ask the good folk here on GC for a few pointers. Have any of you attended or helped to organize something like this before?

The idea is to make the event fun and involve as many people from the village as possible, including children - after all, these are the gardeners of the future, so lets get them interested now.

So, any ideas please? In particular -

• What sort of categories are likely to encourage people to enter? Ideally to appeal to both serious gardeners as well as the more casual gardeners.
• What would appeal to children and encourage them to enter? Should we expand it beyond simply things which they've grown and have something with a creative element, perhaps based on using natural objects collected from gardens or the surrounding countryside?
• The aim is to raise funds for causes which will benefit the village community as a whole, so is it best to charge a fee for everyone attending, or just those who enter the competitions? How much should we charge?
• Should we offer prizes? And if so, what? Vouchers to be spent at local farm shops or garden centres perhaps?
  
• Would a photography competition, based on themes of gardening, or perhaps nature in the local area, work?
• Anything else which would encourage people to get involved?

All suggestions and ideas gratefully received.

 

I think a photography exhibition, rather than a competition, would be a good idea if people have access to a printer. Competitions can put some people off through lack of confidence in their work and a fear of coming last and being seen as a failure. But most photographers, both professional and hobby, want people to see their work.

For the produce, serious competitors go for the biggest or the longest or the roundest of whatever it is. But you could also have a 'funny shape root veg' category for the less serious.

 

A thought about entrance fees - I guess it depends on the general income level of the people likely to attend. I live in a poor area so would probably charge £1 and 50p for kids with under 5s and over 65s for free. But if you live in a village in stockbroker belt you could charge a lot more.

 

That's a lovely thing to be involved with . I've been to a few where there have been categories such as wonkiest vegetable, flower arranging, including a wildflower category, and miniature gardens in the children's category, whereby they would make gardens in a plant pot saucer using moss for grass etc.

Since the money is being raised for local projects I would also charge non competitors as they are being entertained. However, I would also agree with @LauraRoslin about children under 5 for free, and a concession for over 65s.

Hope you have a lot of fun with the planning!

 

Minature gardens is a lovely idea.

 

@Trunky , my sister is Chairman of her village’s flower, produce and craft show. Over the years I have picked up a little knowledge so here are a few notes of what they do.

General entry to the show is via purchase of the programme/schedule of classes for a nominal cost, £1 I think. Competition entry to the various classes is also nominal, possibly 20p. Prize money is also low, 50p/£1 but they do have a considerable number of ‘silver’ cups to distribute, say for most points won in the veg classes, etc. There is a great deal of kudos in winning even with such minimal reward. Could you get any local commercial sponsors for prizes?

They have a great number of classes to enter, all listed in the programme and include veg, fruit, baking and crafts. Obviously anything grown is season specific, for example, sweet peas in September may not get too many entries but heaviest onion may do well. The programme also includes instructions re the class, e.g largest dahlia size requirements, how many tomatoes to a plate, etc.

Children get involved in all areas. There is usually a simple recipe in the schedule which they can make with minimal supervision. Men also have a baking class; set recipe also in the schedule. There is also a ‘baking disaster’ class!

My sister is also a judge at a neighbouring village’s show and her bible is the RHS Vegetable Showguide. It gives precise details of what a good carrot (whatever) should look like! I suspect that there might be a flower version but I haven’t personally checked. Your fellow judges should make sure what their key criteria are for a given class, for instance, dahlias greater than 10cm are measured at time of judging to ensure compliance. They are likely to drop/shrink later in the day - a real life controversy from experience!

Photography competitions are difficult in my opinion. What looks good is personal and moreover, with the age of digital photography how do you cater for computer enhancements?

One final point, you should make it clear who is eligible to enter. Just villagers, anybody who has slept the night before in the village, all-comers, etc, etc.

If you have any further specific queries, please do ask and I’ll relay them to my sister.

 

You might get a few pointers from here

Horticulture, Handicraft and Home Produce Schedule 2018

 

Kids love growing sunflowers. How about tallest sunflower and biggest sunflower head.

For money raising, tombolas are great. I have helped out at a few charity events last year and one of the biggest money makers was the Jam selling table. If you have anyone in the village that could be good at making loads of Jam, you can get free jars from local facebook groups or keep an eye on freecycle. A jam tasting competition would be fun for kids too.

You could also invite local entertainment events like bouncy castles, candyfloss stall or other sellers and charge them a fee for the space/table.

Have a cake table too made from local produce. But dont set the price of 50p a slice or anything. Make it a pay what you want donation type thing, you will get much more money that way on average.