COTSWOLD Feature Bloomin’ marvellous The Malvern Autumn Show promises
something for everybody, including free tickets for the lucky winner of our prize competition.
By Sue Bradley
THEY’RE oversized, overweight and, during the last weekend of September, they’ll be over here. Gargantuan parsnips,
mammoth pumpkins and the longest leeks in the land are heading for the Malvern Autumn Show. The Three Counties
Showground at the foot of the Malvern Hills is the new home for the National Giant Vegetable Competition, which is moving north after being held in Somerset for several years. Entries for the event will
come in from all over the country, with special lifting equipment and reinforced scales being used to put them in position in the Harvest Pavillion. “If ever there was needed a
prime example of one- upmanship, you’d be hard pressed to beat the giant vegetable competitions,” laughs Sharon Gilbert of the Three Counties Agricultural Society, which organises the Malvern Autumn Show on September 28 and 29. “It really is the battle of the beans, the meeting of the marrows and the conflict of the cabbages, and there’s a friendly, but serious rivalry amongst growers who sweat blood to produce the largest legume and keep their growing secrets close to their chests!” The arrival of the giant
vegetables will cement Malvern’s reputation as a meeting place for
one of the largest gatherings of amateur growers in the country. “This is the perfect large-
scale showcase for the huge bounty of fruit, vegetable and flowers available at this colourful time of year,” says Sharon. Open gardening is just one of
a whole host of attractions at the 2013 event, which also includes a Good Life Pavilion with edible gardens and grow your own demonstrations, a cookery theatre, an artisan food market, native livestock, country pursuits and crafts, a children’s discovery zone offering pumpkin carving, mushrooms and other family entertainment and some 500 trade stands. Other highlights will be
appearances in the Good Life Pavilion by Britain’s favourite cake baker Mary Berry on the Saturday and celebrity gardener Joe Swift on both days. There will be an aerobatic
plane display, a Second World War-era village hall complete with Land Girls, vintage vehicles and a tea room and free dancing lessons for visitors who would like to learn more about the dances of the 1940s. Elsewhere the orchard
pavilion will be celebrating the best of British top fruit and the myriad of products it produces, including cider and perry. A world of animals, including many different breeds of dogs,
32 COTSWOLDESSENCE | September - November 2013
www.cotswoldessence.co.uk
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