January 2024

The Horticultural and Culinary Show, Saturday, July 20th

This event has been a regular date on the village calendar for many years. However, like many of the old fixtures of village life it needs a bit of a make over! As a committee we are going to be making changes to the event itself and hope to demystify it and encourage many more people to enter.

The first thing to note is that it is no longer called The Horticultural Show. About a third of the classes in the show are culinary and with this in mind we are hoping that the bakers among you will take part. There are categories for jams, jellies, chutneys, marmalade, relishes, cordials and fruit or vegetable spirits. Every year there is a variation on a theme for cakes, biscuits, a tray bake, pastry, and bread. Sausage rolls, shortbread and scones are permanent fixtures!

On the horticultural side the show offers the opportunity to anyone with green fingers or with no experience at all, with a garden, greenhouse, patio or window sill to grow something to enter into the nearly 50 fruit, vegetable and flower categories available. Nothing has to be grown from seed- buying seedlings and growing them on is fine. For the floral arrangement classes the flowers can be bought and there are 6 different categories for plants grown in pots.

We are extending the age for children’s entries from 12 and under to 16 with two age groups-10 and under and 11 to 16. There will be three classes to enter for both age groups and this year the art category can include digital art. All children’s classes are open to villagers and visitors.

This year, for the first time, the judging will be done by two independent judges, one for the horticultural categories, another for culinary.
In previous years the judges have always been affiliated to the Suffolk Horticultural and Produce Association which means that WI and RHS rules have applied. There will still be criteria to follow for each class but the judge will be able to be far more flexible. Any instructions that are given are as much to help the entrant to know what to submit as for the judge to have a ‘yardstick’ to guide their decision making.

Unlike many shows, entry to ours is completely free regardless of how many classes you enter. All we charge you for is a well deserved cup of tea and slice of cake at the end of the afternoon giving you the opportunity to meet up with fellow exhibitors who you may never have got to know otherwise.

So please, even if you enter just one class, help us keep the Show going. We understand how daunting you might find it but we can guarantee that once you have done it once, even if your entry isn’t placed, you will feel a sense of achievement and have had your fears allayed! We’ve all been there and come back to do it again!

As an insert in the March Village News there will be a copy of the schedule for the Show containing details of all the categories. From here on in we will continue to update you with news on the village website of other events like the Plant Bring and Buy in May and give advice and guidance wherever we can. So please get in touch with any of the committee if you have any queries or reservations about the Show. We are here to help!

Betsy Lemmon, Suzzie Godfrey, Paul Bradley, Diana Wright, Nicky Thorpe

Walberswick Horticultural Committee