Find out who enjoyed success at Malvern?
Clutch of World, European and UK veg records tumble at Midlands show
Seven records for giant vegetables were smashed at last month’s Malvern Autumn Show. The monster haul in the CANNA UK Giant Vegetables Championship included four World, two British and a European record. Leading the charge was Joe Atherton, of Mansfield, who bagged world’s longest parsnip with a root measuring 6.55m (21.49ft) and world’s longest radish at 6.703cm (21.99ft). Long-veg supremo Joe even outdistanced his own 5.023m (16.47ft) long record radish from last year and, along with longest carrot and beetroot from 2016, his total record veg swag swells to 11.
Another giant veg stalwart, Welshman Ian Neale from Newport, established the benchmark for the inaugural world’s longest chilli pepper at 401mm (15.78in). Ian would also have secured the opening record for the world’s heaviest until it was snatched by fellow grower and friend Kevin Fortey, with a whopping 348g (12.27oz) fruit.
Fresh from sweeping the board with giant onions at Harrogate, Peter Glazebrook continued his winning streak with two UK records for heaviest tomato (2.88kg/6.35lb) and heaviest radish (10.38kg/22.88lb).
Mistakenly thinking he’d planted a cucumber, Peter Marston, from Nottinghamshire, had, in fact, raised a trombocino squash, which he carefully nurtured under glass to produce a towering, club-like fruit, stretching the European record to 173cm (68.11in).
Vegetables were also front of stage elsewhere when GN’s Medwyn Williams, of Medwyns of Anglesey, achieved Best in Show for his exhibit of vegetables, including new parsnip and tomato ‘Y Ddraig Goch’ (‘Red Dragon’), the first tomato to be registered in the Welsh language. l The next Malvern Autumn Show will take place on
Saturday and Sunday, September 29 and 30, 2018.