Gardener’s pride at carrot as big as his grandson...
A LOUGHBOROUGH gardener has grown a carrot as big as his six-year-old grandson and entered it into the the national vegetable championships - but unfortunately it wasn’t even as big as some of the others!
Simon Smith, 53, of Parklands Drive, Loughborough has been growing vegetables over 20 years, and pulled out a carrot that was 4ft long from his patch in his back garden.
He displayed the vegetable at the national championships of the National Vegetable Society in the giant vegetables category but unfortunately it wasn’t as big as some of the others.
Simon told the Echo: “It was massive when I first pulled it out, and there was about another foot and a half of it that snapped off the bottom, so it would have been even longer.
“As I thought the ‘giant’ carrot didn’t look so big against the monster veg, but I did win a National title with onions under 250g so not bad.
“I don’t grow vegetables for size, and in fact it was more of a nuisance because to be able to show it in the quality category it was a big too big.
Simon’s six year old grandson, Oscar Smith, is deaf and has autism, and he said that he is looking forward to being able to spend more time with Oscar in the garden next year when he retires from growing championship quality vegetables.
He said that at the moment his prize winning veg have to be extremely carefully looked after, but he can’t wait for Oscar to be able to “get his hands dirty” and help him in he future.
He said: “I’ve heard that gardening is really good for children with autism, and I am hoping to get Oscar more involved in the future.
“I have to be very careful with my vegetables that I take to shows so Oscar can’t always get involved but I am looking forward to being able to make sure he gets his hands dirty in the future.”