Five a day? We only need to eat one of these!
PITY the cook who has to chop up this enormous leek.
Some of Scotland’s biggest vegetables went on display yesterday at the annual Strathclyde Leek and Onion Society show.
Among the prize-winning examples were a hearty leek measuring 3ft long – as well as an onion the size of a football that weighed a half a stone.
Green-fingered gardeners and vegetable enthusiasts came in their hordes to the free event in Gourock, Renfrewshire, to marvel at the produce including outsize potatoes, cauliflowers and beetroot.
Although the vegetables fell short of winning any Guinness World Records, the society’s Arthur Provan said it was still a ‘top class’ day for giant veg.
The annual show was inundated with entries as gardeners from all over the country vied to win the title of largest vegetable in their category – not to mention a cash prize.
Entrants young and old spent months in their gardens and greenhouses cultivating the biggest and best specimens to enter in the competition’s 25 classes and impress judges George Bartling and Alan Yates. Prizes ranged from £10 to £45.
The competition drew large crowds to Cardwell Garden Centre, where manager Paul Carmichael said: ‘It’s incredible how big they can get their veg to grow.
‘It’s not an exaggeration to say that these guys certainly know their onions – and every other vegetable you can think of.’
The world record for the heaviest onion was set at the 2012 Harrogate Show in Yorkshire with a beast weighing 18lb 1oz.