And the Competition was Fierce!!!

Yesterday I dropped off my entries to the Men's Garden Club at Mill Creek Park. I have never entered any any of my vegetables into any type of competition so I did not know what I was in for.

When I arrived at Mill Creek Park yesterday I was very casual and thought I would drop my veggies off and be on my way. That was not the case at all!

This is the Davis Education Center where the show was located. It is such a beautiful building that fits right into the park. It is surrounded by Fellows Riverside Garden which is equally beautiful!


This is how I transported my veggies to the show. I was very casual and actually picked some things out of the garden a few minutes before leaving. As I previously said it was my first show!


When I went inside I was motioned over to a table where I had to provide them with all of my information and I was assigned an entry number. After that I had to go into an area in the back to prep my vegetables for the show!
This was my work area and all of my entries. I was very overwhelmed!


Everyone involved was very, very serious about the show. The mood in the back was that of seriousness and precision while setting up their entries for display. It was apparent that some of these people have been gardening for years... Probably longer than I have been alive!


More contestants...


Some contestants came up with ingenious ways to display the bounties of their gardens. There were cornucopias, baskets, bottles, and styrofoam that had been carved to delicately display the fruit. You can see my cherry tomatoes on the top left on a paper plate.....


Being a novice I was unaware that there are a few rules to entering. Such as for tomatoes you need to enter in at least 3, I only had two of my Hawaiian Pineapple and Hazel Mae tomatoes that were ripe so those tomatoes were automatically disqualified. I asked the gentleman who was helping me if I should even bother leaving them and he said sure! He complimented how they looked and reminded me that it is a learning process. I will do better next year!

Here are my Hazel Mae and Hawaiian Pineapple tomatoes that ended up not being in the running...



I also decided to enter some Zephyr Squash. I love this squash it has a delicious buttery flavor (especially when cooked in butter!) and should be picked and eaten when it is young.


Here are my squash next to the other entries. As far as I could tell no one else entered any Zephyrs...


I had to go to a picnic so I could not stay for the judging. This morning I went to pick up my veggies and see the results of the judging and this is what I found.



I was quite pleased and delighted that I won a third place ribbon in the squash category!

A few tables down I also saw this...


I also won a third place ribbon for my Super Sweet 100 tomatoes!

It is such an honor to even place in this competition and I will take third place any day especially since I am a novice competitor and had never entered any type of gardening competition before. I am excited to pick up my ribbons this afternoon and collect the bounty from my garden. I will most likely enter again next year and hopefully do even better!