Harvey County Fair time! Time to pick out your best garden produce and see where you stack up with others in the county! I always enjoy seeing the garden entries at the fair. Horticultural exhibits provide something for everyone. Participants enjoy an exciting educational opportunity. Exhibits are visually appealing and provide food. Things to keep in mind when exhibiting fruits and vegetables:
• Follow fair show rules and regulations.
• Show your best quality specimens.
• Choose items of uniform size, shape, and color.
• Arrange items to develop a central point of interest.
• Display standard amounts of specimens.
• Items should be grown and cared for by the exhibitor
Selecting Horticultural Exhibits
Here are the most important factors when selecting exhibits for show. Quality and condition:
1. Specimens should be of edible maturity, not overripe, shriveled, or wilted.
2. Free of injury from diseases, insects, or mechanical means.
3. Color should be uniform and typical for the product.
4. The shape should be typical of the variety.
Shelf life: Consider how well exhibits hold up after the show.
1. Enter only firm fruits and vegetables that will stay fresh and appealing for the entire show, especially if cooled display cases are not available.
2. Choose products with a longer shelf life. Avoid those that deteriorate rapidly, including leafy greens, green beans, and strawberries.
3. Specimens should be evaluated on appearance at judging time. It is hard to predict what they will look like or what they looked like before. Crops that change rapidly should not be used unless absolutely necessary.
Cleanliness: To improve the appearance of specimens.
1. Brush or wash root crops, taking care not to damage the skin.
2. Dip leafy vegetables in cool water.
3. Wipe vegetables such as eggplant with a damp cloth.
4. Polish apples with a soft dry cloth
Preparing Vegetable Exhibits
Cantaloupe
1. Uniform in size, shape and color.
2. Free from injury.
3. Picked at full slip, or when the stem slips easily away from the attachment to the melon.
4. Uniform netting and true to type.
Onions, Mature
1. Uniform, mature, solid, bright.
2. Neck small and well cured or dry.
3. Smooth, clean, with outside skin intact. Do not peel.
4. Color typical of variety.
5. Tops trimmed ½ to 1 inch above the bulb.
6. Roots neatly trimmed ⅛ to ¼
Tomatoes
1. Select for varietal type, size, color, and maturity.
2. Firm, without cracks; free of disease, insects, or mechanical injury.
3. Remove the stem.
4. Do not select overripe or soft specimens.
5. Exhibit with stem end down
Peppers, Sweet
1. Deep in color.
2. Fresh, firm, symmetrical
3. Traces of red color not desirable unless peppers are uniformly red in color.
4. Number of lobes should be uniform.
5. Trim stems ¼ to ½ inch (but not so long that the peppers cannot stand up on the stem end).
6. Exhibit with the stem end down.
For more information see the publication C405 Exhibiting Fruits and Vegetables AND see the Harvey County Fair rule book for exhibit numbers and classes.
