Back in early April 2022 Mary Ledgard, one of the CVWHAS committee members, organised a Spud in a Bucket competition for any plot holders at Craven Vale and Whitehawk Hill allotments who wished to join in. She provided the potatoes (the variety was Maris Peer) and contestants each paid £3 to enter. This paid for a potato and bucket with the balance put towards the prize fund. 17 ‘spudders’ took part and we looked forward to seeing who would win the cash prize of £30 in September.
The rules were: only one potato from the competition batch to be used; a regulation bucket had to be used; the soil level could be heaped but no additional bucket extension devices were allowed; drainage holes were permitted but the base of the bucket had to be intact. The growers were not to unearth the buckets until weigh in on 4th September.
After 5 months of growth, the contestants brought their buckets to the Hub for the weigh in. Who knew weighing potatoes could be such fun!
The prize went to Penny Maris (could there be a family link to the potato variety some asked) whose crop weighed in at 1690g. Well done Penny! Second place went to Nick with 1430g followed by Mary with 1369g. The lowest weight was 653g. However, one contestant planted a different variety after their original potato failed to grow and hoped no one would notice (we did); their entry only weighed in at 472g so enough said!
We had a wonderful time with plenty of friendly, competitive rivalry; everyone involved agreed this should be an annual event from now on – roll on next year!
whitehawkallotments.org.uk 