Edible Gardening Project’s Harvest Competition results

Though this weekend has been decidedly soggy, we’ve not let it dampen our spirits. It’s time for our yearly harvest activities and this weekend visitors to the Demonstration Garden have been able to sample some harvest delights with tasters from the garden, a family friendly trail, free seeds and growing tips for Autumn.

This year we’ve had to be a little inventive with our Harvest Produce Competition. Usually the competition is open to community gardens and groups, but we know that some many of you have found solace in your gardens and allotments, and particularly in growing your own food, over the Covid-19 lockdown. For this reason the team decided to open the competition to a wider range of people and accept online submissions for the first time.

The submissions we received were truly wonderful. Congratulations to all who entered, as your efforts in the garden have clearly been worthwhile! Lots of colourful snaps of tasty, healthy food flooded our email inbox and we’ve been delighted to show our shortlisted entries this weekend in the garden.

Winners with photographs are below, but first let us congratulate all of our shortlisted entries:

Individual entry shortlist

Betsy Anderson ( a selection of produce)

Dave Hurst (artichokes)

Hannah Ayre (a selection of produce)

Helen Wass O’Donnell (sweetcorn)

Jane Hogg (figs)

Jean Dickson (betroot)

Jim Morrice (a selection of produce)

Linda Hamilton (a selection of produce)

Liz Sutherland (cabbage)

Mairi Marlborough (a selection of produce)

Peter Brown (artichokes)

Malcolm Bruce & Helen Todd (quinoa)

Sheena Irving (apples)

Individual entry result

There were some outstanding entries to this category and our gardeners found it too difficult to make a choice! Therefore, we’re delighted to announce two joint winners as well as two ‘highly commended’ entries: Jim Morrice, Linda Hamilton, Hannah Ayre and Liz Sutherland.

Image shows a dining tables full of homegrown vegetables: potatoes, salad leave, cavelo nero, courgettes, carrots of all colours, golden betroot, turnips, different types of onions and tender stem brocolli — Jim Morrice is joint winner for this impressive range of produce. We imagine there was a feast for dinner that night.

Image shows a box of homegrown vegetables; tomatoes, salad leaves, green squash variety, leeks, turnip, courgettes, kale and rainbow chard — Linda Hamilton wins joint first for this tasty veg box which looks incredibly fresh.

Image shows a large purple cabbage on a set of scale. The cabbage is huge! — Liz Sutherland’s entry is Highly Commended. We couldn’t believe what a whopper this cabbage was. Well done Liz!

Image shows a person holding up their homegrown vegetables against a blue sky: salad leaves, broad beans, herbs, betroot and courgette — Hannah Ayre wins Highly Commended for sheer artistic flair. The blue sky backdrop really showed off her harvest.

Group entry shortlist

Drylaw Community Garden

Royal Edinburgh Hospital Community Garden (with Cyrenians)

University of the Third Age Edinburgh

Group entry result

Again, it was incredibly difficult to choose between these three groups as each had entered a fantastic array of produce, presented beautifully. In the end though, the U3A Edinburgh were triumphant in first place, with Drylaw Community Garden and the Royal Edinburgh Hospital gaining Highly Commended.

Image shows a beautiful basket of produce: potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, peas, brassicas including cavelo nero, leeks, betroot, edible flowers like nastutium, courgette flower and flowering herbs. — Winning first place is the University of the Third Age Edinburgh with this beautiful basket of produce. We love the addition of edible flowers and even flowering herbs.

Image shows a large display of lots of types of vegetables in the community garden; pumpkins and squashes, carrots, turnips, courgettes, potatoes, brassicas including cavelo nero, salad leaves, fennel and parsnip — The Royal Edinburgh Hospital are Highly Commended for this entry from their community garden.

A colourful display of baskets of vegetables and fruit; leeks, beans, potatoes, courgettes, betroot, tomatoes, apples, grapes and a display of edible flowers. — Drylaw Community Garden are also Highly Commended for this entry which features fruit and veg; there’s even some grapes!

Young people’s group entry shortlist

When we launched the competition we hadn’t created this category, however, we received some really excellent entries from groups of children and young people that we felt really needed to be celebrated! Very well done to both of these groups for being shortlisted:

Fox Covert Young Gardeners

Rossie School, Montrose

Young people’s group entry result

Rossie School win first place, with the Fox Covert group receiving Highly Commended.

Boxes of produce from the school garden: tomotoes of different colours and sizes, herbs like parsley, rosemary and chives, courgettes, white and red onions and peas. — Rossie School, Montrose grow all of their produce organically. The produce is then used in their kitchen for making healthy and tasty meals for the young people to enjoy.

A collage of images of young people who have been learning food growing skills. They are tending their plants and showing the radishes they have grown. — Fox Covert are a group who have come together over the Covid-19 lockdown. Helen, the group leader has taught the young people how to grow their own flowers and produce. Good luck to the children in using their newly learned skills next year too!

Children’s entry shortlist

We love to see children beginning the home-grown journey while young. What better time to learn? We had some great entries again and our shortlisted children are:

Amos

Robin

Wilfred and Alfie

Children’s entry results

We were so impressed with you all and you should all be proud of your lovely vegetables. This year Amos wins first place, and Robin and brothers Wilfred and Alfie win Highly Commended.

A photograph of a boy pointing to the large green pumpkin he has grown. — Amos has been growing his vegetables organically, giving this huge pumpkin a seaweed feed once per week! Well done Amos.

A collage of images of a child growing their own carrots from planting the seeds to digging them up and eating them — Robin has done an excellent job growing these carrots. You can see she has been involved right from the start of the process in planting the seeds, and she’s even enjoying a crunch on her carrots at the end! Well done Robin!

A basket of produce on the dining room table: onions, tomoatoes, courgettes, herbs, rhubarb, raspberries. — Brothers Wilfred and Alfie have put together this lovely little basket of produce for their entry. What a range of vegetables they have been able to grow, as well as some raspberries and edible flowers. Well done Wilfred and Alfie!

Wonky veg entry shortlist

This category is the one that made us laugh most. It seems carrots are the funniest of all the veg, with our two shortlisted entries being carrots, though not necessarily orange!

Mica

Adam Lopez and Jennifer Baugher

Wonky veg entry results

Mica, who also comes under the children’s category, wins first place for her wonky veg, and Adam and Jennifer win Highly Commended for their joint entry.

A chopping board full of wonky carrots. They are yellow, white, orange and purple and in all sorts of shapes with extra appendages. — Mica’s entry for the wonky veg category has quite a few funnies in there. Did a single one grow straight?! We hope they tasted good anyway. Well done Mica.

A carrot on a table that is said to look like the shape of a football streaker running across the pitch! — Adam and Jennifer submitted this photograph of one of their carrots, describing it as looking like a ‘football streaker’… No comment from us. This is a family friendly blog after all!

Well done to all of those who entered and all of our first place and highly commended winners. We will be in touch over the next few days to arrange delivery of your prizes. Although we did say that we would give prizes to winners, we feel that our highly commended entries also deserve prizes, so will contact those too.

We’re so pleased so many of you are growing your own at home. Keep your eyes on our Botanics Stories blogs for more growing tips as well as www.facebook.com/EdibleGardeningProject and www.twitter.com/EdibleGarden1

The Edible Gardening project is kindly supported by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

Botanics Stories

Edible Gardening Project

Edible Gardening Project’s Harvest Competition results

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Jim morrice

Charlotte Walker