Village food competition

[Sweepies]

This is mostly light-hearted, my village has a very large "show" every year with many tents, food vans, entertainment etc. They have the standard exhibitions you can enter, for photography, flower arranging, longest carrot, most attractive onion, etc.

I decided to enter one of the baking competitions with a friend to see if either one of us would place 1st, 2nd or 3rd. The prize for 1st place is £3! So all to play for as you can imagine.

The category was a baked item using ready made puff pastry, I decided to make a "posh" bacon and cheese turnover using some nice bacon, brie and cranberry - finished it off with sesame seeds. My friend made some kind of chorizo twist thing.

After entering it I noticed there we're probably about 15 entries in all, including a rival bacon and cheese turnover though it looked like something from Greggs - I wasn't too worried.

After judging was over and a couple of drinks we went to see the results, neither of us placed, and the bloody rival bacon and cheese turnovers won - but what really annoyed me was the judge hadn't tried a single thing!

Most (not all) items had been sliced in half once (??) but nothing tried. I assume they were sliced to see the quality of the pastry - but as we were told to use ready made pastry that seemed a bit redundant.

I thought okay fair enough, maybe the judge doesn't like puff pastry - but it was the same for every food item. The cake category, pies, salads, sandwiches, wraps - nothing was tasted, just cut in half once.

So Mrs. Judge wouldn't have known my posh pastry contained bloody expensive bacon, brie and cranberry as it never entered her mouth. This, to me, seems to go against the spirit of the competition. If I'd known it went on looks alone I'd have put a lot more effort into how it looked and not how it tasted.

All previous years, even after coming out of covid, at least a small portion of the food was tried, so maybe it's just the judge. Or maybe it's me, expecting too much from a cooking competition.

So, AIBU?

Purely because of this thread I just popped into our village produce show - mainly veg but a few home baking classes as well

Nothing really exciting to report, but the atmosphere in there was poisonous with tight-lipped glares all round ... sounds like another which should feature on here, if only I knew the inside story

Not a village as such but our small town church used to do an annual fete where one of the competitions was 'nicest baby'. At the end the judges would go around telling the mothers why their babies didn't win, such as his eyes are too close together, his head is too big for his body type of thing.

Well, go back and do some research. Bring a notebook and claim to work for the local paper and are following up rumours of foul play and brown envelopes for ‘Bonniest Baby’ or ‘Largest Marrow’. Say all sources will be anonymous.

Who were the judges???

The minister's wife and Sunday school teachers 🤣

And no one went after them with pitchforks, shouting ‘My Lily-Mae is PERFECT, you wonky-eyed Jesus freaks!’?

No weirdly no one seemed to mind, but even as a 10 year old I felt very uncomfortable when the critique started.

Oh my word - I am official county cheese scone queen. 18 entries!! £5 top prize money.

No need to mention the other classes I entered...nothing to see there.

I read this thread backwards. Lost it at "Nice big raspberries, a little dense, not dusted with icing sugar."

Please, please, don't forget to take and add more photos of similar comment cards for the next shows you go to.

Our village fête used to have bonniest baby competition until the early 1970s. Then it was felt that maybe this wasn't the best idea. I think it was my Dad pointed out "Every mother thinks her baby is the bonniest."

So they changed the competition to bonniest mother and baby. As if this made it any better!

Well I thought your explanation was interesting and a useful contribution to a highly entertaining thread.

My favourite AIBU thread in a long time.

DH & I decided to try our luck at the weekly quiz in a local pub. On the 3rd or 4th week, we won - to be met with a frosty silence & a bad atmosphere. We announced that we would be donating our winnings to the pub's favourite charity, & normality was restored. I'm not sure we would've got out alive otherwise.

Perhaps I need another name change to BeatenByAnAcrylicBlanket, but... my beret came second!

In all fairness to the judge, there was such a wide range of entries that it must have been very difficult to choose.

First prize went to the white crocheted blanket, and third to the blue crocheted octopus.

Your beret is exquisite! I rather like the granny square crocheted ?cardigan, & actually the dolls are good.

Thank you for asking! Here's a photo so you can see the crown pattern in all its glory. It's a lovely design from Susan Crawford Vintage and I'm looking forward to wearing it as we move into autumn.

I know exactly what you mean about the "being too good". I hope your makes were better-received elsewhere.

That's really lovely, thank you @BeatenByAScone

Yes, the cardigan looked very lovely, and I would have chosen it over the winning blanket. But then I didn't inspect it, so maybe the finishing wasn't so good.

I also felt bad for the maker of the Fair Isle bag at the bottom of this photo. It was very neatly knitted, with a knitted in lining and I think it should have placed. It really must be very difficult for the judge.

I said last year that having more categories would be nice. I think this year I'll contact the council to ask if they can add an additional class next time. Perhaps separate knitting and crochet, or maybe a separate toys/homewares category.

I think they're all lovely @BeatenByAScone.

Personally my ideal competition would be a handmade children's toy but a local toddler chooses. Imagine half the WI desperately waving a beautiful hand knitted toy at a small child as they charge towards some garish half-arsed Peppa monstrosity.

That would be hilarious @Callmesleepy 😂

At most small agriculture shows here there is always a 'Champion of Champions'. So best beef animal vs best Clydesdale vs best sheep vs best hen etc. I'm finding the scone story a bit hard to swallow though😉

That's just wonderful. At least you got a HOYS ticket.

It's my village show this weekend and I'm taking the dogs and leaving the horses at home.

Both of them would definitely be beaten by scones. Not even good ones.

I entered jam in my village show and when it wasn't placed, the only feedback was about the jar - apparently having a brand name on the lid was a no no (unwritten rules, made me fume at the time). But I did win the family photo comp twice with a literal holiday snap each time.

I've just finished organising the village show where I live (the first one held in decades). I'm happy to say that there were no sharp practices going on - the judges were county councillors, town councillors, and this year's mayor (so doesn't even come from the ward). The entries were anonymised. Baking competitions were taste-tested (how could you not taste test, except perhaps for decorating competitions?)

My raspberries and rhubarb lost to better entries, but my lavender beat the chairman's daughter's, and my cut weeds wildflowers came second to a similar-but-larger arrangement, knocking the secretary's rather more conventional attempt into third (that'll teach him for being snobbish!)

Or perhaps that dog has put plenty of business the vet's way. It certainly sounds like it

Well one of my mosaics won the 'other handicraft' category, albeit not the overall craft section. (The cards with exhibitors names on are placed face down until after judging). It was my first time of entering and there were some amazing entries in the vegetable and baking sections. Some people clearly took it very seriously though entering just about every category going, with trophies for the winners of each section. A couple of people won multiple cups - but to be fair their produce looked amazing.