Westray Industrial Show 2016

I love the Westray Industrial Show with a strange and rather bizarre passion. There’s something deeply appealing about the vegetable competition, the standard of home baking is superb and the children’s crafts are incredibly creative. Then, of course, there are the home made sandwiches and cakes with unlimited huge pots of tea. It’s a great, friendly event.

I head first for the vegetable competition to see which categories Tom Bain hasn’t won. Tom’s a kind farmer with a ready smile who always grows the most wonderful veg. Here are some of his winners:

It’s a wonder anyone got a cabbage with the Diamondback moth wreaking devastation on farmers’ crops.

Some other superb winners were:

I love the arrangement of four vegetables and the different approaches entrants took: here’s the first prize and a wonderful entry which had the vegetables I would have wanted to buy and eat:

The children’s crafts were genius. I’ve deleted their names so these pictures don’t come up when they’re Googled before their first job interview. The Penguins in the ‘Article made from 6 pack egg carton’ were wonderful and my personal favourite thing in the show.

There were strong entries in the ‘Painted Wooden Spoon’ category:

Also great fun were the hand prints:

And what was special about this ‘Playdough model’ entry was that it wasn’t just a tractor, it was a John Deere tractor. The details are obviously very important:

I loved the look of the baking and wanted to eat Margaret Harcus’s drop scones even though they were only awarded third prize. The flour bannocks, bere bannocks, fattie cutties and the currant bun (like no currant bun you have ever seen) were beautifully made.

And finally it was time for tea. Thanks to everyone who made it such a special event.