Little and Large!

Late August/early September means show-time! There are village, town and county shows up and down the country (see my blog showing off dated 13/9/15).

In the grow and show category the aim is to show 3 uniform fruit or vegetables but there is always a prize for the largest vegetable. Obviously this is just for fun as any large item would be past its best and not great to eat. Nowadays the craze is for baby veg.

These are sometimes immature vegetables which are harvested early and enjoyed for their tender and delicate flavour. Other times they may be specially bred miniature varieties and can be grown in 6-12 weeks. If your fingers are not green, these can be found in most supermarkets; everything from baby beetroot, courgettes, turnips, aubergines ... the list goes on.

I don't remember baby vegetables being around when my own children were babies. It would have been so much easier to persuade them to eat a baby carrot than a large one. At least with broccoli we could convince our little darlings that they were eating baby trees! 

My favourite part of the film Big is when Tom Hanks' character, Josh, nibbles a baby sweet corn as though it were a full size one ... priceless!