It's relatively clear that they know what vegetable and flower will be judged: the flower design challenge seems a definite surprise, and there is such a variety in the coking challenges that they clearly had some broad choices there as well.
Each week - they tell us - there will be three challenges; grow, make and eat.
Grow - this week, it's radishes. My two comments on this challenge are that a) we've not yet tried radishes, although they are apparently one of those crops that you plant and then dig in to replace lost nutrients in the soil, and we will probably plant a crop and the end of winter in at least one of our plots. b) The specialised show techniques and requirements are brilliant. It makes me think of those few times I went to the Royal Melbourne Show with my dad. I don't actually know if they had a vegetable section: we spent most out our time watching the show dogs and then I insisted on visiting the decorated cakes.
Make - the gardeners had to prepare sweet peas for show, and then make a 'hand-tied bouquet'. To me the flower arrangement challenge is the most pointless, but that may be because I don't grow flowers to cut and put inside the house. I like my flowers outside the house, in the ground.
Eat - this is essentially a preserving challenge. This week, it's a jam and a curd, and I have to admit I'm coming from the perspective of only ever having heard of a lemon curd. but clearly the gardeners thought of many other types of curd. My understanding of what a curd is is limited, and sadly it seems that the British audience all knows this automatically, so no explanation was forthcoming.
I really love this show so far. I'm trying not to post spoilers at the moment, and maybe in the next post I'll post more about the pairs of gardeners, for many of whom I have affectionate nicknames.
