I mentioned in the last blog entry that we built the panels for this years display and installed them in the booth area. Here's a picture of what we started with.
With the main display mostly completed we were able to add the quarter barrels to see if they'd work to hold the produce.
Here's the final product with Yvette before the judging.
Left to right, here's closer look of each section on the first day. They would change things around on the other two days depending on items available. The left section had green tomatoes on the left, going up to ripe red ones, cherry tomatoes, okra, zucchini, sweet season peppers, pumpkin, egg plant and herbs in bags. The back wall had seasoning, honey from the VI honeyman and a book, Hidden Secrets by Clarice Clark, pictures of historical and natural parts of the island. The large leaves between the barrels holding the vegetables came from our property. I had found them a few months ago and marked them on the GPS so I was able to hike down the hill through the brush and get some.
The middle section contained spicy season peppers,ginger, green papaya, turmeric, carambola, sweet potatoes, three different types of banana's, and eggs from a local church youth group. Dale and Yvette donate the unmarketable produce to the group to feed the chickens.
We added a shelf to the door so we could display the green onions and chives. Denise is with one of Yvette's grandsons, and a granddaughter hiding on the right.
The right section contained all the greens with Kale, Swiss chard, Pac & toy choy, chinese cabbage, turnip tops, arugula, lettuce, collard greens and spinach.
Dale and Yvette came in first place for their display, and grand champions for their products. One of the local newspapers came by to get a pictures so they had Denise and I join them for the photo (the paper misspelled Denise's name).
The event was Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We were up early Sunday and Monday to harvest more vegetables and herbs, wash and bag them, then head to the fairgrounds. Monday night we took down most of the loose items, then Tuesday morning we were at the fairgrounds by 6 AM. In about an hour Dale, Denise and I had the entire display disassembled and on the trailer.
We had a great time and are really happy we could help them this year along with other their other volunteers Christina, Paige and Andrew. We met many great people from the US mainland and other local islands. They shared recipe ideas for the fruits and vegetables from different cultures.
Last week I had a little adventure on the way back from Home Depot when I witnessed this accident.
We have one highway that runs east to west. The construction had the left lane closed (we drive on the left here) and signs and barrels were in place to move vehicles to the right lane. I was behind the truck with the boat, and he was behind the red car. The red car waited too long before merging. I was going to move over but noticed two white Japanese mini trucks (steering wheels on the right) quickly approaching in the right lane. I waited for them to go by then moved over. The woman in the red car started to merge near the end of her lane but notice the trucks coming. She hit her brakes hard then stopped to avoid the trucks. Both trucks sped by, but by that time the truck was breaking hard. The trailer swung to the right and broke his passenger tail lights. At the last second he decided to swerve left while braking but hit a few construction barrels and forced his nose hard left. With brakes still on, the trailer was on two wheels sliding sideways about to roll when it slammed into the back of the red car. I was far enough back to avoid the carnage and pulled to the left shoulder. Both drivers were fine but their vehicles were badly damaged. The boat trailer is tweaked a bit but should be fine.
We're still waiting for the excavator to be fixed. The correct part came in but he still has hydraulic issues. Hopefully Chico will be up and running by Monday.
That's all for now.
Kevin & Denise
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