Giant Marrow

Pub punters celebrate the vegetable plot of the village

Villagers of a pub in Devon celebrate a bumper crop in the shape of a very large marrow. Its weight and size are guesstimated as it is passed around. This quintessentially British pastime of nurturing vegetables until they reach enormous proportions and showing them up and down the country in September and October has in recent years drawn some international competition. The world record for a giant marrow is currently held by the Dutch. China and Malaysia are new threats.

The Oxford English dictionary has the first reference to a vegetable marrow in 1822 and the English vegetable marrow is one of the earliest forms of marrow squash grown, but has never been too popular elsewhere. Perhaps that is why it is grown for competition! Successful giant vegetables need to be heavy as well as big and world records are frequently set and broken. Since the sixties the growing world has developed new varieties, mega swede, twisted carrots, a giant runner bean but the enduring appeal of the marrow remains as together with the pumpkin it always exceeds expectation. Aardman Animations' film Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) features a Giant Vegetable Competition.