Depending on how you look at it, the Nation Trust's ugly vegetable competition is either a good idea or a bad one. On one hand, it gets kids involved in growing their own fruits and vegetables, which could start them with good habits for later in life. On the other hand, the sight of some of the "winners" could put them off veggies for quite some time.
The contest isn't just for children, though. It started as a way to cultivate some appreciation for ugly fruits and vegetables, most of which are underappreciated in the kitchen. There are multiple age categories: under 5, 5-7, 8-11, 11-16, 25-65 and over 65 years old. In each range there was a winner and this parsnip, grown by Mrs Hilary Nellist in the 25-65 group, took home the grand prize for the ugliest vegetable of the year.
There were no winners for the 16-25 category, which either means that they are all exceptional gardeners and can't grow ugly veggies or that gardening isn't exactly a cool past-time for that age group.
[via growabrain]
10-21-2006 @11:25PM Chris Finke said... I wish I had known about this. I'm squarely in the 16-25 category, and my first experience of planting a vegetable garden yielded some hideous corn and carrots.
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10-19-2006 @7:42PM Dr. Electro said... You should have seen my first attempt to grow kohl rabi. You would have freaked and run away.
Now, I am content to grow some rather tasty peppers in a flower pot. Lots less work that way.
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10-20-2006 @7:51PM Robyn said... whtever this is, it's so ugly that it's kind of cute!
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10-21-2006 @8:32AM Fran said... That squirrelly parsnip's the ugliest vegetable they could come up with? Come on - it IS cute. Looks like something Hogwarts students would have to repot in Herbology class. I've seen lots creepier tomatoes & peppers that have these fleshy protuberances on them that look like tumors or buboes (as in bubonic plague). Okay, now that I've put you off salad for a week, over to the next commentator...
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10-21-2006 @9:10AM Michele said... I kinda like that Aero Garden concept. I know its nothing new 'cept the design! Anybody have one?
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10-21-2006 @9:18AM James said... That does not look like an ugly vagtable. It looks like something from another world. It looks like an alien, or better still, it looks like that alien baby in the movie 'Men In Black' that Will Smith's character "J" delivered from that "woman" in the back seat of the car that they pulled over. Just, without a head, only the tendons connecting the head to the spine.
Well, now that I won't be eating any veggies for the next week or two, on to the next comment... whenever someone puts one on here...
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10-21-2006 @9:40AM veggie said... Oh c'mon, I've seen worse. Rutabagas, for example.
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10-23-2006 @12:14AM Mar said... This veggie looks like a body of a chicken with many long legs... daddy long leg chicken lol . I'm hungry now...
Ciao
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10-21-2006 @10:44AM Sunrise said... Rutabagas are awesome. Tasty and I really can't say Ive ever seen an ugly one. I'd probably grow some ugly veggies in my garden if the rabbits didn't eat them up first.
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10-21-2006 @11:47AM Katie said... Has anyone tried to wash that thing for dinner??? It would be a royal P.I.T.A., too many cracks. We had a bunch of carrots come up like that one year, and we found it's caused by a kind of nematode, a microscopic worm. Go to your local garden center if you have that problem, and they can help.
And the ugliest for me?? Well, one time we had a leaf miner problem in our chard, and we didn't see it until we boiled the leaves, and a bunch of what looked like maggots floated to the top. OK, so it's not really ugly until we cooked it, but it did forever put me off chard.
Happy growing!
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10-21-2006 @12:57PM Samantha said... I have seen uglier. I mean it looks like something sombody would put on tv, but its not the ugliest in the world. It just looks like a cute mutated baby!!!
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10-22-2006 @8:50AM Zeina Masri said... I think It's kinda cute. I can see why people would say that, though. I can't even think of an ugly veggie. Although rutabagas can get pretty strange...
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10-22-2006 @6:57PM non-existant person age 11 said... Its not THAT ugly you should have seen my shriveld up egg plant, AND it was mutated. It was like a hideous blob. And there was a year were we tryed to grow carrots, one of them had seven different endings and many attempts to grow more.
have fun growing!
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10-21-2006 @2:10PM Suzi Cooper said... Looks like a VERY timid octopus coming out on the run-way where all the people are poor baby it scared.....
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10-21-2006 @2:20PM stephanie said... Have you seen those hip organic vegetable shirts at www.canyoudig-it.com? Now those are some funny veggies!
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10-22-2006 @5:56AM kimberly said... I was about 5 when I started helping my Papaw plant his garden.(that was a few decades ago)I remember the first time I planted radishes with him. He told me to put this stuff in the ground and work it in first. I didn't listen of course. Hey I was only 5! when they were ready, they really didn't look like radishes at all! Still not too sure what he used back then, but whatever it was he sure could tell I skipped that step! Grandmomma got a big laugh when we brought home a radish that looked like 5 of them grew together! so yes, ugly veggies, I have grown! LOL! A few of them make that parsnip look like a beauty queen!
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