the lincolnshire show – June 20th and 21st 2012

… as many of you will know… sitting in a stationary traffic jam… on a hot day… one mile from your destination for over two hours can be exhausting… not just physically but mentally too… it drains you of not only much needed hydration but pretty much sucks the joy and enthusiasm from your day too… especially when you’ve come prepared… woken up extra early… set off with plenty of time to spare…

… The Lincolnshire Show is one of the biggest agricultural shows in the UK, it’s heritage dating back to 1868, and has become as popular for its traditional display of farm equipment and animals as it has for its selection of stalls selling everything from country fashions to county cuisine… situated at the Lincolnshire Event Centre at the Lincolnshire Showground, a 200 acre site just outside the stunning city of Lincoln, this two day event shows off everything that is great about living in rural Britain… and although I have lived in the county for over 9 years I have never been… something I felt I ought to reconcile… so when the Events Centre communications team invited me to come and write about the show for my blog I could hardly refuse… in fact I leapt at the chance…

… it’s just such a shame that the day was tainted by the very poorly organised traffic control… it’s something that The Viking and I cannot help but get annoyed with… being event organisers ourselves we can see many of the flaws that the average Joe on the street simply doesn’t… sometimes this can ruin an event for us as the frustration of the glaringly obvious can get in the way of a nice day…

… sweating and bursting for the toilet we did finally arrive…

… the show itself consists of a number of key areas such as The Countryside Area – this year sponsored by Duckworth Isuzu, where they have everything from falconry and pig racing to chainsaw sculpture and dancing sheep… The Flower Show and Floral Decorations, where Chelsea comes to Lincolnshire with some pretty decent flower displays and stuff for the garden… The Food Court and Demo Kitchen, where produce from our fine county is displayed… the Trading in New Markets area, highlights the innovations in engineering and production that our county trades in on the international market, Scruffts (Lincolnshire’s answer to Crufts) and the highlight being the Clydesdale Bank Main Ring where the traditional livestock and animal parades take place.

the following are my highlights for the day… if you’re passing this way and can get over to Lincoln tomorrow and are prepared to brave the expected downpours, I would try and get along… tickets can be bought on the gates…

… being the foodie that I am we headed directly to the Food Court, making a swift detour to say hello to my lovely editor Caroline from Lincolnshire Life Magazine… all the usual suspects were on display including many old friends such as Ginny and Simon Harrop from the Belleau Smokery and the lovely guys from Cotehill Cheese, who slipped a couple of wedges of their new Cotehill Red Cheese into my bag… there was plenty of wonderful meat products on show too but very little for The Viking… we understand, after-all this is about showing off produce from the land but we were both a little dismayed as to how little the veggies were catered for… Lincolnshire does produce a huge percentage of the UK’s vegetables…

… as you know, I am obsessed with honey, so the Beekeepers Marque was lovely to see and the displays of award-winning honey along with cakes and breads and some delicious fresh honeycomb direct from the hives was interesting and fun for me…

…I really enjoyed the Cottage Industries Marquee which highlighted many of the small artisan craft businesses and there was an excellent collection in here including some beautiful hand-printed fabrics and some pretty vintage-style carved and painted wooden picture frames…

… there were, of course lots of fantastic displays of boys toys, vintage cars and motorbikes but I loved the juxtaposition of the old steam tractors sitting next to the gloriously yellow JCB’s… I felt like a kid again and the lucky Viking got to ride up high in a special scissor-lift to take some fun photo’s of the show from above… oh the advantages of a press pass!

… talking of kids there were a lot of beautiful farm animals on display… again not so brilliant for The Viking but one can appreciate the beauty of the animals and after-all, we do live surrounded by these incredible beasts so it’s nice to find out a little more about their breeds… the sleeping pigs were particularly cute…

… as you can imagine we avoided a lot of the doggy stuff although it was pretty hard walking around as there were lots of beautiful dogs of all shapes and sizes everywhere you looked…

… all-in-all we did have a nice day even though the dreadful disorganisation at the start did put a downer on it all… i’d not say this kind of show is really my thing but it is fascinating to see the county show itself off and if you took the time to look past some of the naff brands you tend to see everywhere in this world of globalisation there were some stand-out gems that make me proud to say I live in Lincolnshire…

…further details about the show, including times for tomorrow and ticket prices can be found on the official site www.lincolnshireshow.co.uk