today we're talking about putting
an exhibit of a market basket together for the fair
once you have your vegetables amassed you wanna make sure that you have
similar sizes shapes colors
and as close as uniformity is possible
again we are looking for total quality think about the vegetables that you would buy
at the grocery store if you're going to be eating them
so i have my vegetables prepped and ready to go
typically what is shown at a fair is a market basket just a bushel basket and
typically
the exhibiter willl put some sort of an underlay
within that to
just give a little bit of color
and to form a base for that exhibit
now the market basket is usually divided into a percentage of so much for quality and
so much for artistic effect
but their artistic effect is a very small amount
the emphasis is really to make sure that you have really high quality produce
within that exhibit
i'm going to start off by using a very large vegetable at the back to serve as
an anchor and as a focal point
and that might be a head of cabbage
it could be a small watermelon
it could be a musk melon it could be a winter squash of some type
now the fair book is going to tell you how many vegetables you need to exhibit
usually it is the same number as shown on a plate
but always make sure you read the rule book because it can vary from location to
location so i have my anchor to the back
I also always choose some larger vegetables such as corn
again you're trying to get some bulk
added into that display
now the exhibit is always going to look better
if you
group the vegetables together some people have a tendency to wanna try
and scatter the vegetables around where they put one in the corner and
one over here and one over there scattered all about
but you're going to have much more effect if you group the vegetables
because the eye is always going to be drawn to
that grouping
the other thing that is going to work is to try and choose vegetables that are
of various colors so i'm going to use a winter squash back in here to
get me a little bit of bulk and little bit of weight over to that side
i'm going to
then select my peppers and it might be better to start with your larger
vegetables and fill in with the smaller ones
so you're going to work with that you might need to move things around just a
little bit as you go
but the idea is to kinda make it look like it's very full and
that the produce is spilling out of that basket
and you can arrange these or lay these down in any particular way
so you can see that I have got a lot of green going on the green with the corn cabbage the
peppers
so i need to brighten that up a little bit
i still have my tomatoes to work with so I am going to bring them in here
think i'm going to slip these down
put the tops
downward
again you are trying for a little bit of an artistic effect
trying to balance the color as much as possible
going to bring the carrots over to the side here
what we're trying for is a little bit of a contrast so that you balance your
colors
I have bright over here
i need something bright over on the side
I'm going to move that squash
over there
I am going to bring my eggplants
I still have my beets, so I'm going to move them
Actually I think I am going to move the pepper up there
bring the beets down here
move my potatoes
group my beans towards the bottom
trying to arrange them
as nicely as possible
and then I'm going to finish off with
some cherry tomatoes
again you want to make sure that you have the correct number typically it is twelve so
thats two four five six
eight, ten, twelve
you want to give it a once-over look
typically what happens with the market basket when you' get
deductions is the number one you have the wrong number so let's be sure you
check the rule book
number two
you can have a void in the middle and you can see I have got a little bit of void
up here. I might need to move
the cabbage up a little bit but if it doesn't look full enough in the back
it looks like there is a void
another third thing that is something that is wrong is that you don't have vegetables of
goo quality so make sure that they are all prepped properly
and that there at the right stage and not too mature or past their prime
so hopefully these are some tips to give you the ribbon winner at the fair for your
market basket