Local schools get out their spuds for annual competition

PUPILS from five West Berkshire primary schools dug deep into their potato sacks this week in a competition to judge the highest yield.

The annual Potato Challenge, which is run by the Newbury & District Agrictultural Society, encourages school children to grow their own produce.

Local youngsters planted two varieties of seed potato back in early March and have since been carefully nurturing their crops, hoping that their school will come out on top at Monday’s weigh-in at the Newbury Showground.

The morning’s activities began with the children making and eating their own potato salad, choosing which items to add to their potatoes from a selection of ingredients including tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, sweetcorn, peppers and mayonnaise.

Then came the main event, with the harvesting of their potatoes. Each school’s produce was weighed and prizes awarded for the heaviest yield of the two varieties of potato sown.

Pupils from Thatcham Park, Basildon Robert Sandilands, Cold Ash, St Mark’s and The Willows primary schools all took part in the event.

Thatcham Park took first place overall with their Rocket potatoes, weighing in at 1kg 950gms and their Rudolph potatoes at 1kg 350gms.

Runners-up Basildon’s Rockets weighed 1kg 250gms and Rudolphs were 930gms.

N&DAS education officer Jan Murray said: “Our Potato Challenge Harvest Days are always great fun and full of excitement.

“The youngsters love the competitive element and can’t wait to see how their potato yield compares to other schools’.

“The Challenge is a great way to teach children how this staple food is grown.”