OF&G :: The Blog

…. not altogether a surprise. Let’s face it, if you’ve been following our sunflower shenanigans you’ll be well aware that there’s been a clear leader for a while now.

However, today we have the full results and can put to bed a very colourful episode at The Old Estate Yard.

There has been controversy, competitiveness, secret recipes and devastating rabbit damage. The competition has been reported in a leading trade publication and posts on the topic have had a disturbing tendency to top the “most read” list on this blog.

So without further ado, let the ceremony commence:

[ENTER STAGE RIGHT]

Ladies and Gentlemen – and Certification Officers,

The OF&G sunflower growing competition was the product of an inspired suggestion made at a staff meeting while the company “gardening club” was being discussed.

Obviously there was a great deal of work to be done to ensure the success of such a mighty undertaking, but after 12 committee meetings and legal approval of the proposed rules and regulations (a document only slightly more involved in its preparation than the Magna Carta), our intrepid entrants were free to unleash their horticultural skills.

Meticulous planning was demonstrated by some of the more committed entrants, while some simply opted to drop in a seed and draw faces on their plant pots.

As growing began in earnest, there were some testing times along the way, as well as challenging hurdles to be negotiated.

Not all entrants made it serenely to the eventually necessary re-potting stage, though special mention has to be made of the specimen that was, to all intents and purposes, completely devoured by a rabbit, only to come storming back to an eventually mid-field placing. A sunflower we can salute for its true Dunkirk spirit!

It is likely that this ceremony will not be the final chapter in the story for those who were there. The debate on the selection of suitable finishing pots will rumble on in years to come. But today is our chance to recognise commitment, achievement and skill. And with that we open the envelope of dreams…

In reverse order:

Processing CO, Ruth Lamb – 107cm (died due to lack of water. Tch)

Processing CO, Joanna Gleeson – 116cm (Commended for most attractively decorated seedling pot)

Producer CO, Katie Owens – 123cm (worthy, but disappointing)

Quality Systems Admin, Lorraine Pickering – 132cm (alleged ‘secret feed’ proved, well, pointless)

Producer CO, Nicola Mason – 146cm (the famous rabbit-mauling comeback)

Office Manager, Angela Norman – 170cm (arguably our most green-fingered person. Was she mugged?)

And the clear winner, with a delightful specimen that could probably make two dozen bottles of oil all on its own…

Producer CO, Alex Patchett – 205cm (cor blimey, wot a whopper!)

Congratulations to Alex. Please step up and take your bow:

Our worthy winner. Alex Patchett with his impressive entry.

And with that, we’d like to thank everyone who has supported this endeavour, including: our worldwide Twitter followers; the Chief Executive, for not shutting it down when it all got a bit silly; Stephen Clarkson, the judge and jury; our mums; the sun; the great British summer; and especially the bees. But not the rabbit.

Given that we’re getting more feedback about our sunflower competition and the knitting of a jumper than anything else posted on this blog, I thought you’d better have an update on the current state of affairs in the former.

This is the very latest photograph, taken in just the last half hour. I’m no horticultural expert, but I guess the state of play won’t have altered much in that time…

The clear leader is still CO, Alex Patchett. You can see his entry over towards the right of the pic. I’ve avoided using the term ‘new boy’ about Alex again there (well, sort of) because he’s actually now a fully-fledged, qualified and let loose on the organic world certification officer. That alone deserves our congratulations, but I suspect, given how things have been going on the feedback front, that he’ll be earning more kudos for his growing prowess than his ability to assess an inspection report!

Apparently Lorraine, one of our quality systems admins, is done and dusted as far as our competition is concerned. Her somewhat stunted effort has apparently reached its terminal height and is good now only for harvesting and certainly not for contesting the most hotly fought sunflower growing competition this side of the River Severn.

Of course, at the end of the slightly tortuous process there has to be a victor. I hope the excitement among the contestants isn’t flaring too fiercely because I’m told the 2009 champion shouldn’t be expecting to walk away with a new car and a lifetime supply of booze as their reward!

Rivalry is growing in the OF&G offices as obsessive sunflower measuring becomes the order of the day.

Apparently it’s upstart new boy, producer CO Alex Patchett, leading the competition to produce the tallest helianthus annuus (don’t you just love Wikipedia?!). Alex has achieved a whopping 28cm. It’s a far cry from his widely ridiculed poor start.

Prize for the most useless effort so far also resides in the producer certification office, as Nicola Mason’s attempt was dealt a devastating blow in an unfortunate encounter with a bunny. There will be, we are told, no coming back from that!

After making all the noise in the early running with their gaudily decorated pots, the processor department ladies obviously aren’t doing enough talking to their delicate charges and have been left behind.

So here, in all its glory, is Alex’s whopping, strapping, field-leading sunflower. Don’t get too excited.

The intra-office sunflower growing competition is well underway now, with green shoots of success starting to emerge for some of our contenders (though, bizarrely, our composting CO’s are having less luck than most!).

While there’s not much of interest to see quite yet, an opportunity has emerged for some ribbing of our new-boy Certification Officer, Alex Patchett, who seems to be having some, er, trouble in the upright department…

Please note: No sunflowers were harmed in the making of this blog post and the one you see pictured above has now been rescued with a stake (which unfortunately makes it less funny, but there you go).

So finally details are emerging of the long-promised competition for students to design what will be the new, mandatory, EU-wide organic logo.

You may recall that they had one of these last year – until someone noticed it looked too much like the Aldi trademarked organic logo. Whoops. So, back to the drawing board. Literally.

Technically, whatever the new logo is going to look like, it comes into force from July 2010, so they need to crack on with this. There’s a sparkly new website announcing the competition – although no-one can register yet, which seems like a huge missed opportunity. How many visitors to the site will remember to return later???

Anyway, if you know of a keen art/design/media student who would like to be able to walk around for the next few years saying “I did that” whenever they see packaging with the EU organic logo on, let them know – but only if they’re any good; we’ve all got to live with this!

[UPDATE: Our never-to-be-fobbed-off Development Officer, Steven, contacted those running the competition to find out when people might actually be able to register. The answer was a kind of vague "next week". Great to see the usual levels of efficiency our European contributions are funding. That's all.]