Post by izacque on Oct 26, 2011 23:15:50 GMT
Hey, I have an essay here that is not long enough. I would like to make it longer, but I don't know how because I have written all the writables, I think. Does anyone have a suggestion that will help me to make this longer?
The World Nettle Eating Championship takes place annually in early June as part of a beer festival for charity. It is hosted at the Bottle Inn, a pub in Dorset England. The Championship’s roots go back to a dispute between two farmers in the 1980s. Each was convinced that they had the longest nettle infestation in their fields than the other. The dispute turned into a yearly contest and farmers from around the area would bring in their longest nettles and compare length. At one of those events, a farmer boasted that he’d eat any nettle that was longer than his, a 15’ 6” stem. A 16-foot nettle was found, the farmer ate it, and the World Nettle Eating Championship was born.
The competition takes place in the pub’s gardens. The contest has separate men’s and women’s sections and only 65 contestants may enter. Each contestant is given two-foot long stalks of nettle. The contestant must then strip each stalk of its leaves and eat the leaves. After an hour, the contestant with the most stripped stalks is the winner. The contestants are not allowed to spit out the nettles or otherwise let them out. They are, however allowed to have a drink to wash away the taste if they wish, usually beer. Recently another rule had to be added – contestants must eat only the nettles provided by the pub. This was added to address the issue of people bringing their own low-toxicity nettles to the competition, and even in one case sneaking high-toxicity bio-engineered nettles into their opponents’ batches.
Contestants come from around the world, “as far away as Canada and Australia.” Rory Macleod, the pub’s landlord says that they see a lot of east Europeans enter “who take the whole thing very seriously.” In 2009, one thousand people came to compete or spectate.
Nettles are leafy weeds with long stems. Each leaf is covered with tiny stinging hairs containing formic acid (the stinging ingredient of fire ant venom). Contact with the hairs releases the formic acid, causing irritation, stinging, and hives. Professional contestants have nettle-eating down to a science. “You need focus and rhythm and some beer to take the taste away,” said 48-year-old Simon Slee. Slee took the record for nettle eating by eating 76 feet of the stinging plant. Although the contest is an equal judge for all the participants of a given year, the ability to eat the nettles differs from year to year. Drier nettles are harder to eat because the formic acid is more concentrated. All of the greatest scores were achieved when the nettles were lush from wet conditions. One eating strategy is to mash the nettle leaves into tight pellets and throw them to the back molars. Then quickly chew and swallow the leaves, trying to minimize contact with them. Unfortunately, eventually the nettles start to back up in the mouth. The taste is “totally foul,” and the formic acid burns the tongue, palate, and throat. The taste has been described as “rancid salad with no dressing” and “a mixture of spinach and cow-pat”. Although the competitors aren’t allowed to spit out or otherwise remove the nettle leaves from their body, eventually facial paralysis begins to occur. The judges have to pay close attention to how much green-colored drool leaks from the mouth. Spectators have dubbed the saliva leak “green bearding.”
The competition takes place in the pub’s gardens. The contest has separate men’s and women’s sections and only 65 contestants may enter. Each contestant is given two-foot long stalks of nettle. The contestant must then strip each stalk of its leaves and eat the leaves. After an hour, the contestant with the most stripped stalks is the winner. The contestants are not allowed to spit out the nettles or otherwise let them out. They are, however allowed to have a drink to wash away the taste if they wish, usually beer. Recently another rule had to be added – contestants must eat only the nettles provided by the pub. This was added to address the issue of people bringing their own low-toxicity nettles to the competition, and even in one case sneaking high-toxicity bio-engineered nettles into their opponents’ batches.
Contestants come from around the world, “as far away as Canada and Australia.” Rory Macleod, the pub’s landlord says that they see a lot of east Europeans enter “who take the whole thing very seriously.” In 2009, one thousand people came to compete or spectate.
Nettles are leafy weeds with long stems. Each leaf is covered with tiny stinging hairs containing formic acid (the stinging ingredient of fire ant venom). Contact with the hairs releases the formic acid, causing irritation, stinging, and hives. Professional contestants have nettle-eating down to a science. “You need focus and rhythm and some beer to take the taste away,” said 48-year-old Simon Slee. Slee took the record for nettle eating by eating 76 feet of the stinging plant. Although the contest is an equal judge for all the participants of a given year, the ability to eat the nettles differs from year to year. Drier nettles are harder to eat because the formic acid is more concentrated. All of the greatest scores were achieved when the nettles were lush from wet conditions. One eating strategy is to mash the nettle leaves into tight pellets and throw them to the back molars. Then quickly chew and swallow the leaves, trying to minimize contact with them. Unfortunately, eventually the nettles start to back up in the mouth. The taste is “totally foul,” and the formic acid burns the tongue, palate, and throat. The taste has been described as “rancid salad with no dressing” and “a mixture of spinach and cow-pat”. Although the competitors aren’t allowed to spit out or otherwise remove the nettle leaves from their body, eventually facial paralysis begins to occur. The judges have to pay close attention to how much green-colored drool leaks from the mouth. Spectators have dubbed the saliva leak “green bearding.”
