GREENS~LEAVES
The newsletter of the Dunedin Veggie Growers Club; issued monthly. Vol: 5.2 February 2012
Meetings are held on the second Monday each month at St Patrick’s Parish Centre, MacAndrew Rd, Sth. Dunedin starting at 7.00pm sharp (we ask you to arrive at 6.45pm to avoid a bottleneck ,especially now that subs are due)
Our next meeting is February 13th with Invited Speaker Mary Browne on “Growing herbs for the vegetable garden and kitchen”
President: Margaret Scott (489 2030) msscott@xtra.co.nz Treasurer: Lynne McCrone (4781195)
Secretary: Carol Henderson (454 4625) hendersonic@xtra.co.nz
Season of Plenty
It has been lovely to see the vegetables responding so well to the warmer season and producing more food for us to eat. I know of one member who has grown giant cabbages so I suggested bringing some to the meetings to put on the sales table.or I suppose he could make sauerkraut !
Then again it may be an idea to enter such giants in the upcoming Summer Show held by the Horticultural Society. Margaret has put together some information on this event , held on the 25th and 26th of this month, and many of you will have already seen it via e-mail.
Having visited the recent Mosgiel A&P show where there were very few vegetable entries I must admit that it would be heartening to see some entries from the Dunedin Vegetable Growers Club. Dave Young only spoke briefly on this topic at the January meeting but he has been entering shows for quite a while now and it must seem like second nature to him.!
February 13th Meeting;
Please come earlier than usual to avoid congestion as we are expecting more people. Subs can be paid during supper.
Mary will also have copies of her books available for sale ($25) at the end of meeting.
Welcome and Rule Change Discussion
Club talk – Glasshouse Tips by Wayne Tuck
BrainsTrust/Open Forum – hosted by Dennis and Andrew
Invited speaker – Mary Browne on “Growing herbs for the vegetable garden and kitchen”
Competition – Personal Best vegetable from newer gardeners/previous non-winners
Announcements, sales table and Supper
February Open Garden
Club member Lindsay Miller has kindly offered to show us his garden on Saturday 18th at 2.00pm.
The address is 86 Green Island Bush Rd and is very easy to get to! If you drive to Tunnel Beach but instead of turning left , you turn right onto Green Island Bush Rd , carry on until the road turns sharply to the left. Lindsay is on the right :)
Subscriptions (still $10 ) are now due
Bank Account details…
For those who would like to pay their subs via internet banking the Club bank account number is;
Westpac 030905 0515906 00
Rule changes and Nominations
Please remember to have a look at the rule changes included in last months newsletter as there will be time at the February meeting to discuss them. They will then be ratified at the AGM in March.
Nomination forms for the committee will be available at the next meeting as well as at Lindsay's open garden for any last minute decisions!
Please ask committee members if you have any questions about being on the committee or the roles of “officers”. Being secretary seems to be the second least popular ( after the President!) but I have been enjoying it even though I had never been on a committee before. It really helps if you are on e-mail !
Please also remember that you have to be a paid up member to vote at the AGM
Moon Planting times…etc.
There are two periods of two days this month when it is best to sow root crops. These are the 11th and 12th ,then the 18th and 19th. The following weekend is when we can sow and plant from the 25th until the 29th.
According to the planting guide produced by Jason Ross, of Sutherland Nurseries, we can still sow Chicory, Chinese cabbage, Coriander, Kale, Lettuce, Parsley, Rocket, Silverbeet, Spinach, Broccoli, Peas, Carrots, Radish and Spring Onion.
Library
Please bring back your library books so that others can have a turn. It seems to be sensible to limit the lending time to one month, or two if you forget! A reminder will be sent after two months to jog your memory as it is very easy to forget a library book and assimilate it into your collection. Most of the books are second hand but a few are new and it would be a pity for the Club to lose them. We did have a composting DVD by Ray Dwyer but this has not been returned despite numerous reminders.
Internet Interests
There was an error in last month's column as I had the Artemis factory on Tedder St when it is actually on Fingall St. Here is a quirky article from Treehugger;
and an article on seed libraries; http://www.foodfirst.org/en/local+seed+saving
Rhubarb and Red Fruit Sago Sauce
Stefanie Alexander
375 gm rhubarb cut into 1 cm pieces
Grated zest of ½ lemon
3 T water
1 vanilla pod split
½ cup white wine
2 T sago
100 gm sugar
500 gm fresh or frozen raspberries (or any berries)
Place rhubarb, zest, water, vanilla bean and wine in a large non-reactive pot and bring to simmering point. Add sago, then reduce heat and place pot on a simmer mat. Cook gently for 15 minutes, stirring from time to time or sago will stick. Add sugar and stir until it has dissolved. Carefully add berries and simmer for a few minutes (or just until thawed, if using frozen berries). Stir once or twice. Do not overcook at this point.
Serve warm or cold.
Great with meringues and cream or ice cream.
With chocolate cake
In a crumble This delicious dish was brought to our committee meeting dinner by Heather Wilson and was available for sampling at Mike and Heathers recent open garden! This would be a great way to use rhubarb if you didn't really like it as the berry flavour dominates. Thanks Heather :)
Seed saving
I am in the middle of collecting the Parsnip seed which Bart Acres encouraged me to do by re-planting a dozen parsnips I had already dug up. This has worked really well but I didn't realise that the seed does not all ripen at the same time so I have to collect it nearly every day, otherwise it all falls off into the garden! I am losing patience with this as I would like to use that piece of garden for something else now.....
One of our newer members. Jim Bazsika , was chatting to me about heritage varieties and seed saving/swapping while at Mike at Heathers open
garden and I asked him if he would like to write something for the newsletter. Thanks Jim :)
Heritage Tomato seeds
"Have you got heritage tomato plants growing in your vegetable garden? Now is a great time to save the seeds from the best tomatoes for a club heritage tomato seed swap. Note that heritage tomato seeds can be saved and will grow true, while hybrid tomato seeds will not grow true to the parent and thus can not be saved. It is a simple process to do. All you need to do to save the seeds is to get them out from the fruit with a knife and spoon when processing and then clean them off in a strainer under the tap to get off the surrounding gel. Then dry them out completely on a newspaper/paper towel for a period of time. Be careful not to mix the seed with any other varieties. Store the fully dried seeds in marked envelopes in a cool, dark place. This will ultimately increase the vigour of the heritage tomatoes we all grow. As a club I thought it would be a good idea to keep a listing of the various tomato seeds our members have available so that we could do a tomato seed swap evening later in the year. If you would like to share some of your best heritage seeds with other club members start doing so now and email me with the name of the heritage tomato variety and if possible a description of the tomato variety. I will keep a listing so we know what is available come seed swap time. Cheers, JIM jim.bazsika@otago.ac.nz"
Here is another method of extracting tomato seeds from the NZ Gardener magazine;
"Tomato seeds come encased in slimy mucus. To save the seed, squeeze the pulp of very ripe tomatoes into a bowl and top with water. Cover the bowl with plastic food wrap, pierced with a few holes, and store in a warm room for three days, stirring daily ( I put them on the kitchen windowsill). Natural fermentation will take place and a mouldy, smelly scum will form on the surface. Spoon this off; the viable seeds should have sunk to the bottom, minus their slime, and can be air-dried. Tomato seeds can take up to a week to dry properly."
Month of Sundays
The Friends of Dunedin Botanic Gardens have organised a “Month of Sundays” consisting of four talks from 2.30pm until 3.30pm starting on Feb 26th with “Symbolism in the Northern Cemetery” by Fiona Hyland of Otago Heritage Roses. Meet at Botanic Graden Centre, Upper Lovelock Ave.
The second is on March 4th and is a Tour of the Herb Garden by Bunny Rathbone. Bunny has been to talk to the Club a few times and this should be an interesting tour. Meet at the lower garden information centre.
These talks require a donation to attend :)
For more info ; www.friendsdbg.co.nz
Kindred Day
As part of the Kindred (gardening) group, four of us have been invited to attend a Kindred Day at Waitati on Sat. 3rd March, registration at 9.30am. Lynne will have the programme to peruse and members interested in attending can add their names to a list. If there are more than four we will draw names from a hat.
Carol Henderson
Newsletter Editor
