The newsletter of the Dunedin Veggie Growers Club; issued monthly. Vol: 5.1 January 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 )
Our next meeting is January 16th with Invited Speaker Dave Young of the Horticultural Society.
President: Margaret Scott (489 2030) msscott@xtra.co.nz Treasurer: Lynne McCrone (4781195)
Secretary: Carol Henderson (454 4625) hendersonic@xtra.co.nz
Happy New Year!
We have had a wonderful start to the gardening year with glorious warm weather producing bumper crops as long as you can keep the watering up!!
Sadly we have also started the year feeling the loss of our Immediate Past President and Founder member Barrie Mayfield and our thoughts continue to be with Sharron at this time.
Several Club members attended Barrie’s funeral and it wasn’t until the end that we noticed this very fitting vegetable tribute atop his coffin.
Dennis Dorney was one of those attendees and wrote the following;
“I was one of a number of Club members who attended Barrie's Funeral at Hopes.... By my estimates the number of people wishing to give their last respects exceeded 200 people and pays tribute to a long life of public commitment. Although I was aware of his involvement in Probus,I knew nothing of his numerous other activities. I doubt if any of us knew that he was a fine athlete in his youth or that he took a keen interest in music. His creation of our Vegetable Growers Group was a challenge he took up very late in his life. A fitting memento would be if our Club had as long and interesting a life as Barrie's.”
December meeting
The unearthing of the potato in a bucket competition was the best yet with lovely warm and sunny weather meaning we had more room outside to operate and observe the occasion. Congratulations to John Morris who won easily with 1.583kg total weight as well as the largest potato at 525g!!!
Second place went to Margaret Dodds with a total weight of 859g and second largest potato of 215g.
This shows a definite improvement over previous years so I am hoping we can break the 2kg barrier in 2012 :)
The TopCrop/FlopCrop session went well after we warmed to the idea. We will definitely repeat this with a bit more warning next time!
January 16th Meeting;
Club talk – Jane Forsyth on Broad beans
BrainsTrust/Open Forum – hosted by Dennis and Andrew
Invited speaker – Dave Young – The Horticultural Society and a beginner’s guide to entering Vegetables in Shows.
Competition – 3 pods Broad beans
Announcements, seed sharing/swapping and Supper
January Open Garden
Heather and Mike have kindly offered to show us their garden on Saturday 21st at 2.30pm.
Mike has recently installed a watering system in the Mayfield’s vegetable garden and has offered to talk us through the installation process using his own system as an example.
The address is 238 Wakari Rd, Helensburgh and parking is limited but there is some grass roadside verge to park on.
Moon Planting times…
January 12th to 13th is one chance to sow root crops this month with another on the19th and 20th. The 16th-18th is a great time for weeding with the 23rd-25th the best time to dig in some compost and fertiliser for the winter crops to come. From the 26th Jan to the 5th Feb is time for the next lot of sowing and planting…the 5th and 6th Feb are also Fab for liquid fertiliser!
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
Subscriptions (still $10 ) are now due :)
Peninsula Open Gardens
What a great day, wonderful weather and the sea side beside you as we drove out to Company Bay.
The first of two wonderful gardens was a walled terraced area that was very sheltered and extremely productive. I particularly enjoyed learning about the boards that were between rows to walk on and also keep the weeds down. Everywhere you looked more and more plants producing.
Just down the road was a member of the vege club’s garden and again lovely and sheltered with a very lush productive garden and I particularly liked this ladder of salads. The hedge that protected the vege garden did not deplete the nutrients as the area close to the hedge was planted in big tubs, (rubbish bins recycled). Thanks to Alex for coming back from his work to show us around including the gallery. Some very talented people in the club. Thank you to the folks at Higham and Alex and Cathy Shemansky’s.
Words and photo supplied by Margaret Scott
Internet Interests
There are some very good and clear instructions, from a nearly local gardening guru here;
http://www.dirtdoctor.co.nz/page.php?id=128
This is a Dunedin company with their factory in Fingall St not far from St Patrick’s.....very good products :)
http://www.artemis.co.nz/shop
....and this is our local Freecycle group
http://groups.freecycle.org/Dunedin_Freecycle/posts/all
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 put in the newsletter each month to jog memories. David Neill has taken over the running of the library and is proving to be much more efficient than I :)
Having picked my first crop of Blackcurrants , I went looking for recipes and found this very easy one ;
Blackcurrant cake
· 2oz/60g butter
· 4oz/110g plain flour
· 4oz/110g caster sugar
· 1 egg
· 7oz/200g blackcurrants
Heat the oven to gas mark 4/180C/350F.
Rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it's the consistency of breadcrumbs. Mix in the beaten egg. Stir in the fruit gently so as not to break it; it's best to use your hands.
The mixture will look dry but don't worry; the end result is very moist. Turn into an ovenproof glass or china dish (the acidity of the fruit may react with metal and taint the cake). Bake for 45-50 minutes. Turn out carefully and sprinkle with caster sugar. Eat at room temperature.
Proposed Rule Changes
The Committee have been revising the Rules and have come up with 6 amendments and one new rule! This would be a lot to take in on a Notice of Motion so an attachment will be sent out with this newsletter outlining these changes so that you can have time to read them, discuss them at the February meeting and then vote on them at the AGM in March.
Nomination forms will also be made available from now on for people who would like to come onto the Committee. So far we only know for certain that we will be needing a Vice-president and perhaps one non-office bearing member.
Carol Henderson
Newsletter Editor
