GREENS~LEAVES
The newsletter of the Dunedin Veggie Growers Club; issued monthly. Vol: 4.6.June 2011
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 the Midwinter Potluck Dinner June 25th at the Holy Cross church hall.
The Entertainment will be a short dvd on Apples
President: Margaret Scott (489 2030) msscott@xtra.co.nz Treasurer: Lynne McCrone (4781195)
Secretary: Carol Henderson (454 4625) hendersonic@xtra.co.nz
Welcome to Midwinter .....
The weather has been so good so far that it’s hard to believe that we are nearly at the shortest day on the 21st and our Midwinter dinner on the 25th. I had neglected to remind everyone that
we, as a Club, take a break over winter and there are no meetings in June and July so I apologise for that but there will be another newsletter in July giving details of the August meeting.Hopefully you all got your e-mail invitation to the potluck but here it is again for our postal members!
When ; June 25th..... 6.30pm for 7pm
Where ; Holy Cross church hall on the corner of Richardson and Ajax Streets in South Dunedin.
Bring ; a main course and a dessert as well as anything you would like to drink :)
If your dishes are to be eaten hot please bring them hot and we will do our best to keep them that way until we eat!
Nearly forgot to add that partners are welcome !!!
There will be a vegetable gardening based quiz and a short film between courses as well as some spot prizes to keep you on your toes!!!!
Please let us know if you are coming and how many of you- (so we know how many tables to put out) by calling Dennis - 4876043 or Carol - 4544625 before Thursday 23rd June if possible.
Massive May Meeting !
The May meeting was so well attended that we found ourselves short of seating and, sadly, some members went home rather than squeeze into what space was left. We apologise for this and have decided to put the sales table in the foyer to give us more space for the extra chairs which we will have access to from now on.
We enjoyed the talk on Jerusalem Artichokes by Vanetta, especially the delicious ones she cooked up for us...thanks Vanetta :)
Donna Hancock gave us a very interesting talk on her worm farming techniques and I’m sure we all learned something from it..... I know I did! Congratulations to Margaret Scott for taking both prizes in the Silverbeet in a bucket competition but well done to all other entrants as they all looked gorgeous to me. This year the size seemed more even so we must be getting better!
John Streekstra’s open garden.
We had a beautiful day for our visit to Outram and John Streekstra’s productive garden.
John had improved his clay soil with the help of soil etc from a local cattle farmer and a lot of digging! As you can see in the photograph John likes to let the weather and frost do some of the work for him which results in a lovely friable soil. He had some beautiful Brussels sprouts, leeks, Kale and red cabbage still available with a good crop of tomatoes still in the tunnelhouse ( exactly the type/size I am wanting! ).
John also explained his method of storing carrots using a big blue industrial type barrel by layering them in the barrel with some soil from the garden. This means he can get on with his plans for the next season and not have to wait until he had eaten all the carrots to attend to the soil.
Some of us had decided to have lunch at the No.8 Café in Outram first as it has a lovely herb garden and I would highly recommend it for delicious food and friendly staff
Moon Planting Dates;
Since I am a bit late with the newsletter I have missed telling you that we could have planted seeds (such as broad beans) from the 5th to the 13th !
I did sow some Miners’ lettuce on the 6th but still no sign of it coming up. The best time to plant garlic is on the 21st or the 26th and 27th. Tip; garlic does not like a lot of nitrogen.
Pruning can safely be done from the 21st until the 25th.
Competition Calendar
Just a reminder of which vegetable competitions are coming up ….I must try to remember not to eat all of my parsnips!!
August = Parsnip, Sept. = Leek,
Oct. = Any Brassica, Nov. = Spring onion,
Dec. = Potato, Jan. = Broad Bean,
Feb. = Newbie night*, March = Tomatoes,
April = Any Allium, May = Silverbeet
* Newbie night was suggested by Lynne’s husband as a competition for new gardeners to bring in their best vegetable of any kind to show J
What to plant in June/July
Well….garlic, shallots and rhubarb seem to be the only safe bets outside at the moment but I did hear Dick Turvey say recently that he was going to start some tomato seeds inside soon-using a heat pad ;)
Reminder;
Any member who has changed address/e-mail or has not been receiving their newsletter please let Heather (4764607) know.
Request;
Wanted; 1 nanny goat. For section clearing.
Phone John at 4877474 evenings.
Mosaic Workshop
Margaret Scott has kindly offered to host a garden mosaic workshop at her residence on the 16/17th July starting around 9am and finishing 3/4pm depending on how fast the glue dries!
“Limited numbers so book it in at 4892030 Maximum 8 people. Just a fun day to have a go and learn. I will be making a weekend of it so will be set up for both days so maybe some people could do something on the Sunday if Saturday wasn’t free. Basically it is a whole day as once the mosaic-ing is done the glue has to dry before the grout goes on which can be on the afternoon of the first day or the following day. Bring a small concrete paver and old plates/ tiles if you have any. A donation towards the glue and grout would be great.”
Margaret also shared the following recipe with us J
Cranberry upside-down cake recipe
350-400 gms / 12-14oz/ 3-31/2 cups of fresh cranberries ( NZ cranberries/Chilean guava, used to be Myrtus ugni , now Ugni molinae )
50g/20z/1/4 c butter
150g/5oz/1/4 c caster sugar (superfine)
For the Cake Mix
65g/21/2 oz/9 Tbsp plain all purpose flour
5ml/1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
115g/4oz/generous1/2 c of sugar
Grated rind of one orange
40g/11/2oz/3Tbsp butter melted
Preheat oven to 180degC/350degF/gas4 and place a baking sheet on the middle shelf of the oven.
Wash and pat dry the cranberries, Thickly smear the butter on the bottom and sides of a 23x5cm/9x2” round cake tin. Add the sugar and swirl the pan to coat evenly
Add the cranberries and spread in an even layer over the bottom of the pan.
For the cake mixture, stir the flour and baking powder twice and set aside
Combine the eggs, sugar, and orange rind in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of hot but not boiling water. With an electric mixer, beat until the eggs leave a ribbon trail when the beaters are lifted.
(You have to beat for a while and the mixture trebles in size. The ribbon is because it is getting thicker)
Add the flour mix in three batches, folding in well after each addition. Gently fold in the melted butter and then pour the mix over the cranberries.
Bake for 40 mins. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen.
While the cake is still warm, invert a plate on top of the tin. Protecting your hands with oven gloves, hold the plate firmly and tip firmly and turn them both over quickly. Lift the tin off carefully.
Looking forward to seeing you at the midwinter potluck dinner!
Carol Henderson
Newsletter Editor
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