newsletter 2011 aug - tymoch.eclipse.co.uk 2011 aug.pdf · the stevenage and district fuchsia...

Editor: Jean Perriman 7 Copper Beeches, Welwyn, AL6 0SS 01438 840443

What’s inside:

• Editor’s Thoughts • Gardening Tips and Good ideas • Dates for your diary • BBQ Social • Fuchsias • Onions:

Harvesting and Curing Sorting Making Ropes Storing

• Junior Section • Month of next Newsletter • Onion History and Recipe • Welwyn Festival stall market • Digswell Horticultural Society Annual Produce

Welwyn Allotment Association

NEWSLETTER August 2011

Editor: Jean Perriman, 7 Copper Beeches, Welwyn, Herts., AL6 0SS 01438 840443 [email protected]

[email protected] Show. • Eulogy Reg Gwilliam




What did you think of the greenhouse picture on the front cover? It occurred to me that we can purchase books on ‘Garden Sheds’

highlighting their owners personalities. Does the greenhouse highlight the grower’s personality? and what does my greenhouse tell you about me, I wonder.

I’m eagerly awaiting reports from our younger members. What experiences they have had during this season on growing.

Gardening Tips and

Good Ideas

Those pesky pigeons!!!!

This idea of Karen may keep them from roosting???

Close up view. Made from plastic milk

containers.

Karen Springthorpe

DATES TO SAVE IN YOUR

DIARIES:

28 Aug

Hut open. Pick up Seed Scheme catalogue to be returned by 3.10.11

3 Sept Sat

Noon. Harvest BBQ Social held at the allotments under the willow tree

9 Sept Fri

Skip

10 Sept Sat

Digswell Horticultural Society Annual Produce Show.

14 Oct Fri

Skip

3 Oct Seed Scheme. Return completed order form.

16 Oct

Hut closure until March 2012

11 Nov Fri

Skip

11 Dec

11.30 Mince pies and mulled wine in the hut + seed collection




I’m looking forward to meeting you

all at our Harvest BBQ & Social.

Don’t forget to purchase your

ticket.

Sizzling burgers & sausages

followed by something sweet. All

looked down on by a blistering

sun......Possibly. Perhaps play

boule, chat, discuss the ‘how big is

your marrow’? or such. PLEASE

BRING A SMALL BOWL OF SALAD

(hopefully produce from your

allotment) to accompany lunch.

Bring your own drink and chair for

comfort.

Please ring 01438 840873,

Secretary, to purchase ticket/s.

Essential! to ensure enough food to

go around.

Today I went to visit one of our WAA members, Lynda Martin, who has a great passion for Fuchsia’s. Lynda’s tells me that her first love of the fuchsia started when her husband bought her a fuchsia, ‘Mrs Popple’ which is red & purple, whilst on their

honeymoon in 1968 in Warwickshire. About 10 years ago her interest was re-kindled again when she visited the Knebworth show where the Stevenage and District Fuchsia Society were exhibiting. Lynda joined the Society there and then and 4 years ago she was made Chairperson/Show Secretary, a post which she currently still holds.

Over the years Lynda has won many cups and awards but she says that her most coveted award is the Banksian Medal won in 2007, this is awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society. It was awarded for the most points in the show, where there were 32 exhibit classes and Lynda had entered 15-18 of them.

Lynda explained that most Fuchsia’s come from South America but the more unusual ones from New Zealand. Her favourite varieties are the white and lavender ones such as ‘Lillian Annette’, ‘Waveney Gem’ and ‘Billy’; for the beginner Lynda recommends the hardy varieties. Most of Lynda’s plants are over-wintered in her quadruple bubble-wrap lined greenhouse with an anti-frost thermostatically controlled heater! Unfortunately the winter last year was incredibly severe and she did lose quite a few plants. If you want to take cuttings then Lynda recommends the best time is in the spring. Looking after Fuchsia’s is an everyday commitment, more in the Summer than the Winter, but it is obvious to see when you look around the garden that Lynda is very committed to her passion. Her garden was open for the second year running in the Open Gardens week during the Welwyn Festival Week in June and I know everybody who visited were enthralled and enjoyed every bit of it.




Margaret Temple WAA (Hons) Secretary

Storing onions doesn't have to be boring! Make them into a braided rope for great storage and impress your friends with your old school style....

Anyone who grows onions, soft-necked garlic, or shallots in quantity might feel the urge to braid them into ropes. It is good for the crop, providing the dry, airy conditions onions require to store well; it is good for the soul also, suggesting old farm kitchens where summer’s bounty was carefully put by for use in barren winter.

Onions

STEP 1: HARVESTING AND CURING

• Onions are ready for harvest when their tops fall over and begin to yellow. Tug bulbs gently from the ground and spread them in a single layer. If the weather is hot and dry, crops may be cured out-of-doors on top of the rows or on a picnic table. Where late summer rains are a probability, cure the onions in an airy shed, garage, or attic.

• Bulbs will be ready for making ropes within a week or two. Papery skins will have formed around the bulbs, and the tops will be withered but still pliable.

STEP 2: SORTING




• The most attractive ropes are made from bulbs of uniform size.

• Bulbs with thick, fleshy necks will never store well and should be used promptly.

• The largest onion bulbs—larger, say, than a tangerine—should be put aside in bins, as they will be too heavy.

• Garlic is best left whole, but shallots should be pulled apart gently into separate segments.

STEP 3: MAKING THE ROPES

• Rub each cured bulb gently between your hands to free it of loose or dirty skin. If the tops are very brittle, spray them lightly with warm water to make them more pliable.

• Cut a two-foot length of sturdy, natural-fiber garden twine, bearing in mind that you can always knot in an extra length if you need it.

• To start your rope, gather three bulbs together and knot one end of the twine around their necks.

• Twist the twine two or three times low around their tops to secure them further.

• Add three more bulbs, spacing them around the rope. Bunch all of the tops together, and loop the twine around again.

• Continue adding onions in groups of three to build the rope.

• Since the end result will be heavy (10 pounds or more), knot the twine around the gathered tops occasionally as you continue to add bulbs. When the rope is approximately two feet long, gather the tops together and wrap them with the twine. Tying this hank back firmly on itself will create a sturdy loop that can be used to hang up the rope.

STEP 4: STORING

• A rope of onions, shallots, or garlic can be hung for use in the kitchen among the pots and pans or on nails against the wall

• Shorten and retie the upper section, as it becomes bare. Should any of the bulbs become soft and smelly,




remove them promptly before they contaminate the rope.

Bibliograph: http://www.digthedirt.com/

• A vegetable of antiquity,

onions were cultivated by the

Egyptians not only as food, but also

to place in the thorax, pelvis or near

the eyes during mummification. Pliny

recorded six varieties in ancient

Rome. The onion was highly regarded

for its antiseptic properties, but many

other legends became attached to it.

In parts of Ireland it was said to cure

baldness: ‘Rub the sap mixed with

honey into a bald patch, keep on

rubbing until the spot gets red, This

concoction if properly applied would

grow hair on a duck’s egg’. Many

varieties have been bred over the

centuries; some, like ‘The Kelsae’, are

famous for their size, while newer

varieties have incorporated hardiness,

disease resistance and colour.

Coming up in our next

newsletter –

A Junior Section – So come

on kids send in your reports

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Next Newsletter Issue:

November

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Contact Jean Perriman with

views/articles and details for inclusion in

November edition as soon as possible. See

contact details at bottom of page




Onion Tart

Serves 4

This Alsatian dish is full of flavour and

very filling. Enjoy it with a simple

fresh green salad.

Ingredients:

90g/3oz lard or olive oil

1kg (2lbs) onions, sliced into rings

90g/3oz smoked bacon, diced

240ml (8 fl oz) double cream

3 eggs, lightly beaten

Salt and black pepper

Shortcrust pastry –

to line a 20-23cm (8-9” tart tin)

Method:

1. Sauté the onions until soft but

not browned. Drain well.

2. Add bacon and cook briskly

for a couple of minutes, then

drain off fat.

3. Mix cream, eggs and season

well.

4. Stir into cream/egg mix

onions and the bacon to fill

pastry case.

5. Bake in preheated oven at

220C/425/Gas7 for 10-15

mins, turning heat down to

190C/375F Gas 5 for a

further 15 mins or until filling

set.

Welwyn Market Festival Stall

This year the WAA once again did its bit for a local charity by running a plant stall at the festival street market on the 18th of June.

As usual, members were keen to participate by either growing a few extra plants for donation, or by helping out on the day. This year we had an abundance of both – that’s plants and help – for which we say a big ‘THANK YOU’.

Changeable weather. This year we made a creditable sum after expenses of £240. A significant part of this will be donated to local MacMillan Nurses, with the remainder benefitting members of the WAA.

This worthwhile and enjoyable event seems to be popular with members and we will probably repeat it next year.

Thank you again for your support.

Chris Wright, Chairman of WAA

Digswell Horticultural

Society Annual Autumn

Show 10 September

2011

Good Luck to anyone

entering..........Our readers would




welcome a write up of your

experience on entering or as a visitor

to this

show._________________________________

REG GWILLIAM – OUR FORMER CHAIRMAN

Early in July I was privileged to attend a celebration of the life of Reg, held at Monks Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, where he was the inaugural Head teacher from 1964 until his ‘retirement’ some 16 years later. The event, hosted by Reg’s adult children featured a series of speeches, live performances of some of his favourite music and songs, and a rolling photographic display.

By any standards, Reg had a fascinating life. He did war-time National Service in the Royal Marines, serving in the Far East and winning the Burma Star. At age 19 he wrote a poignant memoir of his experiences as a young man so far away from home. A team of academics was sent to the Far East to recruit talented servicemen to British

Universities and Reg was offered a place at Oxford in 1947. He waived this and went instead to Liverpool in 1946 where he made lifelong friends, a couple of whom spoke at the celebration, and entered fully into the life of the University.

Reg had many interests. Aside of a lifelong interest in politics, he was involved in the Literary Society, the Navy Records Society, the Historical Association and WGC Rotary Club, and speakers from each of these organisations spoke fondly of Reg’s significant contribution.

We heard from family friends and there were anecdotes from long-serving Monks Walk teachers. We heard about his interesting interview style, his ‘courageous’ driving of the school minibus as he led field trips near and far. I particularly enjoyed the story of Reg leading a (mixed) school trip to Devon when he decided to strip to his underwear to negotiate the flooding sands between Bigbury and Burgh Island! This was confirmation to some of his staff that while Reg might not have been able to walk on water, he could certainly walk under it!

Reg retired from Monks Walk in 1980 and went to teach at the Raffles School in Singapore where he subsequently declined the Headship, returning after a few years with “Mrs G” to Welwyn Garden City.

One of the speakers on the day commented that whenever Reg joined something he was always respected and tended to rise to the top of the organisation. I was granted two minutes of a very full afternoon of speeches to register the fact that one of his more unsung achievements was to rise to the top of the Welwyn Allotments Association. And weren’t we lucky that he did!




Chris Wright, Chairman WAA

newsletter 2011 aug - tymoch.eclipse.co.uk 2011 aug.pdf · the stevenage and district fuchsia...

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