Page 56 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2023

Obituary – Ian Stocks
We are very sad to announce the death of our Chairman Ian Stocks, age 67, after losing his courageous battle with Cancer in February. We have lost a true friend who’s love of the NVS and what we stand for was second to none.
Ian always worked hard to help people learn about veg growing and help drive the NVS forward in so many areas as well as improving and sharing his own veg growing techniques and methods. In doing so, Ian made many friends on the way, and we miss him dearly. Ian’s last Scottish Branch Chair’s report in
the Winter edition reflected on his year perfectly. Most importantly last year,
he met many of his friends whilst he attended each and every show and event he had targeted, concluding with the Scottish Branch Seminar in November which he was so proud to host and welcome everyone to what was a fantastic day.
Ian joined the NVS in 1986, was Scottish Branch Treasurer for 12 years and was our Scottish Branch Chair from 2013. Ian was a progressive and active Chair, creating new booklets
to capture top growers’ knowledge, himself included. Ian was at the centre of all activities within the Branch from organising events, judging at numerous shows, giving talks, encouraging D. A’s. Ian Judged at all levels including branch Championships and the Nationals.
He was passionate about the modern
approach to many things including growing in Autopots and judging at shows - allowing judges to compete as well as judge. This new approach has worked particularly well for the Scottish Branch over the last 3 years and we hope this will be another legacy of Ian’s going forward.
At National level, Ian was a Scottish Branch Trustee rep from 2011 to 2016
and during this time Ian was also the NVS Web Master from 2012 to 2014 and volunteered to work and develop the Website and Forum. Ian became the National Vice Chair in 2018 and created
a strong driving force for Sandra Hall
and the Trustee team going forward. Ian also managed our Pay Pal account from 2018 for membership payments and was instrumental in the research, creation, development, structure, and maintenance of our current NVS Website that went live in 2020. Ian’s work in this area included design and development of the site, creation and trialling of the membership payment systems, plus structure of
the site with news, events, resources, and library. He was instrumental in initiating the Winter Zoom talks for our members when Covid hit, and these have continued to flourish. In 2022, Ian made the difficult decision to stand down as Trustee Vice Chair to ensure, as he said “to allow someone else to contribute more than I could” ...wow what shoes to fill !. Ian then concentrated on living with
cancer throughout the year and he did this with great resilience, strength, love and dignity. Ian remained as the Scottish Branch Chair until his passing and
was still very active in the background keeping us all on our toes. Ian was also very proud to have been presented with his NVS Gold medal in September by our President Medwyn Williams at the National Championships in Malvern. Linda would like to thank all the friends who supported her and Ian throughout the year, with calls, cards, flowers, visits, gardening help and messages, it was so very much appreciated.
We have lost another true great friend, and we send our love to Linda and all of Ian’s family at this incredibly difficult time.
Update from the Far North
So, we are well into the clutches of winter up here in the North of Scotland and really have been batting down the hatches. We have all received our orders of compost etc. which was delivered
by Clydeside Trading Society and as
I have said before without the help of this wonderful NVS partner we would struggle badly for quality composts up here, thanks CTS.
I have also just received my tattie
order from Jamieson Brothers (JBA seed potatoes) again another great NVS partner, thank you. So it’s all go in the North!
That is if you discount the harsh winter weather, we have been suffering with one of our members travelling through four inches of snow last night to attend our AGM at Inverness on the 31 of January, more on the AGM later.
So, we have already held our winter meeting on 29 November 2022 where we had an excellent talk on self-sufficiency and utilising veg growing as a barter for venison
and lamb.
At time of writing, we have a further
two talks lined up, Martin Cook talking on “garden birds” and the benefits they do for the garden, this will take place on the last Tuesday in February. We also have a talk from “Hoss” Martin on globe beetroot and how he has progressed with his growing over the past few years. This will take place on the last Tuesday of March, and both talks at our usual venue and time, at the Chieftain Hotel, Inverness @ 7.30pm and have been posted on the NVS Web site.
As I mentioned earlier NoSDA held
their AGM on 31 January at the Chieftain Hotel Inverness. A total of eight members attended, where they heard from the Chair Hoss Martin, Treasurer Rhona Begg, and Secretary Peter Fitch. Elections were then held, and the committee and office bearers were re-elected en-bloc. The meeting agreed to step up our recruitment attempts with the hope of bringing new members
to the next two talks, we also agreed the
date of the 2023 DA show as Saturday 9th September at Simpson’s Garden Centre Inverness. We were then treated to a wonderful picture show by John McKay of various exhibits from a number of local and the Scottish Branch championships.
A raffle the followed and leek plants were sold to members for funds. The chair then thanked all who attended and closed the meeting.
Hoss Martin, NoSDA Chair
56 Simply Vegetables