Page 6 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2023

As chair of the NVS I want to share
my personal sadness at the loss of Ian Stocks. Ian was my right-hand man,
Vice Chair of the NVS until 2022, Chair of the Scottish branch, a great grower, successful exhibitor, friend and all-round good guy. Ian did so much for the NVS, members and friends. He has been taken from us to soon, we all miss him greatly, but his many legacy’s will live on. My heart goes out to Ian’s wife, Linda, at this difficult time.
Usually when I write my report I’m always reviewing the previous quarters of events and looking forward to the next ones. I am sitting here thinking when did I write my last report and oh dear it seems such a long time ago, but I think the Winter has a lot to do with it.
so it’s all go. Then, New Year has arrived and here we go starting all over again. My over wintering veg survived the freezing temperatures we had before Christmas
and now with some lovely weather, we have washed the greenhouses and got the big one all set up, the heat mat on I have started planting a few early seeds including peppers and aubergines. I’m hoping by the time you are reading this in April, that the miserable frost and rain is well behind us all and the lighter nights have inspired us all into action.
As I sit here now, we are nearly at the end of our Winter zoom talks for this season once more. The audience has increased significantly with many talks passing the 100 mark. Thank you to
some new companies and I look forward to us working with you and I welcome you, on behalf of the NVS.
Our Partners provide fantastic support
in many ways from offering generous product discounts for our members ( see some of the adverts in this mag. and full details on our website for all codes), to sponsoring shows at National and Branch level, providing free seeds for our members, working with us on seed trials UK wide , giving talks up and down the country (for example check out the What’s on Guide in this mag. and our website events page for Jason Ralph Smith of Autopots giving more DA talks this year) and offering raffle prizes at some key events, to name but a few. Thank you, it really is most appreciated.
This year see’s Branches and DA’s with a full programs of events, but by the time you read this issue of SV the Branches will also have held their AGM’s, so most reports will be in the next edition.
As you will read in the “Trustee news”, this year we are introducing a new class at the National Championships; ‘A collection of four kinds of vegetables 15 points and under.’ I hope this encourages a wider range of members to enjoy exhibiting too and provide a colourful display of more commonly grown vegetables ... perhaps I will have a go too?
Our SV magazine continues to be our USP (unique selling point) and something, I know all of you, our members, look forward to receiving. I want to thank all those who write articles or contribute in any way, but most of all to Kelvin, who has the task of pulling it all together, thank you.
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Well, since my last report,
I travelled up to the annual
Scottish Branch Seminar
in November and met up
with the gang, after all it’s
been three years since I
was last up in Scotland with
Covid hampering my plans.
There was a good turnout
and it was so good to see
everybody again and was especially great to see Ian Stocks welcoming everyone. The day is quite something for keen gardeners with good speakers, shopping, lunch and a big raffle full of great prizes (see full report page).
We held a Trustees meeting focused
on review of the National Championships where I welcomed another member to the board; Owain Roberts has joined us as
the second Welsh Branch representative, Thank you Owain. Now with a full team and a few new faces comes more ideas, vigor and volunteers.
Christmas came and went and it’s quite hectic here now that I’ve got our daughter, her husband and their three children living with us until their new house is sorted,
Raymond Higgins from Ireland for organizing the speakers and hosting the evenings, and of course to all our speakers. I’m pleased to say that by recording these talks, we are building up a nice addition to our Library of information via the NVS website.
This year’s National Championships hosted by the Northern
Branch at Newby Hall, Ripon, will see the chairman’s challenge ‘Falco Turnips’ (one dish of three) kindly sponsored by D.T. Brown. With your free seeds, thanks to
D.T. Brown and a great article on growing the Falco Turnip by Simon Smith in the previous issue of SV, thanks Simon, you will hopefully all enjoy growing them, eating them and exhibiting them on the Show bench in September.
On the subject of Sponsors & Partners our new Sponsorship Manager, Chris Spree has been working very hard over the winter months, introducing himself to all our long-standing partners to continue building our relationships and benefits in both directions. Chris has also been liaising with
charles dowding range cd15 cd30 cd60
Lady Chair’s Report
SANDRA HALL FNVS, NATIONAL LADY CHAIR
...we all miss him greatly, but his many legacy’s will live on
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6 Simply Vegetables