Page 62 - Simply Veg 3.21

Southern Editors Report
Obituary
Gordon Eves FNVS
We are very sad
to announce the
death of Gordon
Eves FNVS in
March 2021.
Gordon was a
member of the
Essex DA for many
years, a good all-
round grower and well-respected NVS judge.
Gordon, along with his wife Pat travelled all over Essex judging
local shows as well as judging and stewarding at NVS shows. They supported Peter Morris on many occasions when the Essex DA hosted the NVS Judge’s Exam helping out
in any way they could – supplying vegetables and helping to organise the exam. They were also responsible for helping many new judges, letting them shadow them at some of their judging appointments.
As one of the founding members
of the NVS Essex DA in the early years, Gordon, along with his wife Pat, were ever present at our Essex DA meetings, helping out with whatever we were doing, including displays promoting the NVS at RHS Hyde Hall – both the setup, providing vegetables from one of their allotments, manning the stand and then helping to take the stand down again. In latter years, with his mobility failing, Gordon regularly ran the raffle for us at our Essex DA meetings.
Our condolences go out to his wife Pat and their family.
Sherie Plumb
NVS Essex DA Chair Lady
Welcome to all the new members to the Southern Branch which have increased
our numbers to 690, the more the merrier! You should have received details about
the NVS and some information on District Associations (DA’s) in the Southern branch area when you joined, if not the information is available on the NVS website which has recently been revamped and is well worth a look. The existing DA’s in the Southern Branch are:
• Essex
• Jersey
• Kent
• Surrey
• Hampshire
• Sussex – covers both East & West
Sussex
Contact details for these are in some of
the reports in this section or can be obtained from our Chairman Norman Dickinson, or from the website.
We are also keen to start or re-start
new DA’s in other parts of the branch area and there are clusters of members in the following areas which looks like this may be feasible.
• Cornwall 17 & Devon 40 (Devon closed in Jan 2020 but are looking to re-establish)
• Dorset 30
• London 25 & Middlesex 21
Where I have combined the two figures
for London & Middlesex and Cornwall & Devon this could be one or two DA’s I have just put them together to show a possible critical mass that could easily form a DA. If you do not live in any of the above counties please contact the chairman as there may still be sufficient members to get a DA off the ground, I have only selected counties with the higher numbers of members. Hertfordshire has over 15 members for example and large urban areas where new members could be recruited to make a DA viable.
The Southern Branch has funds available to help start a DA, for example to pay for
hall hire and a speaker to get your first meetings off to a good start. You could either organise a meeting and speaker and invite as many people as possible and see
if a committee could be formed to organise future events or hold a small initial meeting to form a committee and then organise a meeting with a speaker to attract in other members. Although under the GDPR rules
it is not possible to provide you with a list of members and their contact details we could send relevant members details of any events and give them your details, so they contact you. We can also give out information on the website and of course in future editions of Simply Vegetables. Our Chairman Norman Dickinson has indicated that he would be willing to meet, either in person or via Zoom to discuss any setting up of a new DA.
I am aware that counties like Devon and Cornwall cover a large area, but it may
be possible to get a central location for a meeting or hold them at alternate locations in different parts of the county. As Dorset is within reasonable travel distance for me, I would be pleased to give an initial talk on some form of vegetable growing to get the DA started.
If you are interested in starting or
being involved in a DA, please contact
the Southern Branch Chairman Norman Dickinson (contact details on page 3). It is well worth being involved in a DA as it means you get more out of your membership and you get to meet other keen growers who
are very knowledgeable on many aspects of vegetable growing. Even if you do not have a local DA it is always possible, once meetings are permitted to be held again, to travel to any DA, either in the Southern Branch or
an adjoining Branch, and attend a meeting where the speaker is talking on a subject that interests you. Just ensure that you bring along your NVS Membership card or you may get charged to get in.
New Southern Branch Membership Secretary
Norman Dickinson
34 Abergavenny Road, Lewes,
East Sussx,
BN7 1SN
Tel: 07792 296422 memsec.nvs-sb@outlook.com
Surrey DA
Members of the Surrey DA have been busy preparing for the restrictions to be removed and get back to normal. We have heard from East Horsley Village Hall that if all goes well we will be able to hold our regular meetings from September, the programme is as follows.
• 8th September. Paolo Arrigo from Franchi Seeds will give a talk. Vegetables – Plot to Plate
• 13th October. Andrew Halstead. Bugs that bite back.
• 10th November. Jim McDonald. Growing Sweet Peas.
Fingers crossed everything will go to plan and we will be able to meet again.
A decision was made not to attend the Family Garden Festival at RHS Wisley, but
we will be attending the Taste of Autumn event in October. The Societies event was cancelled, and we will be attending again in 2022.
We are all busy growing for the table and shows with the hope that events will be able to be held again in the near future.
See you all again very soon.
Keith
62 Simply Vegetables