Page 8 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2024/25

Kelvin’s Comments
KELVIN MASON FNVS, NATIONAL MAGAZINE EDITOR
Firstly, a Happy New Year and Hogmanay to all members and a prosperous growing season, may all your vegetables be superb.
This magazines comments should be short as I have received plenty of articles to fill it which makes my job easier. The weather in 2024 was interesting and we had plenty of rain but not the hot sunny weather predicted by the climate change scientists, may be that will come in 2025. At the time of writing it is very mild and showery whether this will set in for the winter only time will tell. All my water butts were full by early October as were any other containers I could get my hands on and I am still on the lookout for more.
I was speaking to a friend from the Northern Branch recently and he was saying that they were some new members on the allotment site who he offered some spare winter cabbage plants. They both declined them saying nothing will grow over winter so they would dig the allotment and leave it empty. This is a long way
from the truth and it is possible to grow a range of crops into the winter, as my friend said he had leeks, parsnip, carrots, savoy cabbage, sprouts to name a few which will see him through to the spring. With the cost of allotment rents I am surprised more people do not make more productive use of the land. If you are giving talks please make the point and encourage all growers to make good use of their ground. As a country we need to become more self- sufficient in food production so we need to grow more of our own food; we may not be
able to import as much in the future or if we can it will be at a cost.
I do not buy in organic matter preferring to make my own compost and acquire what I can from various sources, so I
was not fully aware of the cost of buying in various composts. Talking to some growers recently and they had brought in some locally made organic matter either from anaerobic digestion or green waste composted by the council. Both look very good material, but I was
whatever the supermarket has for that week in the winter and salads all summer so if you know of anyone who is good at cooking please ask them to send some recipes.
Although I have plenty of articles for this issue I am usually looking for material for the April issue so now is your chance to put pen to paper while it is dark at nights. I had an idea (dangerous I know!) that may be some of you could do some joint articles
Strawy manure
shocked at the price (that’s
not hard for a skin flint
like me!). one type was
£70.00 for a 730 litre bag
and the other £80.00 for a
similar sized bag. Even if a
cubic metre bag it will go
nowhere when spread on
the garden or allotment. It
costs virtually nothing to
make your own compost
using green waste from
the garden / allotment and
other sources if you can
find them. Even growing green manure is very cheap compared to the prices above. I can remember the days when you could get a trailer load of manure for a tenner
– that shows my age! It is important to keep adding organic matter to the soil to maintain its fertility so apply what you can get, it is highly unlikely you will overdo it.
Those of you who are observant will note there is no From the Kitchen article as I have not received anything recently. If you rely on me you will have instant microwave meals of jacket potato, frozen veg and
on your favourite topics so it spreads the work load a bit and you will push each other on.
In this magazine we have a range of topics
so something to interest everyone, the regulars
of Emily Harris, Gerry Edwards, Derek Brooks and Ron Nuttall have been busy, as have Fiona Shenfield and Norman Dickinson. This issue has most of the show reports
in so you can see who has won what but more importantly which cultivars they are using, now is the time to order your seed if you have not already done so.
For those of you sending reports in for the D. A’s the deadlines for Simply Vegetables this year are:
April Edition send by 24/01/2025 July Edition send by 25/04/2025 October Edition send by 25/07/2025 These are also the deadline for any
articles you may wish to send and I look forward to receiving some!
I can remember the days when you could get a trailer load of manure for a tenner – that shows my age!
Progrow
8 Simply Vegetables