Page 63 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2022

Hants DA
Chairman: Ted Perren Secretary: Ali Clarke Treasurer: Ros Holton
Life has been interesting for Hants DA over the last few months.
I doubt anyone has been on a
knife’s edge awaiting “the next exciting instalment” since I intimated in the previous issue it was touch and go whether we would gain entry to our new venue. However, sad to say, the keyholder remained distinctly absent and we had to cancel our November wine tasting. We are most grateful to James Hocking for being so understanding that we had to do this at short notice, rather than have him run the wine tasting in the car park.
We did eventually manage to get a key to our new venue for the December AGM, but not until the keyholder was “sacked” and
a new committee took over. It was quite a saga.
So, our AGM went ahead, but whereas in the past it has always drawn a surprising crowd, attendance this time
was disappointingly low. Thank you to the loyal handful who did turn out in support. At least there were a few mouths to share Christmas nibbles with the newly re- elected committee.
At the AGM, Ann Brown retired from
her role as Treasurer after many years of devoted service. Hants DA is extremely grateful to Ann for all that she has done for the DA and is very glad that she will remain on the committee.
Ros Holton was elected as our new Treasurer, and we wish her well with balancing the books for the foreseeable future.
The rest of the committee was re- elected, so you will see the usual faces when you come to the Hants DA events. Ted Perren has kindly continued as Chair, although he has made it known he would like to stand down in December, at our next AGM. He thinks it is time we had some new blood to take on the role. Please give it some thought.
Our January talk “Seed production and planting” with dynamic duo Ted and David was cancelled. We took the decision partly because of the attendance at the AGM, but also because Omicron was on the rise, and we suspected the appetite to turn out in
January would be small.
Historically we do not have a January
meeting anyway, as Hampshire Potato Day is normally our January event. Sadly, the Potato Day at Whitchurch was cancelled for this year and possibly forever; we will really miss it.
At the time of writing, we are looking forward to our February meeting with Chris Bird from Sparsholt College giving us a talk on The Development of Root Vegetables. Chris is well known to us, having given
us a talk on The History of Potatoes and more recently Apple Day, so we know the talk will be good fun. I will also be doing
a Fruit Pruning Course with Chris a few days before the talk, so he might fear I am stalking him out.
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