Page 46 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2023

Scottish Branch
Scottish Branch Annual Seminar
At the time of writing this article, preparations are in the final stages for our annual Seminar and this year, it will be on Saturday 11th November and also in a different venue, The Aytoun Hall, High Street, Auchterarder PH3 1BJ.
A big thankyou to our speakers who have volunteered to give a wide range of talks on the day and to our hard-working committee members who help the day run smoothly. We would also like to thank Gavin Thomson of Premier Hydroponics who is busy organising our commercial area for the day.
Please find the agenda below for your information.
We are delighted to have Mark Hall as our main guest speaker who will share with us on how he grows his top-quality beetroot (both long and globe). We have never had
a talk on growing long beetroot before at the Seminar, so this will be a first. Mark previously gave a talk at the Seminar back in 2013 on how he grows for the Millenium class and so we look forward to Mark’s return. Our Scottish Branch President, Jim Williams will be presenting how he grows
a variety of “15 point and under” veg, for example French beans, broad beans, peppers and turnip’s. This will be very interesting and helpful talk whist Jim share his vast knowledge. Always a pleasure to have Gareth Hopcroft of Ecothrive support us with talks. Gareth has previously given talks at the Seminar, and for other DA’s and branches plus last Winter, gave a
very interesting zoom talk for the NVS on
10.00 REGISTRATION, Tea & Coffee
12.30 LUNCH
3.15 TEA BREAK 4.45 Raffle & Close
“growingwithCoir”.Thisyear’stalkisstill being finalised, however with Ecothrive offering natural, organic products centred around promoting beneficial soil biology, improving plant health and increasing yields, I’m sure that Gareth’s talk, as always, will be most interesting and informative. Last, but not least we will be gathering a panel of experts for you to bring along your questions and to pick their brains.
Time
Topic
Speaker
10.30
Opening, welcome and awards
Frank Taylor FNVS
10.45
Growing Beetroot
Mark Hall BEM FNVS
12.00
Scottish Branch Championship results & National Championships results & “Scots Abroad”
Fiona Shenfield FNVS
1.30
Growing 15 point and under veg
Jim Williams FNVS
2.30
TBC
Gareth Hopcroft, Ecothrive
3.45
Ask the Experts
Panel
Chairman’s Report July 2023
I sat down this evening to draft The Branch Chairman’s report for the Autumn edition of SV having spent the forenoon painting the walls in our bathroom and in the afternoon labouring in my plot but that included the pleasurable task of picking raspberries and strawberries (in a hurry as rain was forecast). I have to confess that all the berries harvested didn’t make it home but then isn’t that one of a berry picker’s perks?
starting at The Shepherds House Garden where our
hosts, Sir Charles and Lady Fraser were 94 and 87 years old respectively. A delightful garden with superb planting with the tulip tree taking pride of place. We also visited Inveresk Lodge Garden both in Musselburgh, East Lothian. After lunch we then visited the gardens of local growers in Pathhead, Keith March, Cush Miller, Jimmy Raeburn and
It’s been a busy spell for the Branch these past few months starting at the beginning of June with a second visit to Scone Palace Garden Fair.
Weatherwise, our prayers were answered
with a couple of days of brilliant sunshine
and our volunteers were kept busy selling
our renowned leek transplants and a wide
variety of fruit and vegetable plants grown
by our members and also answering
various queries from the public who were
experiencing problems. Once again, a super team effort
from our members and family who came along to help out.
It was great to see one young lass who started out with
very little knowledge of what to do blossom into a proficient operator confidently discussing vegetable varieties with our customers. (She was also a dab hand with our card machine.)
We followed this in July with our annual garden visit
finally Jim Williams where we were treated to tea coffee and home bakes as well
as some lovely strawberries and cream. Massive thanks to Jim for organising the outing and giving us access to his garden, to the other growers for allowing us to see their set ups and especially to Jim’s wife Jeanette for laying on such a lovely spread.
By the time you read this report our members will have been busy exhibiting at local and National Shows and our own Branch Championships at Haddington on
2nd September and we have our Annual Seminar to look forward to, this time at the Aytoun Hall Auchterarder on 11th November.
Finally, I’m delighted to report that all the nominations for awards put forward from the Branch this year were all approved. Congratulations to all our recipients.
Frank Taylor FNVS
Once again, a super team effort from our members and family
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