NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

Introduction
This is an experiment by the Society,
in response to some requests by members to have more news about events and activities.
So, if you read this newsletter, do please give some feedback:
What works, what doesn't, what could be more or less, anything missing? 
You will see a comment box at the end of this newsletter.


(Thanks to Barbara for her her work researching a drafting this)

Club News
Make a note in your diary for the Christmas Lunch.  Thursday 15
December 12.30 for 1 o’clock at Clapton Village Hall.  Helen Furness
will prepare a lovely meal for us.  Bring your own wine.  Please book
your places with Linda Smith at the next meeting.

Coming Soon
Wednesday 18th January Quiz & Puds evening
Saturday 11th February Potato Day


Timely Tasks
(keep and eye out for the right weather)

• Collect leaves and make leaf mould – make circular bin-sizes with chicken wire and pack in the leaves, should be ready for use next year.
• Plant and move bare-root trees, shrubs, roses and hedging (make sure they are dormant)
• Take hardwood cuttings of shrubs, roses and soft fruit bushes.
• Continue planting tulips and hyacinths
• Divide fibrous rooted perennials
• Dig up dahlia tubers once the plants start to die off after the first hard frost and store in a frost free place (or leave them in the soil with a good depth of straw over).
• Plant lily bulbs
• Plant garlic, shallots, over-wintering onions and broad beans.
• Continue to harvest leeks and Brussels sprouts.  By the middle of the month dig up carrots and parsnips and store them in the fridge or shed. Mind you, I pile soil over them in situ, and dig as required, that works fine for me.
• Continue planting fruit trees
• Plant summer-fruiting raspberry canes
• Protect with covers – fleece jackets (bubble wrap for pots) and group pots for protection
• Prune wisteria and honeysuckle
• Collect seeds. (You may like to leave some good seed heads for the birds - who needs a super tidy garden over the winter, but the birds certainly will need the food).

Pesky Pests & Problems
Watch out for snails congregating in crevices around the garden and
mice in sheds and greenhouses and squirrels digging up your bulbs
The future looks bleak or Busy Lizzies.  The pathogen “Plasmopara
obducens (causes mildew) has developed resistance to fungicides – not
enough notice was taken of warning of overuse of fungicides and
pesticides was it? Try companion planting next year and try
New Guinea Impatiens which do not seem to be affected.

New Kids on the Block
(Have a look in "The Garden" or "Gardeners
World" or Google search for them)
Blueberry “Bluedrop”
Mildew resistant gooseberry “Martlet”
Apple “Christmas Pippin”
Lathyrus odoratus “Prima Ballerina”



What’s On & Out & About
Autumnwatch live: Fridays BBC2 until 25 November 8.30pm
River Cottage Veg: Thursdays times to be confirmed Channel 4
National Tree Week: 26 November to 4 December Nationwide treecouncil.org.uk
Narnia Trails, Arlington Court Devon: Saturdays and Sundays 11-3pm £4
adults children free, see more on nationaltrust.org.uk
9, 16 November Winter Wetland Safari Ham Wall Somerset 1.30 – 4.30
Entry £6.50 inc soup.  Booking essential 01458 860449
RHS Garden Rosemoor
Christmas Craft & Design Fair 26/27 November rosemoor@rhs.org.uk
Groves Christmas shop is now open

Winter Warmers

Cannellini bean and leek soup with chilli oil
Serves 4-6
4 medium leeks
1 tablespoon olive oil
15g butter
A few sprigs of thyme leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1.3 litres veg stock
2 x 400g tins cannellini beans
A handful of oregano chopped
A bunch of parsley chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
For the chilli Oil
4 red chillies, deseeded, sliced
200ml olive oil
A few sprigs of thyme
1 unpeeled garlic clove
First make the chilli oil.  Put the chillies in a saucepan, with the
oil, thyme and garlic.  Heat until the oil is simmering very gently
and cook for 20 mins.  Remove from the heat and cool.
For the soup, halve the leeks lengthways, wash and slice thinly.  Heat
the oil and butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat.  Add the
leeks, thyme and bay leaf, and sweat gently, stirring from time to
time, for 15 mins until very soft.  Add garlic and stir for a minute.
Add the stock, cannellini beans, oregano and half the parsley.  Season
with salt and pepper, increase the heat and simmer for 20 mins.
Remove the bay leaf and stir in the rest of the parsley.  Serve with a
trickle of chilli oil.
Note: The oil will keep, in an airtight container in the fridge, for a
couple of weeks and you can use it to add heat to marinades and salad
dressings or to trickle over pizzas.

Poet’s Corner - November
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.  There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware.
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given.
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends, and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) The Soldier