That day in the summer of 2018 was Sunday 29th July, our last volunteer morning before the school holidays, and after weeks of intense and unrelenting heat the weather broke and gave us wind and rain! At ten o'clock we were all ready to cancel and go home, thinking that nobody would turn up when this happened...
This month a new group of volunteers from local building company Crane gave up their morning to help us give the interior of our Pavilion meeting room/workshop a new lick of paint. A few months ago a group of them had helped us prepare the interior and repaint the doors and skirtings white, but this time the transformation was striking!
This week we have been mostly making use of our produce!
Garden Club's principal jam maker Chris has been busy making Apricot Jam and Spicy Apricot Chutney from the Forest Garden's bounty. This will be available for sale every Friday morning along with Mary's delicious Red Grapefruit Marmalade and all our other delicious jams and preserves.
This week we began to harvest our apricots, jostaberries, and redcurrants. Our apricot trees, planted in our Forest Garden, are varieties that do well in northern Europe - namely Flavourcot, Tomcot and Orange Summer. It's the first of these that has had a bumper crop this year, also our most mature tree. These new cultivars have been bred to flower later than traditional varieties and therefore usually escape the late frosts that so often blight apricots in the UK.
Our annual Open Day with all its associated events such as our Bake Off and Fun Dog Show (see separate articles), was an unqualified success this year, with a lovely sunny afternoon and cheery music from Zumba Robert to add to the atmosphere!
We were super excited at the number of entries we had for our All Age Bake Off this year - and at the high standard of the bakes! Of the twelve entries, eight of them were from junior bakers (aged 9-16) and three from under 9s.
We were delighted to welcome back the Forever Hounds Trust with their fantastic Fun Dog Show again this year, as always generously sponsored by Berry House Vets, who provided the rosettes and prizes.
This year's Open Day had even more fun stuff for kids than ever, and almost all of it aiming to reconnect kids with the natural world.
We're very grateful for all the lovely prizes donated by local businesses and individuals for our Open Day Raffle.
Today another bunch of willing employees from local building components company Crane, joined our Garden Club regulars to tame the weeds in the Forest Garden ready for our Open Day on Sunday. Luckily they had good weather and really seemed to enjoy their morning. Well done guys and thank you!
We hope to see you and your families on Sunday when we host our Open Day, Bake Off and Fun Dog Show on Ransom's Rec.
