Produce Day 2008

Wasn’t it a great day? We were really busy this year at The Maltings in Berwick. Loads of BOG member came along but we also had many non members, including many people quite new to the idea of organic gardening, and so we were able to pass on the message about the benefits of organic growing and eating to them, and recruited several new members.  Besides impressive displays of produce from members (particularly impressive given the awful weather this summer), we had a lot of really interesting displays and activities. Bill and Val not only set up their display of Heritage varieties, but also did a display on pest and weed control, and brought in their “Patio-Gro”. This system, which allows people without gardens to grow salad leaves etc. fitted well with the tasting table, where, this year, David and Steve concentrated on salad leaves which we munched our way through in the course of the day. Frances looked after our growing collection of photographs of members’ gardens, workshops etc. while Robert set up a display of potato varieties, all grown from seed bought at Potato Day. Outside on the terrace, Lesley and Maxine ran a number of activities for children, which kept our younger visitors happy and helped them explore their own ideas on garden produce. Our core displays of books literature, run by Marina and Joy, and the advice table looked after by Sarah and David, drew a lot of interest and sorted out a lot of garden problems. Because of limited kitchen facilities, the catering was less varied than we would have liked, but Roberta and her helpers still managed to serve delicious plates of cakes and scones, which people could enjoy with a cup of tea, and the view over the rooftops and the river. Despite the poor growing season, people brought in loads of baking and produce for the Farm Africa stall, run by Sarah and Blair, and we were able to donate over £300 to Farm Africa. The big point of the day occurred when our chairman Sarah Eno, awarded the BOG Catastrophe Cup 2008. This year it was won by Heather Whitacker of St. Boswells. Heather’s parsnips had looked magnificent when they were growing. Unfortunately, all the luxuriant foliage was misleading, as we saw with the tiny parsnips Heather brought along. Many thanks to everyone who organised displays, carried stuff around, baked, brought in produce, helped set up and gave up their time on the day to help run things.