Tatnam Organic Patch

AGM and BBQ - September 2010

After much negotiation over dates, Tatnam Organic Patch held our AGM on 26 Sept 2010, followed by the annual barbacue. There was a good turnout, and a great spread of food, as always, far too much to eat.

The AGM apparently saw two new posts created;

Brendan was voted Head of composting, and Gary as primary contact for the LAND project, passing his wider secretarial duties to Kate.

Given Kate is just taking possession of an old house in need of much repair, not sure where she’ll find the time, but isnt that always the way ?

Tat and Brendan had visitors from New Zealand. Not sure what they made of the patch, or whether it will colour their view of how folks in the Old Country are living.

A little work was done, mostly cropping. We had some fantastic maincrop potatoes – individually big enough to bake one to share between two, and a vast array of squashes, including Sharks Fin Melon, which apparently makes good soup.

Shark's Fin Melon squash

Aside from various meaty things cooked in the kitchen sink over the local Dorset charcoal, there was  Mark’s famous bean stew, a variety of appetising salads, and dazzling sweets, including an apple cake, a ginger and fruit cake (I’m going to be corrected on that one), and Jan’s summer pudding and crumble.

Looking back in my folder, I chanced across an email from 2003, from Kirsten Robb, who was involved in the patch in the early days. Writing from home in East Kilbride, having spent a while volunteering in Africa, she wrote “Is there a good crop of blackberries this year? And more importantly,  is Jan going to make her crumble ?” – and that’s how far back the tradition goes. It wouldn’t be a workday, or even an AGM without Jan’s famous crumble !

And having turned up a day early, Andy did eventually make the BBQ, if not the AGM.

The herb group gathered on this lovely Sunday afternoon to create the first of two herb beds in front of the greenhouse, and planted rosemary, hyssop, savoury, thyme, feverfew and lemonbalm.