Author: greenerSudbury
Annual General Meeting
Spring has most definitely sprung, and we are all getting itchy fingers ready to start sorting out some projects for this year.
First things first, we would like to invite you to our Annual General Meeting, which will be held at 6:30pm, on Thursday 21st April at the Sudbury Institute, 54 Station Rd, Sudbury, CO10 2SP. We hope to see you there!
Fruit Tree Pruning Course…
One for your calendar?
Wildflowers for Sudbury.
Greener Sudbury have teamed up with the Sudbury Community Hub in an initiative to brighten up the edges of our town while making it more nature-friendly.
The green group at the Community Hub on Northern Road grew wild flowers from seed donated by Sudbury in Bloom, carefully tending them in polytunnels until they were ready to be planted out.
Members of Greener Sudbury then stepped in to plant foxglove, verbascum and nectar-rich species, favoured by bees and other insects, near the Homebase roundabout, First Avenue and Acton Lane.
We must now wait patiently until next summer to see if these efforts have paid off. If so, we’ll continue to plant up Sudbury!
Get in touch if you would like to join in!
Walk On The Wild Side…
Food from our hedgerows
Nick Miller led an early autumn foraging walk at his wonderful property at Tiger Hill, near Assington, for Greener Sudbury on Sunday 23 August.
This Site of Special Scientific Interest has a wealth of interesting plants and ancient woodland to explore, and participants enjoyed nibbling sour-tasting wood sorrel (good in omelettes), sampling the flesh of hawthorn berries (supposed to be good for the circulatory system), and smelling wild mint for a mood uplift!
A late summer/autumn list of foraging plants common in our woods and hedgerows is given below. These must only be picked and eaten if you are 100% sure you have identified the right plant, as many of our native species are poisonous. Do take care.
FOOD FOR FREE: LATE SUMMER – AUTUMN
FRUIT
Blackberry
Raspberry
Elder
Rosehips
Hawthorn
Sloe, Damson
Bullace
Cherry plum
Crab Apple
Rowan, Whitebeam
NUTS
Sweet Chestnut
Hazel
Beech
FLAVOURING
Peppermint
Hops
Hogweed seeds
Horseradish
FUNGI
Puff-ball
Boletus, Cep
Field Mushroom
Parasol
Blewit
Blusher
Oyster Mushroom
Ink-cap (not with alcohol)
Chanterelle
LEAVES
Watercress (must be cooked)
Wintercress
Remember, winter is a time for preserved food – dried, bottled, pickled, cured, jellied, sprouted or, of course, frozen.
Guessing games help raise funds…
Greener Sudbury held a stand promoting its activities at the Green Fair, at St Peter’s Church, Sudbury, on Saturday 1 August.
We held fun competitions to identify a selection of herbs and wildflowers, with our botanical experts Jill Fisher and Janet Smith on hand to let participants know if they were on the right track.
‘Guess the weight of the marrow’ had two contestants close to the mark of 6lb 5oz.
A teacher took advantage of our schools resources – info sheets on how to build “toad abodes” and nectar bars for butterflies and other insects.
Meanwhile, Janet’s hedgerow jam and a selection of herbaceous perennials and herbs dug from her garden proved popular, and raised a few funds towards the greening of our town!
Keen on the Quay.
We spent a lovely morning doing a bit of weeding for the Quay theatre. More to do still – so, if you fancy helping out, do come along!
Quay Theatre morning.
How do you fancy coming along and helping the Quay Theatre get rid of some weeds? Join us tomorrow morning, on Friday 17th July, at 9:30am, prepared for a bit of light weeding (gloves, kneelers, etc) and help make a difference. A lovely setting for a bit of idle chit-chat and a great sense of achievement. The ducks will be delighted – but then, they’re quackers!
GreenerSudbury at Kingfisher Leisure.
A lovely write-up from the Kingfisher Leisure folk on the aboutmyarea site, which you can read here. Thank you to everyone at Kingfisher!
Volunteering Opportunity at Tiger Hill.
Would you like to help create and maintain a wildlife habitat in wonderful countryside near Sudbury?
Please meet at Kingfisher Leisure Centre flower beds, near the main entrance, at 9.30am tomorrow – that’s Thursday 14 May. From here, we will car share to the site a few miles out of town. Wear suitable outdoor clothes, sturdy shoes/ boots and gloves, and bring secateurs if possible. Remember a hat and sun cream if it’s hot – and bring a large bottle of water as we may be some distance from a tap! You need to have a reasonable level of fitness for this outing.
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