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!
A warm welcome to newcomers for a walk at Tiger Hill . . .
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. . . on Sunday 23rd August 2015.
This will be a relax-and-learn ramble (instead of the usual volunteering action sessions) at a nature reserve between Assington and Wormingford. The friendly and knowledgeable warden, Nick Miller, will guide us and will be focusing on foraging through the year.
We’d love to include anyone interested in learning more about our ‘pop-up’ volunteer gardening, regular wildlife management sessions, or who might want support in adopting a small plot near them.
We will meet up in the Kingfisher Centre car park at just before 10 am to share cars and/or travel in convoy to Tiger Hill. Or you can go directly there, where we’ll start the walk at 10.30 am.
The route from Sudbury via the A134 is turn right to and through Assington village, after half a mile take a left turn onto the Wormingford road and after ¾ mile the track to Tiger Hill reserve is on your right (marked by a small sign). Parking is down the track on the grass verge. Map ref: OS Explorer 196 928358
See you at the Kingfisher or at Tiger Hill.
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!
greenersudbury 