Following the business meeting Carole Dowling gave a talk entitled ‘Gardening with a Husband’. She told us about her garden near Brimfield, how it was in the Yellow NGS book and it had won an award from the Shropshire Star. It was mainly about the mistakes her husband, the under gardener, had made in the garden such as pruning shrubs severely so that they died and putting lawn sand on the grass so that it turned black just before their garden was due to be judged for a prize. Catherine Perham gave the vote of thanks.
Several car loads of members left Staunton on Arrow on a beautiful summer's day to have lunch at Laylocks Garden centre near Worcester and then to pay a visit to the Elgar Birthplace Museum, at Broadheath. We had an interesting introductory video followed by a visit to the gardens and the actual cottage in our own time, finishing up with some delicious cakes. An excellent day out.
Following the business meeting there was a most informative talk and tasting from Jeff and Sue Morris about alcoholic fruit tipples and how to make them. Jeff showed us that you can make cordials from any edible flower, seed or berry and use any spirit. He preferred brandy and vodka; vodka is useful as it has no taste of its own, enabling the fruit taste to be very prominent. We were able to sample 6 varieties of his cordials, the fruity ones being like the best. No one liked the lime flower cordial. His favourite cordial was quince. Alison Lord gave the vote of thanks. We were joined at this meeting by several members from our paired WI, Weobley.
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