Cropwell Bishop Village Parish Plan

Food for thought at Saturday Café (27-2-10)

It is the last Saturday of the month and we all know what that means: don't we? Time to open the doors of the Old School and welcome all comers to the Saturday Café.

There is usually something unusual on dislay or to buy. Last month it was carpet bowls, today it was preserves made by WI member Barbara Pugh.

Of course there was still the usual supply of lovely cakes and drinks for us to consume and, just as importantly, time to catch up on local news from other coffee drinkers.

Tony Jarrow

Enjoy a laugh at Cropwell Cinema (27-2-10)

The ideal recipe has a special ingredient that can lift a dish from meh to memorable. Meryl Streep — at her brilliant, beguiling best — is the spice that does the trick for the yummy Julie & Julia.

Written and directed with sharp wit and unforced wonder by Nora Ephron, the movie offers a tasting menu of two lives. Streep plays the famed food writer and TV chef Julia Child, and her Doubt co-star Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, the New York secretary who wrote a blog and a book about the year (2002-03) she spent preparing all 524 recipes in Julia's 1961 bestseller Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Saving energy can taste good (25-2-10)

I don’t like to waste things so feel good about putting them into recycling bins. Glass is more of a problem because I have to waste fuel going to the Lime Kiln Pub, or wherever else there is a recycling bin. At least the glass will be reused without having to use as much energy as making new glass, and that is the best I can do – or is it?

Quite a few people in the village make and sell home made preserves – jams, marmalades, chutneys, and so on, and they need jam jars. The glass I put in the bin at the Lime Kiln Pub will be taken by lorry to some glass factory where it will be melted and made into new jars that then get carted to other factories to be filled with jam and then delivered to supermarkets. We then drive to the supermarket and buy the jam and bring it home.

Here is an alternative route for the jam jar. We take it to one of our village jam-makers (several are members of the WI in Cropwell Bishop) and they clean them and fill them with jam, etc., made from the fruits of local trees and bushes. They then take them to local markets and shops and sell them. Just think of the fuel saved by everyone! I used to think that jars without their lids would be of little use – but I was wrong: our jam-makers can buy new lids.

So where can you buy jam made from Cropwell Bishop fruits? Well one place is the Saturday Café at the Old School this Saturday (27th Feb), 10am –midday. Barbara Pugh, one of our village jam/preserve makers will be there selling her produce. She tells me that she has been extremely busy since Christmas:

“In addition to my regular line of Hedgerow and Orchard preserves, I will be taking twelve different varieties of marmalade in 1lb and 8oz size jars, together with about ten different pickles and chutneys, including Roy's organic shallots. I discovered a Victorian recipe book, and have enjoyed trying out some of the chutney, jam and 'butter' recipes. Thanks to the super people in the village, I have had a steady supply of empty jars arriving on the doorstep so will be taking a much wider selection.”

So, by going to the Saturday Café this weekend, you can get some unique local produce produced with minimum waste. You could also drop off some empty jam-jars. I believe the WI notice board outside the post office usually has details of people who can use them.

Tony Jarrow

Do you want an allotment here? (18-2-10)

If so, contact me quickly. The newly formed Cropwell Bishop Allotment Association has a few vacant plots and they are going on a first-come-first-served basis. Three have been taken in the last 6 days.

Tony Jarrow

email: amjarrow@mac.com
phone: 989-3178

Bridge too far? - not in Cropwell Bishop (18-2-10)

The Cropwell Bishop Bridge Club is up and running after an excellent turn out on the first evening on the 10th February.

All standards of players welcome, the club is on every Wednesday evening at 7.30pm in the Friendship Centre, Nottingham Road.

For more information please contact Jacqui Stapleton on 989-4140 or Pam Wakefield on 989-2128.

Hilary Hawkins

Growing excitement on local land (8-2-10)

On the right is an aerial view of the field that is to become the site of Cropwell Bishop Allotments. How long before this bare field has plots looking like the ones below? Well if the enthusiasm of members of the Allotment Association is any indication, not long at all!

The lower pictures were taken at the allotments in Beeston. They have existed for as long as anyone can remember so, inevitably, they look well established.

Our own field has been used for allotments before. Maps from the middle of the last century show the allotments marked: some local people can even remember them being planted.

In those days many people had an allotment because it was the only way they could get fresh food. During the War years and the subsequent ones of food rationing, good food could not be taken for granted.

Thankfully the standard of living in Britain today is infinitely better in almost every way. However, it has also become much more complicated.

In my own childhood, my father worked at the local coal mine and part of his ‘pay’ was free deliveries of coal: that took care of home heating. He had an allotment and that supplied the potatoes. My Grandad had some chickens in the back garden and gave us eggs. On warm Sundays, I was put in the seat on the back of my Mum’s bicycle and we went down to Gunthorpe to sit beside the river: that was leisure time used up!

The majority of members of our Allotment Association are far too young to remember such times. They will be able to enjoy growing food in a safe environment away from the numerous distractions of modern life. In many cases, their own young children will also learn more about growing, independence, helping, outside sounds, butterflies and birds than can be provided by any number of CBeebies programmes.

Many people in in Allotment Association and the Parish Council have worked for years to reach this point but now we are counting, not months, but weeks to the opening of the site. Allotment members are being kept informed of developments and will be meeting at the Old School in a few weeks time. They will have many questions and if you click on the ‘Allotment page tab’ you will see growing number that have already been posted.

We still have a few vacant allotment plots. If you would like one – or just want to find out more, contact me before it is too late. Email: amjarrow@mac.com or phone: 989-3178.

Tony Jarrow

Ready for Spring (3-2-10)

A new arrival in Cropwell Bishop brightens up these cold February days.

Notts County Council provided the planter and Councillor Gordon Moore funded the plants.

Simon Barlow positioned and filled the planter with soil and then Judy and Glyn from the Gardening Club completed the picture with spring flowers and bulbs.

Thanks to you all.