‘So, what are you going to do with all this food?’ asks a
neighbour whilst eyeing up the large carrier bags in my hands which are
literally bursting with produce from the allotment.
‘We eat it, freeze some and give some to friends and family’
I reply watching his eyes calculate the amount and what all the different produce
is in the bags. ‘Would you like some courgettes and beans?’
‘Well I’ve never seen courgettes like those, how do you cook
them?’ he says quickly accepting four large yellow courgettes and a handful of French
beans.
After some cooking hints and tips he leaves with some
tomatoes and potatoes and I have somewhat lighter bags.
‘Better come home at a different time and by a different
route tomorrow,’ says Lottie with a broad grin.
‘I don’t mind sharing some stuff’ I reply.
‘Mugged, and you know I eat those beans,’ says Lottie under
her breath.
Lottie puts her nose to the ground and I can hear her
chuckling under her breath all the way home.
Dogs only share inside the pack.
‘Not so much today?’ was Annie’s greeting as she examined
the bags and started to take out the vegetables for their wash and brush up. I
didn’t say anything but caught Lottie smiling in the corner of the kitchen.
At this time of year we all have gluts and famine at the
allotments as everything tends to mature and ripen at the same time. You sow
every few weeks but it still keeps coming at the same time. It is impossible to
eat it all and you find a mountain of salad alongside another mountain of vegetables
and then there is the fruit. We certainly eat well and fresh and buy little
from the shops from early Spring to late Autumn and then during Winter the freezer
supplies us with all those bags of goodies that we squirrelled away during
Summer.
We wash chop and freeze in lots of small bags of tomatoes,
courgettes, spinach, kale, cabbage, French beans, beetroot etc. The lettuce
doesn’t take kindly to anything but being eaten fresh.
The last couple of years my Vice Chair has come into her own
with her community programmes and has been brilliant at collecting excess
produce donations off plot holders and supplying a local community kitchen but
as simple as this sounds, it is often far from easy. All the produce from our
community allotment at Crossrail roof garden is donated. However just
collecting the produce from plot holders and getting it to the kitchen at the
right time and in the right state can prove hard.
Donations can often be that
overgrown courgette that resembles a marrow, or other vegetables which maybe
are past their prime. Also kitchens want certain produce that they are familiar
with and the sight of even a patti pan may not be greeted with the expected
enthusiasm.
It was great to see my neighbour’s reaction when she came
back to her plot last week after 16 weeks of lockdown. They have been getting
special food parcels every week as well as home deliveries but a bag full of
fresh produce off our plots plus a large bunch of sunflowers put a broad smile
on her face. But she did ask what to do with the patti pans!
My daughter is Chair or a women’s shelter and a Director of
a large homeless charity and I asked if they wanted excess produce. The
response was interesting and was dependent on what produce, when, and if the
cooks knew what to do with it to make dinners the clients wanted to eat it.
Fresh was also an issue and I realised that convenience often could trump
fresh.
We set out this year to donate more excess and learn from
previous experience as to where, who and how to make a difference and to step
up the internal awareness on the plots. Folk like to give but want to know
where its going and who is benefiting. We had several discussions with
community groups and one really was interested in not only taking the donations
but also into using them to help training their clients into cooking with them.
We also spoke to Cross-London organisations with a view to potentially widening
a relationship to other sites which obviously meant dealing with the associated
logistics, communication, and supply. If a pilot was successful, then it could
be potentially roll.
Then came the pandemic and lockdown. This effectively scuppered
this year’s ideas as the focus shifted to maintaining the allotments and
looking after those unable to work their plots. We also weren’t allowed access the
Canary Wharf plot during lockdown and our big plant giveaway and seeds swaps
were impacted. Also, my appointment as London Representative for the National Allotment
Society was deferred so effectively scuppering those discussions this year. As lockdown eases we are just starting to look
at some localised donation opportunities again but the one we used last year is
still not back up and we may have to be more ad hoc in any donations until a
new normality starts to take shape.
Meanwhile Lottie tucks into her doggy biscuits, meat and French
beans. Her favourite vegetable is broccoli, even the chopped-up stems!
