Here’s one place where there’s no shortage of fresh vegetables...
AS the country labours under vegetable shortages, we get the view from Park Farm Allotments, in Hazel Road, Loughborough:
Secretary of State for the Environment Therese Coffey has advised the public to “eat turnips” and admits shortages on the supermarket shelves could last for a month, up until the country starts to distribute its home-grown produce.
The major ones including Tesco, Aldi, Morrisons and Asda have limited the number of portions each shopper can purchase of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
And the situation is looking unlikely to go away as apples and pears could be next with not enough trees being planted in orchards with growers claiming the returns from selling to supermarkets are not enough.
But at Park Farm Allotments not only are there turnips in abundance but no shortage of other seasonal vegetables including winter cabbage like Savoy, purple sprouting and tender- stem broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, carrots and parsnips.
It’s got its own orchard too.
It’s encouraging to be independent of the supermarkets and self– sufficiency is one of the most positive aspects of having an allotment.
Southern Spain and Morocco have been hit by extreme weather going straight from a blistering summer to a hard winter and Dutch growers have been prevented from heating glasshouses due to energy prices whereas on our plots we live by seasonal specialism. We also freeze, dry, store and can produce all year round.
Until there’s a switch away from the current system of supermarkets controlling the producers being paid such low returns with no margin for absorbing shocks like energy price rises and extreme weather as well as filling shelves on demand problems like this can be expected more often.
Allotment seasonal vegetable growing cuts down on air miles and is better for the environment reducing the carbon footprint but hard–pressed working families won’t necessarily have either the time or the space to cultivate crops.
As it is 200 people are on the allotment waiting list in Loughborough; some people want to be more self-sufficient.
European countries have a tightly integrated supply that the UK is no longer part of and can switch to secondary suppliers such as Tunisia and Italy, which is already starting to have concerns over water supply.
Tory MP for north Devon Selaine Saxby asked if consumers would be better off eating seasonal produce such as root vegetables to help ease the shortages.
Ms Coffey said: “It’s important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country.
“A lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce, and tomatoes and similar.”