A growing community is waiting to meet you
This year, we’ve come through a long cold winter with weeks when our plots were unworkable because of snow or frost or waterlogged. Then there were periods when it was cold and grey and the nighttime temperature was too low for seedlings to survive. Just when things began to look more promising, Storm Hector wrought havoc ripping the felt off shed roofs and smashing greenhouse glass.
In spite of all this, the harvest is a bumper one and promises to keep on coming. Soft fruit, peas and beans are bountiful. I’ve seen vegetables known to be difficult to grow successfully in Scotland such as celeriac and fennel flourishing.
All over the country, allotment sites are gearing up for some kind of event. A good harvest time has always been something to celebrate. The Romans dedicated their harvest festivals to Ceres, the goddess of grain.
Summer open days are a good way of showing the wider community that allotments are an asset for everyone not just an exclusive club behind a locked gate. At other times of the year local groups can arrange site visits to many allotments. Children are always welcome on my plot, delving into the soil for potatoes, sampling peas straight from the pod and finding out that the essential ingredient for a bottle of blackcurrant cordial grows on a bush.
Recently I enjoyed being a guest at Linlithgow’s Oakwell Community Allotments’ splendid barbecue after completing the tricky task of judging their best plots competition.
Events like this bring everyone
A good harvest time has always been something to celebrate
together and can be the first opportunity for new plotholders to meet with those beyond their immediate neighbours.
It’s the time for local shows where plotters can show off their best produce. I’m keeping an eye on what I might have ready at its best to enter in Musselburgh Horticultural Society Show on 25 August.
Over the years the Society has accumulated an impressive array of silver trophies for which there’s hot competition but the prize money stays down at pocket money levels.
Edinburgh’s Annual Allotment Show is on Saturday 8 September in the Methodist Hall on Nicolson Square. John Grace, the Show Convenor, says there’ll be a resident expert to answer questions about crop diseases, some famous heritage potatoes, and an opportunity to try your hand at making apple juice. In case that’s not enough, there’s a special section of “weird and wonderful things” for interest and entertainment. n