Do you have any special role with the Allotment?
I joined the committee in about 2012, originally to help the person who was organising social activities on the allotments, but he departed the committee not long after and I have been organising most of the social events on the allotments since. Mulled wine and mince pies at Christmas, several BBQ’s in the past and of course the Village Show.
I am also the liaison between the Allotments Society, the Garden Society and the Residents Society as I am on all those committees!!
How long have you had your plot?
I have had a plot on the site since about 2000, when I took early retirement from full time teaching but continued with supply teaching for a good few years. Originally I took it on with a Scouting colleague but she moved away a few years later and I have had it to myself ever since.
What are your favourite allotment plants?
It is hard to say which are my favourite plants but I think I am most proud of my asparagus bed, which takes up two full rows across my allotment and provides us with masses of asparagus every year, more than enough to share with friends. I love my early new potatoes, delicious crunchy small carrots and I couldn’t bear not to have fresh courgettes, the excess always cooked up into quiches, courgette bakes, courgette dollops (a la Jean Walpole) and even delicious courgette, lime and pistachio cake! My own fresh peas and runner beans, mini sweetcorn and multi coloured beetroot, the sweet and unusual golden raspberries and huge sweet strawberries, that actually taste like strawberries, I love them all!
What’s one downside of your allotment?
The bane of my life on my allotment is mares tail which just about takes over the whole plot in summer, no matter how hard I hoe it out early on. I turn my back and it’s nearly as high as my asparagus plants and looks very like it too. I have lots of other weeds too of course, bindweed and bramble being my two other pet hates but none are as difficult to deal with as the mares tail. But in it’s favour it doesn’t actually damage the vegetables in any way, it just looks so unsightly and infuriatingly neither of my neighbours have it as badly as I do and I’m sure I hoe harder!
What do you love most about the allotment generally?
I love going down to the allotment on my own, to work hard instead of going to a gym or going running. I enjoy both the peace and solitude but also the camaraderie of chatting to the other plot holders and passers by, the beautiful views across the valley and collecting colourful trugs full of my own lovely produce. It’s lovely to meet up with others at the social events or just dropping by on a Sunday morning for a chat with members of the committee holding the fort in the hut!
It is very hard work but also a great pleasure having an allotment!