Make money from your allotment?

[snakeshack]

allowing people to grow for profit runs the risk of people growing for themselves being squeezed out,plots are already difficult enough to find in my area,this would also go against the whole point of allotments for hobbyists growing their own food

[veggiechicken]

I won't tell VC

I'm thinking now of all those care homes, hospices and other establishments that buy in 'cook chill' meals for their residents. How much better it would be if they could buy fresh fruit and veg from a local guild of growers.

I'd like to see some of the open spaces around carehomes and hospitals turned into growing spaces. Maybe, in exchange for being given a plot in the grounds, the gardeners could offer some of their crops to the kitchen for the residents meals. Many oldies in care have fond memories of their gardens and just being able to see veggies growing outside their windows could be a tonic - to be able to go and pick a tomato might jog some of those confused minds back into life.

[Soylent Green]

Prisons are a good example too....okay you couldn't have normal people just turning up wanting to grow veg, but prisoners could grow their own food. In some prisons this is already the case however more can be done and prisoners that spend more time outdoors doing worthwhile jobs are happier, more productive and less likely to re-offend. Gardening is therapy and a cheap therapy at that. Again veg grown in prisons could go outside the walls and used by schools, hospitals and care homes.

A lot more can be done for the good, we just need to think outside the box and get over the fear that the system will be abused and that some allotmenteers will make huge profits and marginalise other allotment users. Allotments have rules don't they? A few more won't hurt. The humble allotment could be the acorn for a future movement that interconnects local people and businesses in a way that has never been done before. What if in the future we have allotments that specialise in rare local varieties of fruit and veg, wouldn't a little monetary investment to required and wouldn't that be money well spent?

Recycling waste to make compost, talks and teaching sessions for new gardeners, seed saving and other useful services could be offered if allotment groups were allowed to make a modest profit.

Co-operative growing is happening in poor areas of the United States, allotment groups are given shops to sell produce from. These communities live on cheap junk food as fresh veg and fruit is too expensive and not stocked in the stores serving these areas. This is a new movement for the good of many to improve the health of the residents and to create jobs and training. As it stands at the moment our allotments are under used and under productive and serve only a small percentage of the population. Maybe change would be the shot in the arm that allotments need.

[Mikey]

Well I look at it all like this, I pay £10 a year for 350sqm of land which I grow fruit and veggies for my family and some to share with friends and neighbours when I feel so inclined. If I wanted to make money out of it I'm sure I could, but it would go against the grain as to why I grow in the first place. If you want a market garden go and buy an acre of two and see if you get much change out of £20k, then try and make money from the veggies.

I like guerrilla gardening where people chuck a few spare veggies into waste ground around towns. I'm not sure I'd want to eat anything grown on a roundabout mind, pollution and all that.

In my opinion all allotments should be a not for profit arrangement, no matter how rewarding the cause.

[veggiechicken]

Co-operative growing is happening in poor areas of the United States, allotment groups are given shops to sell produce from. These communities live on cheap junk food as fresh veg and fruit is too expensive and not stocked in the stores serving these areas. This is a new movement for the good of many to improve the health of the residents and to create jobs and training. As it stands at the moment our allotments are under used and under productive and serve only a small percentage of the population. Maybe change would be the shot in the arm that allotments need.

We already have something like that in Cardiff About RCMA The market was started in 1998 to provide fresh fruit and veg at a reasonable cost to one of the poorer areas. Since then its gone from strength to strength and is used as a model for other similar enterprises. There is a community allotment, a market garden, veg box scheme, various farmer's markets etc. In my bit of Cardiff there is a weekly market where I can buy local bread, meals, veg, meat, fish without having to go anywhere near a supermarket and I'm supporting local people - many of whom produce these items in their home kitchens and gardens.
I know this is happening elsewhere in the country too - I'm just writing about this one because I know it

[alldigging]

I think there are two sorts of surplus -

the first is from a bumper crop
the second is from when you have too much space for your needs...

I have read of people having 3,4 or even more plots ... I think thats wrong when there are waiting lists, but I know many disagree with that point. And is it better a plot is tended rather than be empty?

I'm not sure allotments are the spaces to use for growing veg to sell on a commercial basis.

[susieq100]

I use my surplus to make jams and pickles. Most I give away - I do sell some at work, but I don't make a profit - I cover the cost of sugar and vinegar and spices, the stuff I can't grow. It gives me pleasure and it lets others taste REAL, HOME-MADE stuff! I like to grow, I like to cook, I like to eat, I want to share my pleasure. It grieves me to see untended plots, even if the tenant has paid their rent.

[Pineberry]

I won't tell VC

I'm thinking now of all those care homes, hospices and other establishments that buy in 'cook chill' meals for their residents. How much better it would be if they could buy fresh fruit and veg from a local guild of growers. As VC says the money could be used to improve allotments or even buy more land, wouldn't that be a first allotments expanding rather than being closed and the land being redeveloped.

Can tell you about my local children's hospice, we have a surplus bin by the gate of our allotments, however the produce from allotments is not allowed to be used for cooking there. Instead it gets sold to the stuff of the hospice by the hospice. Not the worst thing, but not what our good intentions are anyway. Supermarket veg is safer probably, allotment ones may have a rogue caterpillar hiding.