Stories

Two years ago, Carol Bryne decided to find out exactly what went into producing the fruit and vegetables she sells on her stall in Digbeth Market. She got herself an allotment, and started digging.

"Weeding is very therapeutic!"

It may come as a surprise that a grocer like Carol selling fresh produce on a market is not naturally green fingered, but Carol points out that most people selling a product don’t know how it was made, and that’s not usually a problem: “No one expects some big overweight guy selling you three pounds of apples to actually like apples!”

Her father was a tradesman, so maybe a head for business runs in the family, but her mother’s attitude towards food bore little resemblance to Carol's: “She was the sort of person who'd just buy packets of cut up mixed salad. When I was younger I didn't have that experience of digging in the garden, so I'm learning it now.”

Carol entered into the grocery trade with a strong ethos behind her. All the fruit and vegetables on her stall are "as local as possible, and as organic as possible". This may mean buying in organic vegetables from Hereford, non organic, locally grown asparagus, cherries or damsons, or externally sourced avocados, bananas and citrus fruit that are organic or Fairtrade.

Grow your own yummy fruit!

Local produce

She believes that the only way to ensure the food you eat is really healthy and nutritious is to stay away from high pesticide content, and to make sure what you are eating has not had to travel far or wait long to reach your plate.

"The option was there for me just to do what other market traders do, but I didn't want to, because that’s not the way I think. I would have felt hypocritical to just not think about air miles and Fairtrade, and sell whatever was cheapest, to make the biggest profit."

So why did she decide to start growing her own, with plenty of wholesome produce near to hand?

Runner bean plants

"I thought, wow, I'm selling all these vegetables, but I don't really know the process that goes into growing them. I'd pick it up from the farm, but cultivating food wasn't something that I'd experienced.

Getting back to the soil

"I'd spent time in Mexico with people that work on the land, picking coffee beans, and realised then how little I knew about it. So many people come to the stall and say, 'How do I stop this on my cabbages?', 'How do you grow this?', 'Can you get me these seeds?' Now I'm starting to know a little more, it's good to have a wider knowledge to share."

Carol applied for an allotment from Birmingham City Council, which cost between £12 and £39 a year. According to the council, the city has “the largest provision of allotments of any Local Authority in the UK” with nearly 7,000 plots.

Carol's herb garden.

Most of these are occupied, however, and waiting lists in areas like Perry Barr and Edgbaston are long. Allotments do not change hands very often, as they are cheap to rent and in high demand. Other areas, including Northfield and Handsworth, have several empty plots in need of cultivation.

A horrible nightmare

It seems that Carol was lucky to get her plot, but what was it like to suddenly be the mistress of a huge piece of empty land, with not a vegetable or useful plant in sight?

"I was doing it on my own, it was a nightmare. I was up to my eyes with weeds, because it had just been left, it was horrible. I couldn't do anything, I was digging away, I planted stuff and nothing grew at all, I was so depressed."

Potato plants.

This year, however, it's a different story altogether. Carol enlisted the help of some willing friends to dig, weed, and tend the land, and on this sunny August morning, the soil is vibrant with young plants.

Luscious rows of spinach, leeks and Swiss chard vie for space with mixed salad, beetroot, courgettes, cabbage and tomatoes. The broccoli isn't doing so well, having been savaged by hungry slugs, and most of the herbs Carol planted haven't quite bloomed as they should, but she is not discouraged.

From strength to strength

This year is better than last year, and she says the whole experience of gardening brings so many benefits, that a few failed crops don't matter. 

Leeks are a good plant for beginners.

"I'm just learning really, that's been quite nice- hanging out with people in a different space, where you can come on your own and do your bit, or work with someone else.

"If I'm stressed about work or anything, I come here and do some weeding for an hour. I find I'm worrying about all these millions of things that I can't really change, and all the time I'm just clearing that space, and it all just melts away. It's quite therapeutic."

A microcosm of Birmingham

Being surrounded by other gardeners is also beneficial. Carol says people are keen to swap tips and advice, and everyone grows different plants:

Steve on his plot.

"This is a good allotment; it's like a microcosm of Birmingham. There's a Jamaican guy there, a retired head teacher, some Sikh guys down there. There are different people growing things from their own cultural background, so you learn lots. I've found out about loads of new things like callaloo, all these things people call ethnic foods. People just grow what they're used to, what they want to grow- it's a nice bit of freedom."

Steve, who works the plot next to Carol, has been at Moor Green Allotments for 20 years. He comes four times a week, when he's not working as a handyman. He grows so much produce, he can't eat it all himself, and gives it away to friends and family.

Something in the water

"They're always asking for my fruit and veg, but they don't want to come down here and dig!" he laughs. There must be something in the water around here, because Steve looks years younger than 84, but according to Carol, allotments are no longer just for oldies.

Beetroot in Carol's veg patch.

Local NGO Drop Food Not Bombs have a plot here, and Birmingham City Council's figures show a marked rise in younger people taking up their gardening forks, particularly women and those in the 20-35 age group. So how does Carol explain this rise in numbers?

"In the Second World War, there was a kind of similar situation to how it is now- there was no money, and food was hard to come by, so everyone was given land, to "Dig for Britain". In a way, you could say that people are going back to that now for themselves, because they're more aware that there isn't much money around. Also, people are much more concerned about food miles and pesticides."

A thriving plot at Moor Green.

National Allotments Week

Unused allotment space comes under heavy pressure from developers, and the Local Government Association estimates that 200,000 plots have been lost since 1970s. Because city councils were under no obligation to advertise their allotments, in 2002 National Allotments Week was set up to raise awareness of allotment availability across the country, in the belief that, "The best protection for allotment sites is to have every allotment plot across the United Kingdom occupied by keen gardeners."

According to the National Association of Allotments and Leisure Gardeners, who set up the initiative, local councils have "a statutory duty to provide a sufficient quantity of plots and to let them to people living in its area."

Making use of the land

While Birmingham has both empty plots and waiting lists, some local councils are finding it harder to keep up with demand. Wrexham Council has resorted to cutting its standard allotment plots- 250 metres squared- into halves or even quarters, and on the Isle of Wight, an Adopt a Garden scheme has been launched to make use of neglected private land.

So it all comes down to a question of land, and space. One visitor to Carol’s stall doesn’t let that stop her from growing her own: “I know a girl who grows carrots on her fire escape!” Now how many people can say that?

If you want to find out more about growing your own, visit the links at the top of the page.