Allotment- inspire me, please?

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We've been given a big allotment (3mx14m). What I'd like to do is to grow things specifically to give to the food bank/soup kitchens over the seasons.

I've looked for information at work, and found a few soup kitchens. Would they accept vegetables/fruit, do you think?

And what to grow? Potatoes are a no-brainer. If I'm donating things to a food bank, though, I need stuff which can be eaten raw, don't I?

Inspire me, please! 12 months ago, I killed a cactus, and I'm still a baby-gardener. I'm learning, slowly.

That is a very lovely idea but sadly it's unlikely you'll produce enough to have any to donate. Especially for the first year or two.

I was really disappointed by the output from our allotment... the soil is usually very low in nutrients and has every disease going. It's given me a huge amount of respect for farmers!

You need to call the charities you want to help. I have an allotment and I’m drowning in courgettes and squash at the minute. I offered some to the food bank and they refused along with chutneys and jams.

Buggar.

If I DID, by some miracle, produce enough of things though...what would be the best to have a glut of?

I suggest you look at crops that don't come in gluts, like courgettes, with a short shelf-life. The obvious one is spuds as you can harvest them over a period and they'll keep, the same goes for most root crops, likewise brassicas.
Agree with PP, get in touch with a local foodbank.

There's a homeless charity near me that would take this sort of stuff for the people they temporarily house. It's definitely worth asking a few food banks, charities and community groups near you if they could take stuff. But you won't necessarily always have stuff to give them. It does take time to get an allotment going and to learn what plants grow best on your particular site. You might get a glut of something one year and the next year the same thing fails due to the weather that year or a disease going round.

Another option is to see if local groups or charities have beneficiaries who want go come and help you grow on it. Gardening can be really good for people's mental health.

Or if you get a glut make jam or chutneys, sell it and give the money to a local charity.

Bloody brilliant ideas! Thank you!

Polly's talking a lot of sense,OP, in her 2nd para

Carrots and leeks? Potato and leek soup is always a hit in our house, and carrot and coriander too. Can you grow herbs in an allotment? I’m very envious! My auntie has a bay tree too, bay leaves always help with soups and casseroles.

Spring onions? Parsnips, sweet potatoes, courgettes, aubergine.

Grow things that you like eating.
Grow things that are expensive to buy but foolproof and will be edible in midwinter like kale, turnips, squashes and PSB.

We donate our excess to an Allotment Market Stall. If they can’t sell it, it’s donated to a Foodbank, but sadly they find people don’t want it. We are in Aberdeen and an organisation called CFINE run the stall- they also run things like low cost fruit/veg shops in deprived areas. I fear if they can’t use it not many food bank/charities will be able to.

Or grow what you like, then when you get an excess sell it to people or swap for tins etc to donate to a foodbank?

The local food bank to us will only accept things like tins, not fresh food like this.
I would definitely check with them first as you may not be able to donate.

We have a local cafe which is a 'pay as you feel' type thing so people with low incomes / homeless can use it without pressure. I think they get donations from local supermarkets of goods they can make into dishes, I would try find somewhere like that to donate.

How about a sort of honesty box/exchange thing? Ask in church or local groups if you can set up a table with your stuff on it and in return they make a donation of either tinned stuff or cash?

It is hard to give fruit and veg away as fresh grown stuff does spoil so easily.

It might be best to speak to the soup kitchen and get them to give you a list of what they could use.

But and it is a big but - having an allotment is f'kin hard work. I can tell you from experience it breaks your heart to grow loads of stuff, give it to people who say they wanted it, and to see it chucked in the bin/compost heap when you next go there.

So I'd say plan to sort your own growing needs out first.

Get your allotment in shape before you even contemplate donations.

We are 10 years in, we got an allotment with virtually no topsoil and have been adding organic matter for the whole time and it is still like granite in the summer if we don't mulch and with the grass not growing this year, there is no mulch to be had.

You can grow all sorts of things on an allotment. Herbs aren't difficult.
With an allotment you can grow root veg, which are generally too slow growing if you are pushed for space.

This is fab- and I love the 'swap' idea!

Thank you.

Potatoes are very difficult to grow. They need a lot of work from spraying for blight. They take up a lot of room. Go onto gardeners world and watch some videos.

Turnips, beetroot, carrots, onions, parsnips, kale, cabbage, sprouts, courgettes are all easy to grow.
I'd give it a year or 2 before tackling potatoes.

Potatoes are the easiest thing to grow!

They do not need spraying against blight, esp if you plant blight resistant varieties. I've never once sprayed, and only ever got blight once during a very wet season, you just cut the haulms back and harvest a week later.

I have grown all sorts of things in a garden but swiss chard is my favourite as it's so versatile. Kale is very easy. Spinach is easy. Space is the biggest problem. Fancy things like artichokes are easy. I've not had much success with aubergines and peppers - only got small crops for my efforts. Fruit like strawberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries are easy. Fruit trees are easy - pears win for the beautiful blossom.
I always want a GLUT of courgettes and beans but hardly ever get a glut. Melons are easy.
Squashes like turk's turban, kabocha and crown prince trained upright will provide fruit that will keep through the winter.
Salads are easy esp. land cress, rocket and mustards.
Pak choi etc are very easy.

Potatoes and tomatoes aren't difficult but watch out for blight.

Parsnips are really easy and have a long growing period. Get a rust resistant variety.
Leeks, peas and runner beans.
Cabbages are easy, but need a netting cage to keep the butterflies off.
Courgettes are easy once you get them started.
Pak choi is easy but prone to aphids so again use fine netting or grow them under plastic.

Also, join your local allotment holders association as they get a really good deal from Kings Seeds. You get a catalogue in the autumn with some brilliant bargains.

Fruit and nut trees and shrubs are very low maintence and easy. Plant them, watch them grow and yield produce year, after year after year. They are the backbone of my plot.

I bought a load of glorified twigs from Aldi and Wilkinsons - blueberries, redcurrants, raspberries, tayberries, whitecurrants - stuck them in the ground without much hope, and they were fruiting like mad the following year.

Between the shrubs, I plant strawberries - and they send up new plants and multiply with no effort on my part and saving me money.

Raspberries send up suckers and make new plants without so much as by-your-leave. I pull 'em up and give them away or else I use them to replace really old plants.

Fruit, nuts and berries are expensive in the shops. They grow in abundance on allotments.

I'd give you the link but there is something wrong with the the home page on the website......

Fareshare.org.uk is the organisation that collects fresh food from supermarkets and other places. They deliver the food not only to foodbanks but to projects and local community groups (eg a project set up to feed children during the school holidays). You can drop food off too, at my local depot.

Fareshare has a regional set-up, (I'm live in the southwest region) but with depots in towns and cities.

I think I would be contacting Fareshare in the future to help me find a project that needed fresh food, as a one-off or a weekly thing.

Good luck!

Thank you!

I've grown vegetables with varying success. I've given some away, some eaten, some frozen. You could also grow flowers and sell or donate them locally to friends, family, church, hospital. I've seen allotments with chickens. If there are other allotments near, you could have best scarecrow competition, biggest fruit, vegetable competition. If it's a big plot you could invite other people to help and they share the produce. You will need water and manure. Good luck

Don't do carrots. They are bastards.