Page 42 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2023

Growing food
for health
and profit
The following is an extract from a booklet called Growing Food for Health and Profit produced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1947 when we were far better supported by the Government both commercially and as amateur gardeners than we are today.
The first chapter titled Does Vegetable Growing Pay? Sets out some interesting information and could easily have been written today as it is still relevant even though it was written back in 1947.
During recent years, the question has often been raised “Does an allotment pay?”. Following Dr Joad’s example, it all depends on what you mean by pay, and whom does it pay? (Dr Joad was a philosopher and radio personality back in war time Britain!). The Ministry of Agriculture has from time to time published the financial returns of demonstration allotments in different parts of the country, which showed that crops
to the value of anything from £20 to £30
at retail prices (1947 figures, see comment below) had been grown on 10 rods (300 sq. Yds or 250 sq. metres). Records of about
a hundred 10-rod plots showed in one
year an average of nearly 20 lbs (9 kilos) edible weight of vegetables weekly in the winter, the figures for the other seasons being spring 11 lbs (5 kilos);
summer 12 lbs (5.4 kilos);
autumn 15 lbs (6.8 kilos).
(the reason for the higher
weight in the autumn and
winter is owing to there
being more root crops,
whereas in the summer it
is mainly salad crops which
tend to be lighter – Ed).
he may have feared a food shortage or patriotically desired to help the national food situation. Whatever the motive that prompted the man to take on the allotment he has benefited himself as he is better
in health because of the exercise, better spirit because cultivating his plot took his mind off the burdens of office or workshop; he has benefited his family by providing fresh vegetables that kept them fit and incidentally helped his wife in trying to make ends meet and avoid queues. He and
get within striking distance of the pictured perfection, we all know of course that there are a few simple rules which if followed would mean better crops. But saying these simple rules on paper is one thing; carrying them out is another. But it is worthwhile saying them and trying to observe them. What are they?
Good and thorough cultivation is the
first step (this was written before no-dig became poplar!) in this “good husbandry” series. Feeding the soil that feeds us is the second. The third is being timely in all our operations whether it is digging, sowing, weeding, hoeing, thinning, or fighting pests. Then is that we use reliable seeds and feed the growing plants with the food they need we may be part way on the road to better vegetables.
It is interesting to read the dated language and comments in the booklet,
yet much of what is said still applies today; we are only just fully apricating the health benefits of gardening both physical and mental. If we all grew more of our food,
it would help in reducing the effects on climate change, we need to look at it as fighting a war which we cannot afford
to lose. The booklet goes on to mention feeding the soil to replace nutrients removed when crops are harvested and to maintain fertility, again something we need to keep doing; artificial fertilisers are not the answer to growing good vegetables.
I was curious to know what the current values of the 1947 £20 to £30 was in today’s terms so used the Bank of England’s inflation calculator which came up with the following figures. £20 of vegetables would be worth £620.56p today and £30 worth £930.84 so a well cropped allotment is well worth having, even a small vegetable plot will grow a decent amount of vegetables.
Of course, there is
far more to it than mere
financial returns, though
the thrifty housewife would
be the first to acknowledge
what a help it is in these
days to have her “good man” produce vegetables in variety that cost a good deal to buy in the shops. She knows too how important a part vegetable play in maintaining family health.
The “good man” himself may not perhaps have thought about the allotment or garden first from a economic angle. His attitude depends on whether he had a plot before the war or took it on after the war started. No doubt the pre-war allotment holder felt the call of the land and the allotment was his pastime. The war-time cultivator would probably say that he wanted to make sure of vegetables for his family; in some cases,
No doubt the pre-war allotment holder felt the call of the land and the allotment was his pastime
his fellow “Victory Diggers” benefited their country by contributing in every year of the war a substantial and indispensable quantity of food to the national larder without which the nation may have had to go short not only of vegetables but of other food which our farmers have been enabled to grow through the “Victory Diggers” efforts. Does an allotment pay? Empathetically it does, provided it is well managed
and efficiently cultivated, and the same goes for the private garden.
It is the dream of every gardener that one day he will produce those perfectly shaped, beautifully coloured vegetables pictured in the seedman’s catalogue or on the seed packet. For most of us it remains a dream, though the prize-winners at
our local horticultural shows seem to get somewhere near the dream come true!
As for the rest of us, we plod on year after year coping with lack of rain or sun, fighting ever present pests – blackfly on our broad beans, caterpillars on our greens and sometimes wonder whether we shall ever
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