Page 5 - ALG Issue 4 2023

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Chairman’s
“I have been kept very busy since our AGM on 10th June trying to get ‘the message’ out there.
It is my belief that young children should be encouraged and taught to grow vegetables at school. They are
the allotmenteers of the future and it falls to us to make sure they learn to grow, cook food and gain an appetite for gardening. Food imports will not be as cheap and plentiful as they have been and processed foods will be found to be more harmful than they currently are, so it will become more of a necessity than it is now to grow and eat locally grown healthy food.
To this end, we are in the process
of recruiting/roping in high profile individuals to help publicise and broadcast ‘the message’. We are also looking for ways to improve the benefits of membership for both our current members and, hopefully, new members. As our membership grows so does the influence we can bring to bear on those in power, better enabling us to perform our aim of protecting and preserving allotments.
I was going to say a bit about how important soil health is, and possibly other things, but I don’t want to bore you any more than I possibly have (although there is a school of thought that would prefer ‘possibly’ to be replaced by ‘certainly’ and if I did write
much more the substitution of ‘annoy’ for ‘bore’ would certainly be accurate in the case of the aforementioned ‘school of thought’). With that I shall now
sign off and go and make a cuppa to possibly, pacify my ‘school of thought’.
Our annual get together next year will be at Sheffield on June 8th so put that date on the calendar.”
Adam is a popular celebrity gardener and a regular presenter of BBC Gardener’s World. I spent time talking with Adam and he was very enthusiastic about The National Allotment Society and expressed his support for our work.
Anne is the mother of Tommy Banks, the Michelin starred chef and this is where the vegetables are grown for the restaurant, The Black Swan. Not
so much food miles, more food yards as the chefs pick what they want to use and Anne manages the garden. We had a long chat about the benefits of good organically grown vegetables.
Alex Stafford is the MP for Rother Valley. I met with him to discuss the importance of allotments and the teaching of horticulture in schools. Following the meeting, Alex confirmed he would raise this important subject further in Parliament and with Ministers.
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 5