Despite the wet summer, the veg garden and polytunnel at Rhemore are in full swing and it’s the season for an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables.
As usual there have been a few hiccups; the polytunnel got left shut on a sunny day in early spring and the intense heat cost us half of our newly formed grapes. The weather then turned a few times either just after sowing or planting out seedlings and some crops have worked much better than others as a result. There are a lot more weeds than usual in the garden this year due to a distinct lack of nice days for working outside – but we can’t complain.
The croft is currently providing at least 60-70% of what we eat right now (probably was more when we were regularly milking one of the cows). The freezer is full of berries, and we will have enough pumpkins to keep us going through the winter due a mislabelling mix-up with the cucumber seedlings. Every year I’m still amazed by how much food you can get out of a relatively small patch of land with not too much effort from two people – just by being on site and a bit of daily care.
This summer I went back to London to see family and it was an eye-opener as to how difficult it is becoming to grow fruit and veg in some parts of the UK. I don’t quite know how you grow vegetables in 34 degrees with a hose pipe ban, but most of my London friends and family have abandoned growing food in their gardens this year.
Understandably, there are now a lot more people talking about national food security as well as rising food prices. Not just because the weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable, but also, according to recent government reports, because of a real danger of ecosystem collapse within the next thirty years.
Everyone knows I am constantly banging on about croft creation in Morvern (and its fantastic news about the Lochaline Community Forest project!). There are so many good reasons to give ordinary people access to land that I am not sure I always spell it out that one of my main reasons for trying to create more crofts here is that I genuinely believe this presents the best outlook for the local community. Access to food and food growing should be a central part of every community’s long term resilience plan.
There is a place for large scale agriculture, but it is becoming increasingly risky, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, in years to come, there is a shift to incorporate an element of more intensive and diverse food growing onto larger estates and farms.
We are lucky to have the mild wet weather we do here (even if it doesn’t always feel lucky) and I was relieved to leave London where just surviving the heat was tiring. In Morvern we also have good soil, good aspects and no shortage of seaweed. We also have many people here with knowledge, expertise and a keenness to grow food. The community allotments are fantastic testimony to this, and another demonstration of just how much food can be grown on a small patch of land with enough passion and spadework.
As part of the consultation for community forest the community woodlands put out a call out for proposals for crofts. Over ten households, groups and individuals in Morvern were looking for land to grow food on a larger scale.
Just imagine if enough land was available, for all those folk who wanted to lease it, to grow fruit trees, keep chickens and bees, build polytunnels and grow fruit and veg. What if everyone in Morvern who wanted to keep livestock for meat and dairy were given that opportunity to do so and used the local abattoir and butcher, so the meat was sold and eaten locally. It wouldn’t just be good for the health of the community but the benefits to those individuals would also be immense.
I firmly believe this might mitigate some of the uncertainty the future holds, at least locally. It may take an almost war-time like effort to reverse the food security situation the UK, but if anyone can do it, folk in this find part of the world can.
In the meantime, I shall tuck in to my beetroot, leeks and potatoes, which have all done surprisingly well in all the rain this year.
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