 |
| From front to back : Beetroot, spinach, salads, runner beans and more runner beans |
Nearly a year and a half after buying the land, and after nine and a half months of working on it, it has finally happened. Someone has paid me for the plant life I've teased out of my soil. The joy of finally becoming an actual producer of edible goods was perhaps disproportionate to the sum of money involved (£5 for five small bags of spinach) but that's because a principle has been established. I am in business. My labour has begun to be recompensed.
 |
| Broad beans on their way |
This is definitely a different kind of feeling from when I received a salary as employee of the various businesses I have toiled for in the past. Then I simply had to do what was expected of me by my bosses and I would be rewarded each month, the agreed amount deposited in my bank account. Now it's the stuff that I have chosen to create, or at least try to nurture into being, that is itself of value and for which people seem to be prepared to pay. No doubt soon it'll start to sink in how small the sums are that one gets for fresh veg considering the hours input, but for now it is time to celebrate (with a glass of nettle beer!).
 |
| My very first produce for sale |
I delivered the spinach last Wednesday to Machynlleth's Bowling Club where all the other growers also deposited this week's produce. It was the second week of the veg bag scheme and Katie had already got the system down pat. She had organised a rota of volunteer “packers” and this week I was down to help. Three of us gathered at the Bowling Club at 12:30pm and spent the next three hours or so following Katie's instructions on which of the nearly forty bags gets which types of veg. Because the scheme is taking vegetables only from small-scale local producers there isn't enough of each item simply to make all the bags identical, so each week Katie has to divide them into four batches, each batch getting a different selection of veg, making sure that everyone gets a fair amount of roughly equal worth. Add into the equation some customers saying they don't want celery or whatever, and one batch only being half-size bags for people paying less, and it gets complicated pretty quickly.
 |
| A few of the veg bags in the process of being packed. Those are my bags of spinach at the front! |
At least we didn't have to deliver them to houses. Customers are expected to collect the bags from one of three drop-off points around town, so all we had to do was take them to the drop-off points. Not having a car we had to use a large wooden two-handled trolley to transport the bags which only took about eight, but the main drop-off point was close to the Bowling Club and with three of us we got it done without too much stress.
Not content with the £5, this week I have also made another £7.90 by selling four salad bags (150g) and another spinach bag to three sets of customers – neighbours and others I have met to whom I had let slip that I was able to offer freshly cut leaves in a bag. My neighbours have even promised to take two salad bags a week from now on so the big bucks are really going to start rolling.
I'll end with a quick quiz. Below are some flowers from the vegetable plants in my garden, your task is to name them. To make it easier I'll give you the plant names so it's just a question of matching them up. Some of the flowers will turn into the fruit I'll pick – tomato, broad bean and mange tout (pea pod); some flowers are not relevant to the edible parts – potato and asparagus; others are from salad plants which have 'bolted', which means they have given up producing leaves for me to pick and decided to make flowers and seeds instead (this is a bad thing) – rocket and mizuna are pictured here; still other flowers are being grown to go in salad bags and be eaten - nasturtium. And I've thrown in a photo of a wild blackberry flower too from the patch outside my caravan. Good luck! Add your answers as comments below, if you're able and willing. I'll post the definite answers next week.
 |
| A |
 |
| B |
 |
| C |
 |
| D |
 |
| E |
 |
| F |
 |
| G |
 |
| H |
 |
| I |
No comments:
Post a Comment