Food:Allotments are once again in demand and are a most convivial way to grow your own food, writes Jane Powers
Meetings of the South Dublin Allotments Association start with members recounting what gave them the most pleasure during the season. For the group's chairman, Michael Fox, one of last year's highlights was growing oca, which has "a lemony taste and a homely texture". He'd never heard of the Andean tuber, until he was given a cutting by a neighbouring plot-holder. "That's the lovely thing about allotments: people sharing their stuff."
Among Fox's other crops were six varieties of potatoes, red onions, pumpkins, cabbage (Savoy and summer), brussels sprouts (green and red), swede, turnip, beetroot, sweet corn, chard, New Zealand spinach and "strawberries, which will be ready for next year."
Fox, who is a psychotherapist, cultivates one of the 13 plots at South Dublin County Council's site at Tymon Park in Tallaght. His fellow growers include teachers, local authority workers, business people and a fireman. "You talk with people so often, but you may not even know what they do," he says, struggling to remember who does what - and proving that allotments are a great class leveller.
There are four allotment sites in the south Dublin area, with 164 plots between them; two more in the Fingal area, with 219 plots; and one in DúLaoghaire-Rathdown, with 100 allotments. And that is the extent of local authority allotments in Dublin, and indeed in the Republic of Ireland. "In England," says Fox, "there are 15 plots per thousand households. In south Dublin we have only one tenth of that."
"Local authorities," he continues, "have not, up until now, promoted allotment gardening. It's been kept almost quiet." (He's right: you won't find any inkling on any of the Dublin councils' extensive websites as to whether it's possible to get a plot, or even to join a waiting list for one.)
Things were different during the "Emergency" when in the Dublin Corporation area alone (where there are currently no allotment sites) there were 7,413 plots - 2,000 of which were acquired in 48 hours in 1941, by an Emergency Powers order. Through a government scheme, unemployed men were offered concessionary rents, as well as seeds, manure and the loan of tools. This, according to a report presented to the Dublin City Council of the time, allowed "idle men to remain physically fit and so be enabled to undertake manual work when offered."
Nowadays, our language isn't quite so blunt, but there's no doubt that sowing, hoeing and harvesting are good for both the body and the soul - as is the shared goodwill that blossoms within a community of urban farmers. Furthermore, there's something vastly empowering about growing your own organic food, and taking the supermarket out of the equation - with its attendant minuses of listless vegetables, food miles, packaging and fossil-fuelled industrial agriculture.
In Naas, Galway, Cork and Limerick, groups have already started to put pressure on their local authorities to provide plots, says Michael Fox. He urges other would-be allotment gardeners to do the same: "Form an interest group, and make a proposal through a development plan, or if there isn't a plan in the making, just approach the local authority with a proposal." A forward-thinking county council might realise that 'this is something good for us to do' - responding to community needs in a more sustainable way."
Keeping an allotment, says Fox, is a wonderfully beneficial mix of gardening and meeting people. "Your social needs are met, as is the need to get out in the fresh air and exercise. You are getting everything wrapped up in one."
• For details of the South Dublin Allotments Association see http://homepage.eircom.net/~sthduballots/ or e-mail michaelfox12@eircom.net
GROWyour own food. Learn how by taking a class or enrolling in a course with one of the following:
• Cultivate in Temple Bar, Dublin 8 (01-6745773; www.cultivate.ie)
• Airfield Trust, Dundrum, Dublin 14 (01-2984301; www.airfield.ie)
• Irish Seed Savers' Association, Scariff, Co Clare (061-921866; www.irishseedsavers.ie)
• Kinsale FEC, Co Cork (021-4772275; www.kinsalefurthered.ie)
• The Organic Centre in Co Leitrim (071-9854338; www.theorganiccentre.ie)
• Milkwood Farm in north Co Leitrim (071-9131855)
• An t-Ionad Glas Organic College, Drumcollogher, Co Limerick (063-83604; www.organiccollege.com)
CHECK OUTyour local community college for gardening classes, or join a local gardening club.
SUBSCRIBEto the Irish-published bi-monthly Organic Matters for €30 (The Irish Organic Farmers' and Growers' Association, Main Street, Newtownforbes, Co Longford; 043-42495; www.organicmattersmag.com).
a member of Europe's largest organic organisation: Garden Organic (also known as the Henry Doubleday Research Association) for £26 and receive the quarterly Organic Way magazine, free gardening advice, and access to the excellent members-only area of the website (Ryton Organic Gardens, Coventry, Warwickshire, CV8 3LG, UK; 00-44-24-7630-3517; www.gardenorganic.org.uk).
GET A COPYof Grow your own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom (Frances Lincoln, £9.99 in UK), or any of the late John Seymour's books on self-sufficiency and living off the land.
WATCHthe final four programmes of Carol Klein's six-parter, Grow Your Own Veg, on BBC2 at 8.30pm on Fridays, and learn about peas and beans, brassicas, salads, squashes and sweetcorn.
BUY LOCALfood in a farmers' market near you. Ask where the produce is from and how it is raised. Patronise your neighbourhood food shops, especially those that support local growers and producers. Remember: organic farming is kinder to the land, but its benefits are cancelled out if it has been flown from another country. For market venues, dates and times, see: www.irelandmarkets.com; www.irishfarmersmarkets.ie, and www.dlrcoco.ie/markets.
EAT LESS MEATFor every kilo of meat we consume, the animal takes in from two to 10 kilos of feed - which is an inefficient and resource-heavy way for a human to get his or her calories. We eat 60 per cent more meat than we did 40 years ago, and are more prone to heart disease and obesity. Check out the Vegetarian Society website (www.vegsoc.org) for recipes and information. The BBC's food website (www.bbc.co.uk/food) has plenty of vegan and vegetarian recipes, as does the American web, home of Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines (www.epicurious.com).