Topic: Selling allotment produce

[Kingfisher]

Barlotti, I think you are over reacting a little, what you do with your veg is up to you not anyone else, the same goes for everyone else, everyones circumstances are different, and as for saying that you might give up coming on the site, well that would be sad just because someone has a difference in oppion to you, I think you are good for giving your allotment left overs to others, if that makes you happy so be it, no one is telling you what to do, you do what you want, just be happy with what you do, and hope that you will not see it as a go at you, its not,  you keep giving your veg away and all us others will try to get a bit of our outlay back, in one month I have sold thirteen pound of eggs, in the shops this would be about £30 shop prises my neighbers are very happy all the best.

[Old bird]

Borlotti - I certainly am not "moaning about the cost of keeping my chickens"  I think you are completely entrenched in your receiving thanks as payment and I am entrenched in (a) giving stuff to workmates family & close neighbours and (b) selling excess produce and eggs to cover the cost of seeds and chicken food.

We all are very happy with this arrangement, my friends, neighbours, workmates, and people who buy my produce which is ten times fresher and better and cheaper than they would purchase in any stores!  I don't set out to "make money" just to cover the cost of seeds & chicken food OK?

It would be a shame if you didn't visit the site anymore because you feel strongly over this point - there are plenty of other discussions which I am sure you would not feel so strongly about and could joint in!

We will agree to differ!

Old Bird

 :D

[Borlotti]

OK, I agree I would love to buy your eggs.  Think chickens need a lot of work, food and whatever.  Perhaps I am wrong, and courgettes I will give away as I have too many.  Was speaking to someone at the allotment today and he said he agreed with a farmers market and perhaps spend the money on buying stuff for the allotment.  But I said that buying a rovator etc for general use, as I had read on this site before, might cause problems with storage, people not using it properly, health and safety etc. etc. but I may be wrong. I suppose if the food is cheap and good and people love it, it is not a bad idea to sell it, but still can't get my head round it.  Open to any ideas and admit I would certainly buy/like to be given fresh eggs, but have just given away courgettes and beans to next door allotment, but she will give me things back, so it is swings and roundabouts, so I suppose I am bartering so that is the same as accepting money.  Oh well whatever, perhaps in the future when I have loads and loads of brilliant produce I will sell it, but don't think so as it just seems so wrong to me.  Sorry everyone.

[kenkew]

let's not forget that many people grow their own for financial saving reasons. Quality produced is the bonus but we all grow more than we need, so if someone has spares, why not sell if there's a buyer? I see lottsa sense in it. People buy 'fresh' food everyday anyway, so why not buy the local produce grown from your local allotment fella and save money as well as getting something delivered within hours of picking...? If the idea of paying someone who has spent many, many hours to produce healthy crops goes against the grain, well, let's look at scrapping the LETS scheme and Oxfam too!
 In short, most people would love the chance to buy and eat fresh locally grown fruit and veg which is probably delivered to their door. It's been going on for centuries and all power to it.

[Kingfisher]

well im glad that you can see the other side of it, and also glad that you will still be staying to chat to us all well done

[Suzanne]

Hi Kenkew  :) and everyone

I agree with you in respect of local produce. I think it is expected that you either give away or sell your surplus, and when I say sell it, it usually is at knock down prices like an honesty box for people to leave what they think its worth.

Having said all of that I don't usually get lots of surplus (apart form courgettes and you can't give these away let alone sell them) as I plant small amounts of lots of different things so I don't get bored with dinner. Although this year I seem to have a bumper winter squash crop which I wasn't expecting. The Sucrine de Berry is a lot more prolific than I thought it would be! Luckily they store really well.

[Borlotti]

I actually got asked for courgettes today by my friend at tennis.  Sorry but I had composted 3 plants in the garden, as other half was moaning, again (he has got a degree in moaning) about why have you got an allotment if you will plant veg in the garden.  Well I have about 12 plants at the allotment and the 3 in the garden got a bit too big (they were only tiny when planted) so they have gone to garden heaven.  How much would you charge for a courgette, perhaps we could have a competition, or perhaps pay people to take them away.  I love the one about the man who took them to his neighbours at night and next morning they returned them.  Tomorrow we are going to have a 'takeaway curry' and no courgette soup and no runner beans, and no I am not cooking courgette and bean curry. Well maybe???  Will look up a recipe as with all this rain the dreaded courgettes will multiply in the night.

[Hyacinth]

Hey B, ever thought of advertising them on your local Freecycle? I used to take mine into the Home where my mother was and the cook made soup for the residents - they loved it. Home-made soup a novelty for them. :-\

[kenkew]

Borlottie has a point about giving it away where you have too much of one item (happens a lot!) and it's far better to give than throw away. The point raised about paying much much less for surplus grown items has always been the way with lottie folks. Swaps between lottie people is an excepted and expected way to go on. Selling outside the lottie has been around since allotments came into being. Don't we all buy from the middleman....ie; the Superbaskets! rather than buying at the farm gate? (Although eggs, spuds, strawberries, apples, plums, pears etc are still for sale at the road side!

[Barnowl]

What about seedlngs? Rather than throw away my surplus chilli and tomato seedlings I have found people including some in the local shops who would like them and despite my saying I would just rather they went to a good home than get thrown away and don't need anything in return ,they have insisted on giving us discounted meat, fish and cheese as a result.  If I'd grown the seedlings at the allotment instead of in the GH at home I would have been breaking our allotment rules.

You always sow more seed than the number of seedlings you want so what should people who only have an allotments do? It may be breaking the rules but it seems immoral to waste a good seedling for which you can find a home.

[artichoke]

Giving veg away: I liked the point made by Alishka that if she did not accept 50p for a cucumber, her OAP would spend £5 on a bottle of wine, being unwilling to accept "charity". I have the same problem: I know an OAP who particularly loves fresh vegetables, but she keeps giving me boxes of chocolates in return, so I have given up (do not eat sweets).

Tax position of accepting money: if you DID report a small occasional income, it would be more than offset by allowable expenses, not to mention a lot of boring paperwork (I am self employed so have to do it every year).

So far I have given my vegetables to charity stalls and they are very pleased to receive and sell them. I have nothing against selling a few surplus veg and know one or two allotment people who do this on a very small scale to help pay for seeds etc at the occasional farmers' market here.

People have suggested I put an honesty box with veg outside my front door. The reason I don't do this is that my neighbours are shops selling vegetables and I would upset them by either giving it away publicly or charging for it. We are lucky in this village to have shops still, and I want to support them, not undermine them.