Is it legal to sell veg from your plot?
Cheers
Pigeon, I think it depends on the allotment rules for your site.
Not allowed on ours.
Ninny
Not illegal, but most likely against your contract and therefore grounds for eviction.
Quote from: amphibian on April 26, 2010, 23:54:24
Not illegal, but most likely against your contract and therefore grounds for eviction.
You would be instantly evicted from our site as per the terms and conditions in town council rules, site rules and your contract.
Not legal on our site. Most people are happy to share with fellow plotters or give away to family & friends.
Its officially banned on ours but last year a newsletter went round that seemed to actively encourage it, suggesting the local farmers market! Couldnt sell it from the site itself as its locked.
It's not legal for indvidual plotholders to sell produce, though I don't see how anyone would know if you were discreet about it. We've discovered it is legal for the site association to do so, as the rule doesn't address the possibility that it might.
In my experience it's against the rules but a "blind eye"situation seems to exist. ;)
Personally we love just swapping and sharing and would feel uncomfortable charging,we've made better friends of neighbours both on site and at home by handing over surplus strawbs,runners and courgettes etc :)
I do not see any harm in getting a bit of seed money back. I rather resent giving stuff away except to close friends and family. It is not free for me, so why should people expect vegetables for nothing. I have always sold a few extra courgettes and beans from my garden so it would be difficult to know where anything I sold actually comes from. I certainly do not make a profit.
I used to put out courgettes/marrows in the front garden and find a steady trickle of 20p through my letter box. One year I got a packet of mixed seeds. But in recent years the courgettes just mostly disappear. Complete strangers take them and do not even stop and thank me.
I moved from having allotments 17 years ago and back then it was said plots should be for recreational purposes(or some such).
Nobody asked questions when I sold surplus produce but then again I was younger and fitter then and turned up for working party duty ;)
I leave food on my doorstep, but I wqouldn't dream of asking for money, not least because my site chairman lives a few doors up. He can see from his window what I grow in my garden.
Quote from: ktlawson on April 27, 2010, 07:06:19
You would be instantly evicted from our site as per the terms and conditions in town council rules, site rules and your contract.
I so wish town councils were as conscientious in their application of the law as they are rabid in the prosecution of their rules.
While it ought to be a condition of any statutory allotment that the plot may not be used for commercial growing, it is unlikely that selling surplus would be found to break this rule. That was a finding of the government select committee into the future of allotments.
Nor is an instant eviction enforceable. Law of Property 1925 S.146 - were the tenant using their plot for commercial purposes you are obliged to fine the tenant, and only if the tenant won't pay can you evict.
But actually selling produce from your plot? I can see it raising a few eyebrows, but is it really breaking any rule if the produce is genuinely surplus? That said, I'm not comfortable with the idea, not if the tenant pockets the money. Swapping, giving it away of giving the money to charity to me all seem more in line with the allotment tradition.
Quote from: cleo on April 27, 2010, 17:08:29
I moved from having allotments 17 years ago and back then it was said plots should be for recreational purposes(or some such).
This raises an interesting point. Ordinarily a statutory allotment can't be used for commercial growing, but if the plot can't be let on those terms, as was the situation 17 years ago, it could be let on any terms that would secure a tenant. So it's perfectly possible that tenancies from a few years ago do allow commercial growing, though in practice I doubt many councils bothered.
I give some of my veg away to friends and family when they say do you want something for it? I say "no not really but you could get me some seeds for next year something you would like me to grow for you". I always get seed packets. so it saves me money and by next year they forgot what seeds they gave you!
I gave away lots of courgettes last year at work (and will probably do so again this), along with a fair number of squashes, potatoes, onions and beans to family.... got bought a lot of drinks at the Christmas party (from what I remember) and the family got me a lot of seeds this year.... what comes around and all that.....
I remember when I was young we sold spring onions to our local grocer... we got credit against the meat we bought (we grew all our veg pretty much) and the folks put the money towards the summer holiday... in 1975 (I think) we had two weeks in Weymouth paid for by the fact that our ground would grow spring onions like weeds and it was agood year for them.... It seemed that every couple of evenings I was sat up with e folks bundling spring onions from April though to August... by then Dad was starting off early ones in the GH before the tomatoes went in... I remember going down to this seedsman/smallholding place to buy seeds one year (75/76), it was a packet of this, opaxket of that, twqo packs of peas.... and a 2lb box of spring onion seed....
When I lived in an area that actually had allotments about twenty years ago, I took one up and was instantly befriended by an elderly lady called Doris, who gave me runner bean seeds and advice. As I got to know her, it became clear that she was quietly cultivating two full-sized plots and selling the produce to a whole bunch of pensioners, using her bike to do her rounds. Against the rules, but who could fault her for her common sense, kindness, efficiency, green credentials or healthy lifestyle?
I'm always pleased to be reminded of Doris. And it's funny to think that what she was quietly doing two decades ago is pretty close to what many individuals and families are striving to do, today. ;D
I cannot comment on the regs now,but back in the mid 80s when allotments were not so keenly sought nobody fussed when I supplied the local greengrocer.
Just a few plants -hard to imagine I get 69p for a lollo rossa-but they were `exotic` back then.
As I said-I took unwanted plots,and put myself about bit to be on the working party.
A take from our rule book...;"the objects of the Society shall be.....to carry on the businesses of wholesale and retail dealers in horticultural and agricultural requirements ,dairy, farm and garden produce, eggs and poultry"
This is was 1948 and things are pretty much same now..part you cannot leave gate open nor give the key to outsiders..so no questions asked what you do with your produce once it is outside the gates.. ;D
I don't think anyone ever does check up. I have records to the effect that someone was selling madonna lilies from my plot at 2/6d a stem in the 1940's. Someone was selling veg from another plot during the First World War, and his accounts are still in existence. I don't know what the rules were back then though.
We have carefully worded our rules so that members can not run a business or make a profit. Any profit is supposed to be donated to the association.
That allows us to pass on to others who are not friends and relatives excess in return for a donation toward the cost of such things as seeds and compost.
I can't imagine that anyone could manage to boost their retirement fund selling off stuff. When it is ready for harvest is usually the same time as the fruit and veg in the shops is at is cheapest.
It would be harder now with veg so much cheaper than they were a generation ago. But the evidence that it's been done in the past is right beside me!
The prolem if you want to sell is that people just don't want to part with money...they are happy to pay over the odds for a lettuce in supermarkets..but try to sell one of your own.. ::)..which is grown best possible way with no sprays, chemicals..etc.. and to get rid of it you have to give it away or expect to get silly money... ::) I stopped doing veg for anybody else long time ago..not worth it for all time it takes..
But we do have couple of chaps who still do..but I suspect they do have their faithful clients..who knows..we are not asking..but the amount they are growing ::) ...and no families to feed.. ::)
Personally..if anybody does it..good for them... ;D
We were encouraged by our council in Liverpool to have open days when produce could be sold.
We raise extra plants as well and sell them.
All profit goes to our site. (£137 profit this April).
Since the Council cut back on some of the funds available to allotments a few of the sites near us have started to sell produce wether it be home grown or bought in produce and other gardening needs. The proceeds go towards maintaining the allotment site.
When I knew Doris twenty years ago, she had two full allotments and only herself to feed. I think her main selling points were that she sold properly fresh veg that pensioners had known all their lives and couldn't get from the supermarkets and, secondly, she delivered to their door, at a time when there were many more pensioners who couldn't drive.
Whether anyone would make a profit today, with high seed costs and changed tastes in food, I very much doubt. I see a lot of pensioners in Lidl... :)