Country Ways

Country Ways: Val volunteers with Transition Horsham which runs the community allotment. She has decades of experience, as since childhood, she worked alongside her father on his allotment.
When she married, she and her husband grew everything: cabbages, turnips,
swedes, cauliflower, runner beans, potatoes, radishes, gherkins, onions…and nothing was wasted. Even the swede and turnip leaf greens were a healthy part of their meals.
Their early home had been derelict, condemned and unmortgageable and it took them many years to demolish and rebuild; everything was a hard slog. At one point a whole bay window fell out, and when it rained the water came up through the floor, so sometimes they ate dinner with friends in the upstairs bedroom! It was definitely a time of ‘Make do and mend’.

They were self-sufficient, and kept chickens for eggs but one bird, named ‘Rotten Hen’, was very aggressive, and ended up in the pot! If she occasionally fancied a chicken for dinner, she swapped some game meat with the butcher. Val says, “The birds were only killed at the natural end of their lives, then they were buried in the rhubarb bed. They would slowly release nitrogen over the years and produced the most fantastic rhubarb!

Val went on to become a poultry farm manager, the only female in the role at the time. She also had a game dealer’s license and had a good relationship with the local butcher and sometimes supplied her local inn with venison or game too. There was plenty of sustainable organic meat as there were pheasant shoots (an imported species), and ducks were also plentiful. She was skilled in butchering, so knowing when the gamekeepers would be culling deer was very helpful, for friends and the local WI Market. Large predators have been wiped out of the UK, so deer need culling periodically, and Val had plenty of customers.
 Similarly, in those days, if farmers had a rabbit problem they called on Val to help them out with her country friends and ferrets.

In the evenings, she loved hearing the nightingales, and watching the families of hedgehogs swim backwards and forwards across her pond squeaking and grunting as they went.
I was curious what Val’s message would be for people these days. With no hesitation she replied, “Join Transition Horsham. Get an allotment. Grow your own food in pots, baskets or window boxes, and cook your own unadulterated food.”

Coincidentally, the same night as I chatted with Val, I started a new book: “Ultra Processed People” by Prof Chris Van Tulleken. His message is essentially the same as Val’s- in order to be as healthy and happy as possible, aim to eat chemical-free, fresh food straight from the ground and avoid anything with ingredients you don’t recognise. Of course, that’s better for the planet too- fewer factories and delivery lorries and much less plastic and poison!

Val’s final message – “Come to the (Sussex) Green Hub and join us. If you do, you might be surprised at what you learn!”

The next Sussex Green Hub is August 31st 10am-1pm https://www.sussexgreenliving.org.uk/sussex-green-hub/