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’. Read more