It’s time to grow your own

Health scares of foot and mouth, BSE and Sudan 1 food dye, have focused people's minds on what they are putting into their mouths.

Sales of organic foods soared by 30 per cent last year alone and look set for similar growth in the next few years.

One of the main reasons organic food is said to be healthier is because they avoid artificial fertilisers and additives.

As a result, organic farms are more labour intensive, making them costlier to run, so the price in the shop is higher.

For many people, buying organic food from a supermarket is simply out of the question because of this higher cost.

One alternative is to grow your own food on an allotment, although this is not as easy as it may seem.

Bolton now has 37 allotment plots scattered throughout the borough but there is a waiting list of up to three years for most sites.

Many of the people who rent allotments, often for as little as £50 a year, grow organic produce.

The demand for healthy food has been growing in strength in recent years.

The growth of cookery programmes, coupled with a move towards healthy eating has seen an increase in interest in allotments where people can grow a range of organic food.

If you are not prepared to wait for three years for your own allotment, you can join one of the 10 thriving community food gardens found at allotments throughout Bolton.

Alan Brown, health improvement specialist for Bolton Primary Care Trust (PCT) and treasurer for the Bolton Gathering of Organic Growers (GOG), said the community gardens support at least 100 people.

Bolton GOG is an independent network supporting self-managed community food gardens and educational projects, and encourages sustainable community development and healthy eating.

The project has been aided by Bolton PCT through the Health for Bolton Fund, the 5-A-Day programme and Bolton Wildlife Project. The project targets disadvantaged and hard-to-reach groups including women, single mothers and young people.

Each garden is independently self-managed and members work on the plot and take a share of the vegetables they grow.

Mr Brown said: "At the Central Park community garden in Westhoughton, everybody helps each other and experiment with different vegetables.

"We now have 10 schools involved which each have their own vegetable garden. We want to involve many more schools so we can get younger people involved.

"We want to get more secondary schools to set up gardens as these gardens can be a valuable resource for the schools who get involved.

"We also want to get more young people coming through to learn skills which are being lost.

"We have also worked successfully with the pupil referral centre in Westhoughton and we are trying to get more funding to start selling vegetables on the street using our own van.

"But to do that we need a plot of land separate from the allotments that will produce a range of vegetables for the van to sell."

At Central Park community garden in Westhoughton, Roy Swannick, aged 80, has now been appointed ambassador to the other community gardens where he gives help and advice.

"I started growing during Dig for Victory in the Second World War and I never stopped," he said.

"I have been very successful with growing unusual varieties of potatoes and I've had good crops of tomatoes."

The idea for GOG grew out of food co-ops set up in the late 90s, but which suffered from supply problems.

The members decided to grow their own produce, linked with the Wildlife Trust composting scheme and formed their own community food garden.

They now need a stretch of land outside of the allotment-based community plots to provide food to sell from the van as it is illegal to sell allotment produce.

lFOR information on Gathering of Organic Growers, contact treasurer Alan Brown at Bolton Primary Care Trust, St. Peter's House, Silverwell St, Bolton, BL1 1PP, telephone 01204 907714 or visit www.bolton_organics.org.uk