Big Issue vendors have a wide variety of skills and experience, so we bring you the best of their knowledge each week. This week, Exeter vendor Richard Todd, who has worked as a landscape gardener and organic farmer, explains how you can start growing your own food.
With the pandemic and Brexit, food is becoming more expensive and I anticipate shortages. So I think for anyone who has access to land, they need to use every bit.
I grow other plants, but I do get a bit obsessed with potatoes and onions. The potato is a good staple, so from the point of view of people who don’t have a lot of money there’s an economic benefit, definitely. Also, if I’m going into new ground the potato’s quite a good thing to grow. A ridge and furrow is less labour-intensive and serves the purpose of helping to drain the soil and letting it warm up quicker in the cold months.
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I’ve avoided blight but if you grow main crops you’re going to have to spray them to prevent it. I’ve tended to grow a bigger new potato crop. They will store, but they don’t stay yummy like new potatoes. There’s the added benefit though that they come out of the ground a lot sooner than the main crop – so you’re going to harvest that crop earlier in the year and make that ground available to grow a follow-on crop. Over a 12-month period I’ve had three crops following on from that technique.
It’s always good to get certified, reliable seed. When I haven’t had much money I’ve chopped seed potatoes in half to get two plants. And when I’ve harvested I keep the small ones for replanting. We had a local market so we ended up selling the best, eating the mis-shapen ones ourselves and then with the small ones just save them for replanting.
