Life in a small street

[andrewducker]

I love living in this cul-de-sac.

I was just putting out some rubbish and heard a voice from the darkness ask "Want some runner beans?"   And it was our neighbour Rachel passing by with a bag of her home grown ones to deliver further up the street.

She passed me a handful and then vanished into the night.  I felt that somehow I should be offering her my prize cow in exchange...

Comments

[vivdunstan]

That is magnificent! Enjoy the beans :)

[channelpenguin]

:-)

I got a big cabbage from my neighbour - but not in such a story-worthy fashion!

(I have my own runner beans)

Plethora: it means 'allotment'

[hairyears]

Growing fruit and vegetables on a 'garden' scale means that most of the successful plantings deliver too much to eat (but too little to sell), and all of it at once.

Managing the handful of cultivars that can give a steady crop of small weekly batches for the table is extremely labour-intensive: it's impractical for a working household.

So: individual garden growers and allotment holders frequently find themselves holding a surplus - even the ones who grow storable produce and know a bit about preserving.


The result is that most allotment sites have a well-established 'gift economy' in which surpluses are given away within small and informal communities.

Note that this is not 'barter', as these are usually one-way exchanges with no 'trading' and 'bargaining' and no immediate expectation of reciprocation.

But it all seems to work out fairly for everyone.

An offer to water their plantings while they're on holiday - or during a dry week, if you can get there and a weekday, and they can only do it at weekends - is a good way to get a surplus.


Usually, of turnips and Hindenberg-sized marrows that everone grows and no-one seems to want to eat more than once a year: but K and I have enjoyed fine meals and delicious desserts in this gift economy.

Re: Plethora: it means 'allotment'

[channelpenguin]

As a garden grower myself, I have NEVER had a glut of anything at all that I could not eat or preserve. And I say this as someone with 7cucumber plants, 6 courgette plants, 20 odd tomato plants and about 20 runner bean plants.

Only my far too big apple and pear orchards deliver more than I can cope with (and I plan to improve that).

But then, I can easily eat 4kg of veg by myself in a week, maybe more. And I've got 2 freezers, a dehydrator and a big electric pot thing for bottling (canning to Americans).

Re: Plethora: it means 'allotment'

[hairyears]

You should speak to ewt! She preserves, dries, bottles or freezes about half of our produce.

[mtbc]

Reminds me of my parents' first years after moving to a small Cornish village. (-:

[mountainkiss]

I’m intrigued by my visceral horror at this, which I wouldn’t have anticipated. In principle I’m very keen on the idea of being part of a community, but my only possible responses to this are “truthfully say no then spend a year stressing that I just destroyed any chance of a place in the community” or “untruthfully say yes then spend a year stressing about the point when my neighbours will find out I don’t have an oven”. Both these are upsetting. It’s really interesting to note. But I am very glad it’s giving you something good!

[andrewducker]

I don't think anyone is going to check up on me. Or care if I own the utensils to make something out of them. But I can totally understand your worry about letting people see the less usual parts of yourself, and having to deal with any judgement.

This isn't a very tight-knit community, by the way. The level which I'm friends with different people in the street varies dramaticaly, and there are a great many who I've never shared more than a few words with, or have never spoken to at all.

(For the record, I am eating them raw. They are deliciously sweet.)