Gorvels Allotments
These are in the centre of the lovely floral parish of St. Martin and were established in March 2006.
After 40years of growing for a living, for various reasons, l wanted a change.
This field has since 1946, seen many changes in growing, over that period. It has a history of being, a smallholding, with pigs, goats, ducks, chickens and hens. Outdoor tomatoes grown there, fruit, vegetables, pick your own strawberries, and now allotments.
The allotments are supplied by, a fresh water borehole, which comes from a depth of 180ft. There is also parking available for them on site. The size of the allotments, are about 180sq ft and are rented to individuals, who grow fruit and vegetables for themselves and families.
It is like a small community, where all of them help and advise each other. They also go back to the old way of bartering, when having surpluses.
When it was open in 2006, the first person to rent, a vegetable area was a nurse, Jennie Fenton. Her knowledge of growing was limited, but after 5years, it shows what can be achieved.
Everyone has green fingers, you can all grow a cabbage, the more experience you get, and the bigger it grows.
Something about me
I came from a family of farming and growing.
When l left school in the late 60s, l joined the family growing business with my father and brother. We grew a range of fruit and vegetables, both outside and in vineries. These in the 70s, we supplied to the Guernsey market, shops, hotels, restaurant, local wholesalers and exported as well.
It was not until the late 70s, that Supermarkets, came along and we started selling to them. This was until we stopped growing and wholesaling in 2003.
The period from before the 70s to mid 80s, was when, we were seasonally totally self sufficient and exporting large quantities of local produce.
Now we are importing large amounts of produce from around the world and some say we cannot be self sufficient again.
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