Dear Growers,

I hope you are safe and well during these uncertain times, and the pandemic did not prevent you from visiting your allotment—and perhaps even gave you a chance to spend more time tending to your vegetable plot—which, I’m sure, in the current situation many of you have come to appreciate even more than before. On that note, I am excited to announce that we have designed a new MYHarvest Diary project to better understand the role of allotment gardens in improving household food security during difficult times.

To find out how self-sufficient own-growers can be, we would like to ask volunteers to keep a year-long diary (this will be provided by us for free) of the fruit and vegetables they eat within the household, recording the weight of crops they harvest from their allotment or garden, get from other growers, or buy in the shop each week. This will allow us to calculate what fraction of the different crops eaten can be provided by home-growing, and find out how growers’ fruit and vegetable consumption compares with the average UK diet. By doing this, we are hoping to strengthen the evidence base produced so far by the MYHarvest project to support the case of food production in urban areas and hopefully create a positive impact on local or national policy.

But for this, we need your help! So please spread the word, and email Zilla at myharvest@sheffield.ac.uk if you are interested in taking part. You can also download and print out the recruitment poster at the bottom of the page to put on the advertisement board at your allotment site.

(Note: anyone who grows food on an allotment can sign up for the MYHarvestDiary project, you don’t have to be participating in MYHarvest—although already being in the habit of measuring your harvests does make the job easier!)

We look forward to hearing from you!

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