Growing & selling excess allotment produce

**Greenleaves** · 08-03-2019, 07:14 PM

Most allotment sites prohibit the selling of allotment produce. I would check the rules on your site.

**veggiechicken** · 08-03-2019, 07:21 PM

Without wishing to sound rude, what are your "growing skills"?
Assuming you are allowed to sell what you grow, can you commit to supplying produce year round or is this just when you have an odd something surplus?

**SarrissUK** · 08-03-2019, 07:26 PM

We're not allowed to sell produce from the allotment where I am

You have a whole massive team here

My initial thought would probably be that you'd be better off leasing a field if you want to grow commercially for it to be profitable

**Chestnut** · 08-03-2019, 07:51 PM

Definitely check your site rules. We have a clause that prevents us from selling our produce, punishable by eviction....
However, a field would have no such restrictions ;-)

**Squingy** · 09-03-2019, 01:50 AM

For sites in Manchester you're not supposed to sell surplus produce, unless it's for the benefit of the allotment site as a whole. However people still do it as a business, have been doing it donkey years now and selling in the markets, and powers that be continuously turn a blind eye.
Here in North Dorset you cannot sell anything at all, 'strictly'. I also have a site on a private allotment so waiting to see what the lease will say about it. I know there are also "community gardens" where people grow, take stuff at home put a few things outside the house and you leave the money, but they aren't council managed, I think.
Check your lease and what's the word out on enforcement but if you're in London where allotments already in short supply...

**Mr Bones** · 09-03-2019, 07:06 AM

It'd be worth looking at the allotments act before embarking on any kind of enterprise. As far as I recall the act says you're allowed to sell a genuine surplus but also says the allotment must not be used for commercial gain. Genuine surplus is having too much of a crop this year but if you have too much of the same crop next year it becomes anticipated so isn't classed as surplus.
The act also says the allotment shall be used solely for the purpose of providing crops for the tenant and his/her family.
Bear in mind the allotments act isn't a guideline it's a law and could be used to terminate your tenancy if you were caught.

**Vince G** · 10-03-2019, 04:28 PM

In general you are not allowed to deliberately grow for sale/profit, but you can sell your surplus. However you could say there is no such thing a surplus as you should be freezing or preserving it.

That said, I did use to have an arrangement with the chef of my regular pub for surplus salads and perishables like asparagus and courgettes. No cash changed hands though, it was veg for beer

**Deano's "Diggin It"** · 10-03-2019, 05:12 PM

Yep! Likewise!

My tenancy at the allotment prohibits me from selling on any produce to make monetary gains, so most of my surplus is given away or composted, the later I dispose, but how many courgettes can you give away

I have toyed with this idea for many years and must admit this last few months being fed up with working silly hours under a regime who really don't live in the real world and haven't got a clue am thinking long and hard as to how I could turn this into a venture and enterprise.

I have a few very good friends who own a farm and had a prohibition served to stop storing their large machinery in the "Paddock" which is roadside and a few complaints had from local residents as an "Eyesore"

"Paddock" now redundant apart from the chicken coop, is this an opportunity?

Maybe!

**veggiechicken** · 10-03-2019, 05:32 PM

Wonder when Forage will come back for the chat he wanted?

**Greenleaves** · 10-03-2019, 05:44 PM

Probably looking for a barrow VC

**Forage420** · 11-03-2019, 10:07 AM

Originally posted by veggiechicken View Post

Wonder when Forage will come back for the chat he wanted?

You have something against people growing and selling food from their allotment I'm assuming ?

Well, anyway, to explain my intentions further, I do have an interest in making money from selling what I grow and I make no qualms about it. I also have no intention of taking an underhand approach and trying to outsmart either the allotment committee or tax people. My aim to to run a legitimate business from selling fresh, local veg from my allotment.

I'm struggling to gauge the overall sentiment from people commenting here so far, and it seems to be the same sort of feedback I've had from discussing it with people offline, that being it's a grey area and there are various pitfalls. In my scenario I am on a site which is self-managed (leased from the council), so there is a little more leverage with regards to what we can and cannot do. Perhaps I should ask the committee outright if I can do it and base my next move on that outcome? The allotment Act is something I need to read in it's entirety, especially the part about commerce.

In case I come across unappreciative, or annoyed because I'm not hearing from what what I want to hear, this is not the case. I'm exploring all avenues at the moment, and as I have over 200m2 of growing space, I need to make sure that I don't embark on a project which is not only unrealistic but also illegal !! I will report back once I've done some more reading. The feedback so far has been very helpful and useful.

**veggiechicken** · 11-03-2019, 10:17 AM

Originally posted by Forage420 View Post

Hi everyone, I've been thinking for some time about making some money from my growing skills. I've been looking at ways to make money from selling produce from my allotment, more than just a few quid. Does anyone do this, or is thinking about doing it and would like to partner up? I'm in London but I can travel and it would be useful to work as a team because I find that's generally a better strategy in life than working by oneself.

Hit me up and let's have a chat about it here..

Originally posted by veggiechicken View Post

Wonder when Forage will come back for the chat he wanted?

Originally posted by Forage420 View Post

You have something against people growing and selling food from their allotment I'm assuming ?

You wanted a chat and when people came to chat you didn't seem interested enough to reply.
I'm not interested in what you do with your produce - only that its legal.

**Forage420** · 11-03-2019, 10:23 AM

Originally posted by Greenleaves View Post

Probably looking for a barrow VC

I contracted a bad flu/cold last weekend while traveling in Germany, fortunately at the back end of my trip, which was great despite that. Work comes before anything else so the greenhouse project has literally been put on hold, don't worry, I'm logging the progress and will update accordingly

**Forage420** · 11-03-2019, 10:27 AM

Originally posted by veggiechicken View Post

You wanted a chat and when people came to chat you didn't seem interested enough to reply.
I'm not interested in what you do with your produce - only that its legal.

I'm interested but I haven't replied straight away because I don't use the site that regularly and I wanted to allow enough time to pass for people to find the thread and comment, some of the stories shared have been very interesting.

Thanks for taking a concern about the legalities involved in selling produce, I'm also just as concerned and need to know a lot more about this before embarking on the project.

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