Homesteaders Allotmenteers and preppers.

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Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,422
614
Knowhere
Somewhat tongue in cheek, I have been an allotmenteer for some years now, I do wonder when the proverbial hits the fan when an allotmenteer becomes a prepper? When I have to dig trenches and plant booby traps around my plot perhaps? Well it is always a rough lot in an urban allotment, because you can't be sure of your neighbours, we have all sorts of problems from kids coming over the fences to thieving of tools and crops, with Brexit and Trump I think I am going to have to build a twenty foot razor wire fence and an observation tower :)
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
I don't think a bit of pilfering is anything new. Kids have always sneaked a bit of fruit or watermelons from a farmer's fields ot orchards. It's never been anything I really woried about.
 

Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,422
614
Knowhere
I don't think a bit of pilfering is anything new. Kids have always sneaked a bit of fruit or watermelons from a farmer's fields ot orchards. It's never been anything I really woried about.

Of course it is nothing new, but catching them in the act, well if only.
 

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,807
2,893
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
I don't think a bit of pilfering is anything new. Kids have always sneaked a bit of fruit or watermelons from a farmer's fields ot orchards. It's never been anything I really woried about.

It's nothing new I agree.

But pilfering some fruit or watermelons from a farmer doesn't affect the farmer the same way it does someone who has an allotment and is growing the fruit and veg to feed their family. I've seen growers almost reduced to tears because thieves have stripped their veg indiscriminately trampling over other crops to get at what they wanted ruining a whole years hard work.
 

moocher

Full Member
Mar 26, 2006
642
97
49
Dorset
Allotments always been robbed or vandalised, if things did get dire ,then I'm sure they would be a soft target, the worse thing is alot would be wasted as they would pick it then not know what to do with it.
 

General Strike

Forager
May 22, 2013
132
0
United Kingdom
It's nothing new I agree.

But pilfering some fruit or watermelons from a farmer doesn't affect the farmer the same way it does someone who has an allotment and is growing the fruit and veg to feed their family. I've seen growers almost reduced to tears because thieves have stripped their veg indiscriminately trampling over other crops to get at what they wanted ruining a whole years hard work.

I live in Tottenham, and while I've had to boot the local pikey kids out of our allotments because they were pilfering raspberries from a (largely abandoned) plot by the entrance, I've never seen the kind of destruction or stripping that you describe (and these are kids that are out jacking mopeds most weeks!). It probably helps that we hand out a few strawbs to locals, when they're in season. I once gave a couple to a bloke who was in temporary accommodation nearby and he almost wept at the thought of strawberries growing in Tottenham - his voice cracked!

In a situation where people were struggling for food, I've no doubt it would be different even with our high, spiky municipal fences. If the UK had a Special Economic Period, I'll be out getting people planting all the pointless council flower beds (that are usually turfed over anyway) with potatoes! The prepper obsession with Rugged Individualism[SUP]TM[/SUP] is as immoral as it is counterproductive.
 

grip

Forager
Nov 30, 2009
160
45
here and there
A bloke in our street when i was a kid would pitch a tent and sleep with his prize leeks on the run up to a show to stop anyone slashing them.............. its a competitive business up here.
 

General Strike

Forager
May 22, 2013
132
0
United Kingdom
Isn't there a whole Wallace & Gromit film predicated upon this sort of behaviour? When you inject unnatural competition into a situation, the results will be perverse!
 

Armleywhite

Nomad
Apr 26, 2008
257
0
Leeds
www.motforum.com
Strangely enough, I’ve never actually had produce nicked from my plot. However, I have had thefts of tools from the shed. Now is buy the cheapest spade n fork for fiver from Asda. My good tools, which aren't used each time I take home. Worst of all is the little darlings chucking bricks over the hedges to smash greenhouse's etc. By far the worst is the bleeding birds nicking the new shoots of various plants :(
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Once upon a time, not many years ago, I gave 4-5 new started grape vines to a friend in the city.
A year later, she asked for more. OK by me. When the story came out, people were hopping her fence,
not just to raid the garden but to dig stuff up (includuing the grape vines.)
The last batch are happy in gigantic pots which nobody has taken a shovel to.

Is there a case to plant things such as raspberries, in the hopes that the thieves will stop at that?
I like the idea of planting spuds in the flower beds. Carrot tops look nice, too.

There's a big commercial slate mine back in the mountains up here. The company puts a few pieces,
the size of grand pianos and bigger, outside the gates for people to bash at. Fairly hazardous open-pit
operation, the bait seems to work.
 

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