Allotments

60 years ago, a young Italian came to Walton to work on the farms at Apps Court.  There was a shortage of jobs in his home town, and to avoid the compulsory army service, he thought he’d give life in Surrey a try.  After 4 years working on the farm, in search of better pay, he got a job working at a local factory.

However, he missed growing fresh fruit and veg, something his family did back home, so decided to rent an allotment plot.  By this time his 2 brothers and a friend from the village had emigrated from Italy and joined him.  There were other Italians who took a similar path and suddenly the allotment site on Terrace Road was more than half filled with members of the Italian community. Giuseppe, Vince, Domenico and lots more Italian names were commonplace on the site.   40 years later many are still carefully tending their allotments at Terrace Road and the next generation now have plots too. 

The Terrace Road plots tended by the Italians are easy to recognise by the rows and rows of globe artichokes and fennel.  The globe artichokes, which are called cardoons are grown not for the delicacy of eating the flower bulb, but for the leaves of the plant which are eaten as an everyday vegetable like spinach. They also love to grow a small bitter green brassica which they call Mazzaredde and can be found growing wild in central Sicily. Their crops include many types of borlotti beans, radicchio and perpetual spinach.

All these crops are presented to their wives and mammas who wash, prepare and cook for the family.  

The Italians grow the most amazing plump, healthy crops.  It could be something to do with the tender loving care they give their crops, visiting every day no matter what the season or weather, or it could be the sunshine they bring from home!