INTERVIEW: KERRY FOWLER. PORTRAIT: JONATHAN STEWART. ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
I totally understand why people have allotments: it’s a great form of exercise, great for mental health and wellbeing.
The problem is they produce gluts. People come up with interesting chutneys, some of which I’d really like to try, but it’s a problem when you get into the complex psychodrama of friends turning up on your doorstep with homegrown bounty, causing you to try not to be resentful. I just wish nature wasn’t quite so bountiful – or people with allotments would keep their bloody bounty to themselves.
The hospitality industry faces a massive challenge. Lockdown was obviously terrible, but a lot of people in the industry discovered what it was like to be at home with their kids, to not be stressed, to not kill themselves for relatively little income. It’s not simply that Brexit has cut off a whole source of labour –a lot of people just don’t want to do it any more. And that will affect restaurant prices, so the democratisation of dining will slip from our grasp.