5 Goodgym folks from all across London (as far as Redbridge!) jogged, cycled and hiked their way up to Shepard's Hill Allotments last night.

We met up with Frannie from Octopus Communities Network at the main gates, and walked our way through idyllic green corridors of plants, vegetables and frog filled ponds to a resident potato patch (you could actually see the Crouch End Open Space from over the fence- one of our oldest Goodgym missions).

Frannie gave us a demonstration for effective and safe potato gathering using spades and forks (use your body, not your back!), and we got to work in groups. Dharmesh and Jay took on the top side of the plot, Steve and Marie covered the lower section, and Trainer Simon tried to catch flying potatoes with a bucket. Despite the hot weather, the ground was relatively loose and crumbly, so not too difficult to break up. Under the masses of potato shoots, we found masses of potatoes, which all grew surprisingly well despite not being tended to during the lockdown- really resilient vegetables!

By the end of the evening, we had cleared almost all of the plot. Frannie expects that more produce will appear once the rain washes away the soil. The potatoes were brushed down and bagged up, in preparation for a fund raising sale in the near future. After dropping off our tools at Frannie's own allotment patch, we were treated to some freshly grown mulberries, straight from the tree- unbelievably sweet and very refreshing.

Wonderful work everyone. A lovely evening spent gardening in the sun, around a beautiful part of North London.