Cambridge Allotments

A while ago I had two 19 pole allotments in Cambridge and produced more than enough for the family in terms of potatoes and everything else.  These patches of cultivated land were the last stronghold for weeds.  The ones that no longer exist in our country side.  The gently cycle of digging in winter and hoeing in summer without the use of herbicides and other nasties had left them intact, pristine in their weedy state.  I found plants in those allotments that were cultivated in the Botanic Gardens as species that had disappeared from our fields.  The one I liked best was the fumitory or Earth Smoke.  It creeps along the ground and has pretty pink flowers and pigeons love to eat it.  King Lear in his madness, gathered rank weeds and wore them as a crown and garlands. Fumitory was one of them.  When burnt its smoke has the power to chase away evil spirits - it purifies the blood above all and the liver.  You can eat it too as cattle do - well not like they do but in salads.