Despite growing vegetables for decades, Miles Torrent humbly calls himself a novice grower and describes his social media approach as ‘to entertain rather than educate.’ His allotment went through a radical transformation over five years. It started as an overgrown patch of grass with a few plants interspersed amongst weeds, an old shed, and a tiny apple tree. Today, Miles is the proud owner of two greenhouses, a composting system, and mycelium-inoculated wood chip paths dividing growing areas.
What he grows on his patch sustains his passion for experimenting with food, drinks, pickles, mushrooms, and spicy things. He proudly says his allotment is his favourite place and spends as much time there as possible, growing chillies, peppers, and other crops like rocket and salads. Of course, there is space for cool crops like glass gem corn, okra, or heritage tomato varieties.
Miles says he started growing without background knowledge but quickly became obsessed with soil health, worms, and microorganisms. His allotment became no-dig, and while at first tricky with the amount of compost needed, now he gets enough with help from ‘Big Bertha,’ his friendly rotary composter that eats up his vegetable scraps, egg shells, and grass cuttings.
Focusing on soil health naturally led him to become obsessed with mushrooms, experimenting with spores, liquid cultures, agar, and cloning. While the growing season is ending, the mushroom foraging season starts and presents fascinating specimens throughout the autumn months.
At home, Miles turns his crops into chilli sauces and fermented probiotics, with some hot sauces lined up for retail sale soon. He also loves making sparkly and flavourful apple cider. He sounds like a guy you want to have as a good friend (who throws many dinner parties, of course).
Miles loves being a part of the community of people who are into growing and preserving. There are people on the ground at the allotment sharing harvests and growing tips, but a vast online community also connects over social media and nerds out on all things plants and fungi. I had the pleasure of chatting with Miles at the ‘All Things Fungi Festival,’ and it was fantastic to connect in person with other energetic and inspirational nerds.
Miles Torrent says he’s a novice grower, but don’t believe him! He’s been growing veg for decades and loves experimenting with food, drinks, mushrooms and more.
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