If Spanish pickers, packers and lorry drivers become infected with Covid-19, our supply of fresh fruit and vegetables could be reduced.

Also, as UK production gets under way, it is thought there'll be a shortage of seasonal East European workers because of Brexit. I would encourage anyone who's reasonably fit, and available over the coming growing season, to get out into the fields and polytunnels. Physically demanding and repetitive though such work is, wherever there's a group of mainly young people working together they always find ways of having fun as well. I've worked on farms in Norway and Iceland: there's great job satisfaction and camaraderie.

In anticipation of future shortages of fruit and vegetables, some readers might be thinking it's time to start growing veg in their garden, or a neighbour's garden, if their owners are not up to gardening but would like their plot used in return for some produce. If you haven't grown veg before, or even if you have, I'm over half way through revising my book on organic veg gardening and  would be happy to send anyone a PDF of the text.  Email Rob Milne:  r.milne@yahoo.co.uk

Robert Milne
Hereford