There may be a national salad shortage, but the best place to find some is… in jail.
Prisoners are beating the current supply crisis by growing their own.
Lettuce, peas, onions, carrots, tomatoes, beans and peppers are among the types of fruit and veg grown by green-fingered lags, who have recently harvested 1,300 lettuces and 260kg of green grub.
More than 20 prisoners work in the gardens at The Verne, a men’s prison on Dorset’s Isle of Portland where, until recently, paedophile Gary Glitter was held.
The jail has been praised for the “high standard” of its food.
A report by prison inspectors said: “The board is impressed with the variety of menus offered, catering for all requirements on a very limited per capita allowance.
“There were very few complaints from the prisoners.”
In recent weeks, salad has been increasingly hard to find in supermarkets, due to smaller crop yields and bad weather abroad.
Inmates at other jails have their own bakeries and keep bees in hives to make honey.
