How do we produce your vegetables?
Plant Raising
Also uniquely, in addition to only providing you with home grown vegetables, we also raise 98% of the plants from seed here on the farm – we remain defeated by the whims of celery and celeriac transplants which we get from a specialist organic plant raiser who seems to have a knack with these capricious vegetables! To meet the demands made upon it by our local customers, our seeding schedule, which runs throughout the year, covers more than 300 different varieties of vegetables and includes many heritage varieties that we have selected for their superb colours and flavours.
Field Crops
We grow some 45 acres of open field crops. Areas of traditional crops, such as potatoes (20 varieties), carrots (15 varieties) and onions (6 varieties) are mixed with exotic crops like winter squash (such as the popular butternut) and sweetcorn – you don’t know what this can taste like until you have eaten some of ours! For sheer diversity, the brassica family is hard to beat and red, yellow, white and green cauliflowers mix with an incredible array of cabbages, broccolis and calabrese. In the early autumn it can be hard to see where the vegetables end and the work of art begins…..
Polytunnel Crops
When polytunnels are mentioned, most of our customers will initially think of the summer cornucopia that comes forth nurtured by the benign microclimate of these simple structures. Tomatoes (no, not all tomatoes are hard and acidic) are cropped alongside stunning aubergines, sweet peppers, chillis and even melons – all surrounded by fragrant basil for the salad bowl. However, it is in the winter when the polytunnels really come into their own as they allow us to produce mixed salad bags, lettuce and baby spinach all through the winter without the plants becoming damaged and toughened by the worst that the Devon weather can throw at them. In the spring, our polytunnels help to bridge the dreaded “Hungry Gap” when the previous season’s produce has all been used up or gone beyond its best and the new season field crops are still waiting for the sun. French beans, sugar snap peas and tender early chard are always a welcome addition to the diet after the long winter.