What we grow - In 2010 we will be again be producing a similar range of fantasic crops as we did last year. This will include lettuce, many varieties of tomatoes, spinach, helda beans, runner beans, fresh garlic, courgettes, peppers, sweetcorn and of course our well known Salad Packs.
In addition this year there should be some plants for sale around May time to give you an organic start in your own garden.
History - Our organic vegetable garden goes back to the time of Rector John Fanshawe who had the walls built in the mid-18th Century to enclose and shelter his new garden. In Victorian times it would have grown into an increasingly production 'kitchen garden' and orchard, feeding the successive generations of Marriotts and residents of the Estate until around 1914. In the early 1950's it was run as a market garden, producing tomatoes. 1958 saw the coming of the heavy traffic era with the building of the A426 which by-passed the village but divided the Estate agricultural land from the infrastructure of buildings, involved the removal of 100 trees and contributed to the gradual decline of the garden buildings and greenhouses.
In 2004 when we moved the shop to Cotesbach the right combination of a keen landowner, an expert horticulturist and our Soil Association license came together to bring the Kitchen garden into organic production. Despite no chemicals being used a monitored two year conversion period was required by the Soil Association so that by the end of February 2006 full organic status was achieved.
The Grower - The growing is in the very capable hands of Phil Sumption, who in his day job is a researcher and organic advisor at HDRA where he runs organic vegetable variety trials.
Phil also grows here many heritage varieties of vegetables for the heritage seed library at Ryton.
The Seed Fiddle
The Seed Fiddle The discovery of an old Victorian seed fiddle coincided with the need for Tom Newton to put a small field down to a mix for butterflys and bees, the key thing with this mixture is there is no grass seed. So we hope for a meadow full of flowers for the bees and butterflys and insects.
The clip shows :
