Vegetables

Steve Parsley at Walmestone Growers

Steve is one of the few true nursery producers left in Kent. He grows a wide range of glasshouse produce from chillies and sweet peppers to salads and aubergines. Walmestone Growers was established by John Aspinall to produce food not only for his London Casinos but also for the animals at the Port Lympne and Howletts Wild Animal Parks. Much of the produce is grown to organic standards and Steve steams the tunnels prior to planting to sanitize the ground to prevent weed and pest occurrence. 

Although a relatively small producer, Steve will produce almost anything and has specified that he will be growing chilies this coming summer.

Colin Williams

Colin is a true broccoli enthusiast and is one of the finest growers of broccoli in the country. He has some 20 years experience in growing on the Isle of Thanet and has honed his own techniques. These include having wider rows for the plants in order that he can mechanically hoe weeds rather than spray them with herbicides. The wider rows also help with water utilization. 

Trevor Bradley

Trevor is one of the only cauliflower growers who can supply the vegetable year round from his own farm. He grows over 400 acres of cauliflowers to a very high standard in different areas of the county at different altitudes and on various soil types to ensure he achieves that year round supply.  He also grows other brassica crops.

Peter Tickle at Allen Hill Farms

Peter Tickle is a long established horticulturalist. He grows a wide range of vegetables to LEAF Marque standards which include broad beans, brassicas, French beans, bunched carrots and specialist onions. He recently decided to try and sell all of his produce within a 40 mile radius of his base on the Isle of Grain, an initiative that works hand in glove with Foodari Direct.

Leonard Ironside

Brian has been growing tomatoes for almost all of his working life. Initially for a major grower but for the last nine years he has been growing his own tomatoes near Canterbury under the brand Leonard Ironside. He grows a range of tomatoes including, plum, vine and cherry and they are all produced without insecticides. Instead of artificial control they use predatory insects to eat the nasty bugs that affect tomatoes, they also use bumble bees to help pollinate the plants.

Tomatoes have to have their older leaves removed and a local farmer takes them away and compost them to use in crops as the resulting material is very high in many nutrients.

Bank Farm

Bank Farm have grown asparagus only for the last three years but apply the same high environmental credentials to their asparagus farming as to the production of free range eggs. One of the reasons Bank Farm started producing asparagus was because of the fact that one of the best breakfast treats you can have is dipping asparagus into a the yolk of a soft boiled egg!!

Appledore salads

James Perkins produces some of the finest baby leaf salads in the country, during the season his salads are in hot demand from the finest hotels and restaurants in the country. James is a busy man and gets up at 4am to pick the salads before the temperatures get too high and so the customer gets them in peak condition.