Growing organic vegetables takes five times the management time compared to conventional vegetables, plus great attention to detail, long-term planning and teamwork, according to leading organic vegetable grower Nick Taylor.
Nick, who is currently celebrating Organic September, along with growers and producers around the country, says that all the extra effort is worth it when it comes to producing healthy, nutritious and tasty carrots for today’s consumers.
Nick runs a family farming business based in Shropshire. His family have been farming in the area for hundreds of years but it wasn’t until the turn of this century that they took the decision to go organic. They started with pigs and moved onto vegetables in a relatively small way. Now they are one of the largest producers of organic carrots, parsnips and potatoes in the country.
Their carrots are supplied to vegetable producer Produce World, which itself is one of the major suppliers of organic vegetables to the major retailers in the UK.
Nick says: “The old idea of dirt-covered, misshapen organic vegetables certainly doesn’t apply to the carrots and parsnips we grow. So much care and attention to detail goes into growing them that we can’t afford for them to be anything less than top quality when they leave the farm.
“We began planning this year’s crop seven or eight years ago because we grow our carrots in rotation with other crops. We work on getting the soil exactly right throughout that period. We need to minimise the weeds and ensure there are as few crop pests as possible. By the time we get to growing carrots on the land it is absolutely right.
“At the end of the day we produce top quality carrots without the use of pesticides. A recent review of research by Newcastle University has shown that organic fruit and vegetables are better for you. So we know our carrots are healthy and nutritious, and many people think they taste better too.”
Produce World Joint Managing Director Matt Starbuck said: “As one of the leading specialists in organic vegetables we’re fully behind Organic September as a key campaign to recruit more consumers into the sector. We know that organic shoppers have higher than average expectations of both quality and environmental consciousness, and the care that Nick and our other growers put in is imperative in supporting both of these aspects of the organic offer.”
For more information, please visit www.produceworld.co.uk.