Sussex Vegetables
We grow a wide range of vegetables and herbs. As well as the usual beans, leaves, lettuce, carrots, beetroot and celery we grow some more unusual vegetables such as aubergines, okra and tomatillos. Our interest in cookery means we have always preferred organically grown vegetables ourselves for the taste and now we grow the freshest and tastiest varieties we can find.
Our vegetables are now fully organic. We achieved our soil association certification in September 2008 and successfully passed our inspection in February 2009 and we have found that our land is particularly suitable for growing leaves. We are providing quantities of Chard, Mixed Salad Leaves and Mixed stir-fry leaves.
A family business
When we set the company up 4 Years ago, we had no idea that we would become growers again. We had had a smallholding in Shropshire during the 70s but since 1981 had been working in IT, most recently in internet consultancy. When we set up the company, Isobel decided that she wanted to sell Plants on the internet and set up www.plants4presents.co.uk to sell plants as gifts. By the spring of 2006, the growth of this business meant we needed premises to store and pack the plants. We were looking for about 5000 square feet – but it turned out that the only way to get this affordably was to buy the empty glasshouses at Fletching Common in September 2006.
The next thing was to work out what to do with the glass. Growing vegetables in a cold house was the way forward. So we started growing vegetables and applied for Soil Association certification achieved in 2008. We are currently reclaiming the final house - you can see the plants growing in the video.
There are 4 family members working pretty much full time in the business plus another 4 people who work with us. We run a couple of other related businesses too. .
Business Values
When we set the business up, we thought it was important to produce things that were useful or made other people feel good. We wanted to minimise our impact on the environment, do things that interested us and earn an honest living working with people that we like.
We always try and give value for money and be responsive to our customers needs in the various businesses that we run.
These include
- Plants 4 Presents which also works from the glasshouses and provides beautiful citrus and other trees as well as flowering plants as presents.
- Ladybird PlantCare provides biological controls such as ladybird larvae and nematodes to gardeners who want to reduce the use of chemicals in their gardens
- How to do Business is about working smarter, using technology where it’s appropriate but working with the grain of the natural world rather than cutting across it.
We are looking forward to developing our glasshouses in a sustainable way and look forward to your company on the journey.
