Soil to Sales - learning about community supported agriculture and market gardens

While researching care farming in Italy for my Churchill Fellowship I came across the concept of setting up market gardens within care farms to inform members of the local community about local growing. The idea being that the clients who attend the care farm regularly gain valuable knowledge about growing and harvesting processes and are then able to pass this information on by teaching members of the local community during open sessions to the garden throughout the year. 

This was an idea that interested me and I wondered how that could translate to UK care farms. So when I saw a 'Soil to Sales' - 'how to set up a Market Garden' course running at FarmEd I decided to enrol.

The key element of a market garden is that you sell directly to your customers through veg boxes, local shops or markets rather than trying to sell to large supermarkets and wholesalers. 

We spent three days in early October in the beautiful Cotswold countryside with The Kitchen Garden People learning about every aspect of setting up a market garden and community supported agriculture from crop choice, rotation, dealing with pests and weeds to harvesting, getting your products to your customers and general business management. I learnt that a 'weed is just a plant out of place' and that weeds can act as environmental indicators that help us decide where and when to grow certain crops. I also learnt that to be a good grower you need a balance of 'head, heart and hands'.

So after the three days I headed home with a head full of ideas and finger nails full of Cotswolds Brash soil to ponder how market gardens could be introduced to UK care farms. Watch this space .....