We always want to have Fern Verrow looking at her best. Beauty is an important factor to our growing philosophy and practices. We take great pride in walking our fields and land on a Sunday looking at the colours and forms of all the plants that we grow here. For the last 7-8 years we have been growing flowers to sell. This started with sweet peas and roses. We chose highly scented varieties as we thought that these things had been overlooked in recent years. This has led to more production of “cottage garden” flowers. Some of which have disappeared from our vases having been labelled as old ladies flowers or not exotic enough. It is a vast and complicated area of growing, and choosing the correct plants to suit our land has been a challenge.
The flowers are grown in beds outside, arranged like a private garden. Some are perennials for example poppies and delphiniums. Tulips and dahlias love it here, and have brought bright jewel like colours to the flower beds. Our flowers are not like anything you would buy from a florist. I mean this both in a good and a bad way. I can see the allure of the perfect blooms that one sees for sale. Flowers are delicate plants and blooms are so thin and fragile that they can be tainted and damaged by even the smallest drop of rain. Our flowers have a more natural look, and are perfect in their own way, but perhaps do not stand up to what has come to be expected from a bunch of flowers that one may buy from a florist.
We pick and arrange our flowers on Fridays, either just after dawn on a hot day or last thing before leaving for London. We only bring flowers that are in the best condition, which at times can be a challenge in wet and windy weather. Foliage from the hedgerows around the farm particularly in May also provide beautiful fresh and natural flora.

We have started a landscaping project here at Fern Verrow and are introducing and creating environments for more naturalised wild flowers. This is not only a potential new product to sell, but will add to the diversity of the farm, and very importantly be a source of habitation and food for insects and other wildlife.

Herbs

On our herb beds we produce a good selection of popular culinary herbs; these include thyme, French tarragon, chives, rosemary, lovage, sage and mint. Each year we grow nice variety of annual herbs including flat leaf parsley, the highly under-rated moss parsley, dill, coriander and chervil in the cooler months. Herb teas have in recent years been a popular addition to our range. We make tisane posies of sweet cicely, lemon balm, mint and chamomile. Larger quantities are also available to anyone wishing to dry herbs for use in the winter months.

We make selection of jams and preserves with our fruit, traditionally for storing and eating through the winter months.

We harvest the fruit when it is in its prime (ripe, sweet and warm) and preserve it on the same day. As our fruit tends to be very sweet, we use smaller amounts of Organic cane sugar to cook with. It is produced by us in small batches on the wood-burning stove in our kitchen.

Jams

Strawberry

Raspberry

Gooseberry and Elderflower

Jellies and condiments

Redcurrant

Blackcurrant

Josterberry

Mint sauce and jelly made with whitecurrants

Fruit Vinegars 

Raspberry

Loganberry

Josterberry

Pickles and Chutneys

Onion marmalade

Beetroot and horseradish chutney

Runner Bean chutney

Spiced Plum chutney

Green Tomato chutney

Preserved Bergamot lemons

Marmalade

We do not grow citrus fruit ourselves, but we buy Organic Seville oranges.

We make marmalade because we love it and were brought up making it. We make two varieties of marmalade (a long, slow cooked, 48 hour process Dark Caramel marmalade and a fresh, bright four fruit marmalade for those that like a more zingy marmalade)

All of the ingredients that we use that are not our own for instance sugar, a vinegar, salt and citrus fruits is all Organic or Biodynamic. We do not bring our preserves into our certification due to the extra cost of having it certified and because it is a relatively new project for us.

Lemon Curd

using eggs from our geese.

Cordials

Rhubarb

Elderflower

Honey

We keep bees here at Fern Verrow. Our honey as certified as organic due to our location, that is being less than 3 kilometres from any other cultivated land. The bees forage on the hedgerows during the early spring. In summer we have plenty of food for them here on the farm, from our flowering vegetables and fruit. We only sell honey if there is plenty, in excess of what the bees need for themselves.

Most of the land that we farm is for the production of our certified Biodynamic vegetables. Our approach to what we grow is based foremost on the eating enjoyment.

We have always grown truly seasonal British garden vegetables. We find that vegetables grown at the right time of year, without controlled interference taste far superior to “out of season” equivalents. We believe that vegetables grown outside in fresh air, being open to the elements produce the character and flavour in the vegetables. There is a richer, deeper colour to the food, the texture is turgid, strong and has a glow of vitality. Apart from the one greenhouse, all our crops are grown outside in the fields.

Our season is a little shorter due to our altitude (700 feet above sea level), and our heavy soil that takes longer to be warmed up by the Sun and become workable in the spring.

We have spent many years researching and testing different varieties of vegetables. We raise all our own plants from seeds that are all Organic and some Biodynamic. We would like to buy more biodynamic seed, but the varieties in the seed catalogues, we find do not tend to be very exciting and we are driven by the taste element for what we grow. However we have some firm biodynamic seed favourites.

We grow over 300 varieties of vegetables over the course of the year. In one season we can have 30 varieties of lettuce from the spring butter heads, hot weather spearhead lettuce, and cool weather varieties. The difference in texture and flavour is hugely varied and pleasing on the eye as well as the taste buds. Peas and beans are chosen according to their suitability to the time of year. The best are those sown from the beginning of spring with the last sowing mid may. We try and sow peas every two weeks to attain a young tender crop throughout the season. This can involve about four different varieties to produce that quality desired.

Herefordshire is one of the country’s larger potato growing areas, this again is partly due to the higher altitude where there is a constant breeze, lower temperatures and higher than average rainfall in summer months. This helps to prevent disease that potatoes are very prone to, and can often destroy crops. We choose our potato varieties for their different uses and their old fashioned flavours. These do include some more commercially grown varieties, as they are very good, but also some lower yielding more risky, disease prone varieties, but they are worth the risks because they are very delicious and have specific uses in cooking. With good practice and regular applications of horsetail tea we have nearly always kept the dreaded potato blight away.

In the summer our large greenhouse is the home to soft growth salad leaves, cucumbers and tomatoes. Tomato growing is a favourite of ours; we have found some great varieties and tend to stick to those, however each year we cannot resist trying a new one. Normally we grow eight or so varieties, each being different to the other and again having different dishes where they shine out. A freshly picked, warm tomato salad is one of our favourite summer lunches.

Green leafed vegetables are amongst our most popular crops. We apply generous amounts of 15 month old composted cow manure to the land for these hungry vegetables. Our cooler wetter climate is ideal for the brassica family. The greens we produce have sweetness to them that we are very pleased with. What this is actually down to is probably a combination of many things, but mostly the application of the biodynamic compost preparations and the biodynamic 500 and 501 sprays (see biodynamic section). The high level of silica in our soil also is a main contributor to their success. We make all our own Biodynamic preparations from plants grown here on the farm. We use and apply them regularly throughout the season, which produces better tasting vegetables.

As with all of the food that we grow, every Friday we hand pick and harvest the very best that we have and Jane drives a van full up to London that evening, to sell the following morning. On the journey she visits Global Organic Markets in Stroud. Here she selects other seasonal food grown by Organic and Biodynamic producers from Europe. We do this to offer a wider choice of food that we are unable to grow ourselves with our climate, and to promote and support other small farms that we believe produce food of real quality and integrity.

Our prices reconcile the real costs of growing real food to a high standard, and we believe them to be of true value.

Email: fernverrow@btinternet.com

Phone: 01981 510 288

All our produce is for sale on Saturdays only at Spa Terminus, Bermondsey, London. We are open from 9am until 3 pm.