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Back in the mid nineties we reached a point where Riverford was growing as many vegetables as could be accommodated within a sensible rotation but our customers still wanted more. Neighbours could see that we were getting the knack of it and may be we weren’t so crazy after all. Some had philosophical desire to convert to organics but the biggest factor leading to the formation of our coop in 1997 was a desire to grow something that was not dependent on subsidies but was actually wanted by customers.
Our coop members are mostly small and medium sized family farms with a mixture of crops and livestock which enable them to adopt sustainable rotations with plenty of grass and clover to soil restore fertility and structure between the vegetables crops. We share machinery, a labour pool, root storage, technical expertise and agree on the annual cropping each autumn. Each member typically takes on three or four crops, which suit their soil, climate and skills while fitting in around their other enterprises. There is a rolling, three year contract between the box scheme and coop giving growers the confidence invest in their businesses.
Of the vegetables in the boxes.
- roughly 30% are grown at Riverford (mainly the more perishable and fiddly crops requiring close attention),
- 40% by the other co-op members (field scale crops like carrots, potatoes cabbages and cauliflowers),
- 15% by other UK growers (typically specialist crops like water cress or the crops that do not grow well in our area like onions for storage), and
- 15% imported (to bridge the seasons e.g. carrots and potatoes in May and June and occasional salad items to stave off swede fatigue in the winter)
Information about our individual growers can be found by clicking on the farms below.
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