25cha m pion ing orga n ic veg for 25 yea rs

This year Riverford celebrates our 25th anniversary of organic growing. We have come a long way since founder Guy Watson gave up his career as a management consultant and returned to Riverford Farm (where he grew up) to plant his first organic veg.

Back in 1987, Guy started out on three acres, with a wheelbarrow, an ancient tractor and a beaten up 2CV for deliveries. 25 years on, there is much to be proud of. We have four Riverford farms around the country, a network of 70 committed franchisees, a thriving farming co-op and grower groups around the UK and overseas.

This little book gives a potted history of the veg we’ve grown and championed over the years.

If you’d like to find out more, have a look at our website www.riverford.co.uk

Guy's first major crop; a winter of harvesting in the rain and mud was not enough to put him off (although a fungal disease called rust nearly did).

1987

leeks

25

Multiplied up from the original stock from Gillian Watson’s garden. Great flavour but not always popular with customers due to their flatulent effects (baked beans x10; though more thunderous than malodorous).

1988

jerusalem artichokes

25

Guy was one of the first growers to introduce kohl rabi to the UK, inspired by a staff member from the nearby Steiner School in Devon, who ate them like apples from her lunch box.

1989

kohl rabi

25

Way before the supermarkets made them popular, Guy was so blown away by their geometrical spirals that he started harvesting whole Brussels sprouts stalks for customers.

1990

sprouts on stalks

25

1991

globe artichokes

25Architectural in the field, theatrical on the table. To get hold of the very best root stock, Guy smuggled plants across the channel from Brittany, having done a deal with some farmers in a bar through a cloud of Gauloise smoke.

1992

rhubarb

25The original stock was taken from Guy’s mother’s garden. Technically, rhubarb is a vegetable rather than a fruit, but there is an annual debate about whether it qualifies for the vegboxes.

We started harvesting the ‘apical bud’ (growing point) of the Brussels sprout plant and treating them like mini cabbages in the kitchen. They can have a bitter flavour though - not for the faint-hearted.

1993

sprout tops

25

At a time when more exotic, imported veg was becoming fashionable, we pushed for a revival of this traditional staple.

1994

savoy cabbage

25

We’ve trialled and tested every variety to grow for the very best flavour. Nairobi is the variety that accounts for over half the UK carrot crop (because of its robustness) but it always comes bottom in our taste tests, so we won’t grow it.

1995

carrots

25

Inspired by a trip to Andalusia, where Guy spotted wet (fresh) garlic in a market and enjoyed it in a ‘buena tortilla’. It takes some explaining every year; we give our customers help identifying and cooking with it.

1996

wet garlic

25

The king of the hungry gap and the original native species. Wild and untamed, we championed it as a more flavoursome alternative to calabrese (green) broccoli years before it became popular in neat little trays in the supermarket.

1997

purple sprouting broccoli

25

Not ones to follow food fashions, we dug our heels in and persisted in calling it ‘black kale’. It never sold as well as it did under the name of ‘cavolo nero’ though.

1998

cavolo nero

25

1999

gooseberries

25While most growers were ripping theirs out, we planted an acre of gooseberries at Riverford, driven by frustration at the lack of organic fruit grown in this country. Now we can’t grow enough of them.

Guy tried unsuccessfully to grow this tricky crop. He’s now saving it for a retirement project. Until then, we’re buying it from other organic growers patient enough to master it, including our Yorkshire partner farmer Peter Richardson.

2000

asparagus

25

2001

romanesco

25One of the few novelty veg that lives up to the hype. Guy started growing it because of its lime green colour, conical shape and fractal patterns that reminded him of Madonna’s brassiered Boadicea phase, but continued for the flavour.

We stood our ground and continued to grow the larger leaved but still sweetly succulent true spinach, instead of the baby spinach version sold in supermarkets.

2002

true spinach

25

Rocket has fallen in and out of fashion since the ’90s. It’s always a challenge to grow - but one we persisted with through its ups and downs.

2003

rocket

25

Desperate for greens during a bad hungry gap, we harvested the tops of the broad bean plant for customers and have never looked back. They’re wonderful as long as they’re fresh and we pick just the very youngest leaves.

2004

broad bean tops

25

2005

sorrel

25This year The Riverford Field Kitchen restaurant opened, serving generous meals using seasonal veg as the star. Our then head chef, Jane Baxter, championed this lemony-leaved herb, most notably in her sorrel and onion tart.

2006

radicchio

25This year someone pressed the wrong button on the calculator and we ended up with 150,000 radicchio plants instead of 15,000. But with some recipe suggestions, customers rose to the challenge, and it’s now an autumn highlight.

We experimented with growing all sorts of varieties of varying colour, shape and heat. Creating chilli strings or ristras has become a popular activity for visitors at our farm pumpkin days around the country.

2007

chillies

25

The Watson children often went down to the woods to earn pocket money foraging for wild garlic. We then offered it to customers as a freebie to spread the word about this wonderful wild veg.

2008

wild garlic

25

Fired up by his globe artichoke obsession, Guy began growing another member of the artichoke family: cardoons. The difficulty is in making them edible, as they are often bitter and tough. We’ll get there.

2009

cardoons

25

We finally got our hands on a licence from English Nature to harvest this wild crop. It can only be picked when the tide is right and it calls for particularly nimble-fingered pickers, but that only adds to the magic. Customers can’t get enough.

2010

samphire

25

Impressed by their triffid-like vigour, Guy started growing tomatillos on our farm in France. His resulting salsa verde got the thumbs up from friends and family. In 2012 they went down a storm with customers in a make-your-own salsa kit.

2011

tomatillos

25

g ood food, g ood fa rm ing , g ood b usin ess

2012