Hadlow College’s latest commercial venture heralds good news for the region’s growers. This month, the college went into partnership with the owners of a long-established farm shop. Located just a couple of miles from the town of Tonbridge, the shop’s catchment area also includes several villages and hamlets of varying sizes.

This latest deal ties in nicely with the college’s ownership of 55 per cent of Produced in Kent, the organisation tasked with the promotion of regional produce. The remaining 45 per cent is owned by Kent County Council.

Produced in Kent operates on a membership basis, fees being based on category and turnover. All members, irrespective of size, share wide-ranging promotional benefits including business development advice and support, access to PR and press advice, networking meetings, a free entry in the Kent producer guide, regular newsletters - and quite a lot more.

Hadlow’s latest farm shop initiative will be a very visible extension to the ranges and services that have been on offer in the college’s Broadview farm shop for more than three years. The latter is part of the Broadview centre, which includes a tea room - current holder of the South East Region Rural Enterprise Award - and a garden centre.

The focus in the Broadview farm shop is on regional food, much of it grown by Produced in Kent members. Extending the focus even further, menus in the teashop are based on seasonally available, regionally sourced ingredients. In addition, the garden centre stocks a wide range of fruit trees, vegetables and herbs and also offers free membership of the Broadview Gardening Club. The plethora of benefits attached to membership are designed to get people involved in growing their own and more aware of fresh produce in general. The membership stands at nearly 2,000 and extends throughout Kent, Sussex, Surrey and London.

Alongside this, Hadlow’s 9.5-acre Broadview Gardens - open free of charge, 360 days of the year - include a traditional kitchen garden where wide ranges of fruit and vegetables are produced. Some of the produce ends up in Broadview tea room’s kitchen and visitors are especially taken with the see-it-grow, see-it-picked, plot-to-plate experience.

Hadlow’s farm shop acquisition already has an excellent reputation with customers, many of whom it has been serving for years, and emphasis is being placed on building on this excellent base. As with Broadview, the college’s aim will always be to present fruit and vegetables in first-class condition. Vegetables that are marred in appearance are turned into soups in the Broadview kitchen, which are enormously popular with tea room customers. Likewise, any damaged fruit is made into jam or used as an ingredient in chutneys. Thus, wastage is kept to an absolute minimum, which complies with the college’s sustainability strategy.

Hadlow’s commercial activities have important links with various college courses and enable students to be directly involved in a wide range of best practice techniques and checks. An increasing quantity and diversity of produce being grown in the college’s glasshouses is destined for the shelves of the farm shops. Thus, students have the opportunity for involvement in innovative commercial growing techniques, plus plenty of chances to develop an understanding of the supply chain, retail presentation, staffing and time management.

This attitude to fresh produce extends into the student refectory. The college attracts students of widely varying ages, substantial numbers of whom are residential, and the emphasis on 5 A DAY is especially important with regard to those in the younger bracket. Fresh soups, a salad bar and a choice of seasonal vegetables are always available at lunch and supper times. In fact, it is a proud boast that the excellence of the menus weans quite a few off their former pizza and chips diet...

This year, for the third year in a row, Hadlow is a major sponsor of the National Fruit Show. Years back, Hadlow played such an important part in the industry that it was known as the fruit college. Then the bad times came - no new orchards were being planted and hundreds of existing ones were being grubbed up. With the Kent fruit sector in serious decline and some people even predicting its demise, the college gradually reduced the range and dimension of fruit-related courses. Now, with far greater demand for British produce, the tide is turning again and the college is ambitiously aiming to regain its former title.

Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, the college’s director of finance and resources, believes that education and training are fundamental to success in the fruit industry and a new programme, based on the current and emerging needs of the fruit sector, is being introduced in 2010-11. “But equally,” he says, “we must create greater public awareness of the excellence of British-grown fresh produce and extend existing customer loyalty. That is fundamental to restoring UK fruit to its rightful place in the nation’s fruit bowls.”

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