New Leaf Alresford recently had the delight of visiting Worthy Earth, an inspirational market garden located down the road at Dummer Down Farm. New Leaf has been researching local growers and farmers, to highlight the responsible producers on our doorstep and hopefully encourage more sustainable consumerism locally. We hope that these producers will be able to increasingly provide our community with fresh and chemical-free natural food.
Much of the fresh produce currently available in our shops may not be seasonal or local, is often mass produced, and is grown with chemicals that can be harmful to humans and the environment. Sadly, this is not a sustainable way of living. Nature is squeezed out, carbon is released via soil disruption, additional pollution is created from farm machinery and transportation of goods. This could mean that ultimately, our food supplies will diminish for future generations. The good news is that we can turn this around by sourcing, producing, and buying food the way that nature intended. The enthusiasm for this shift led us on a mission to search for local, sustainable options for fresh food in Alresford – and we were so lucky to find Worthy Earth! We totally endorse their mission, which is to create local abundance and to rebuild communities around food.
Worthy Earth is a family run project, growing a wide variety of salads and vegetables organically at Dummer Down Farm; including kale, rainbow chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, onions, courgettes, potatoes, lettuces and herbs. Everything you could wish for, for a colourful and healthy plant-based meal. On their website they say that they offer ‘fresh, seasonal, beyond-organic vegetables grown regeneratively in Hampshire’. Lawrence, who runs the regenerative site at Dummer Down farm, explained that they do not use any chemicals to grow their produce. Instead, they practice ‘companion planting’ (adding plants that are more attractive to bugs and insects around the crops), and cover the crops where needed for natural pest control.
Everything is grown from certified organic seeds, and they are also starting to collect seeds from past crops – what could be more sustainable than that? They also grow a wide variety of flowers to attract bees and create biodiversity on the site, as well as sell cut flowers to local people and businesses. The planting medium comes from green waste, and there is little or no digging onsite, which retains carbon and thereby protects the environment. The team are careful about how they use water, only using what is needed to grow the crops. All their packaging is plastic-free and compostable. Lawrence also told us that he’s planning a tree planting project.
Worthy Earth was originally set up in Martyr Worthy in 2020, but their sites have grown in number, and now include a market garden at Blenheim Palace. What they do is so impressive that landowners in Hampshire have started to approach Worthy Earth to ask them to make use of their spare land, in a sustainable way that serves the community. This is how they acquired their breath-taking site at Dummer Down Farm.
Worthy Earth supply veg boxes to the local community, as well as the popular Tichborne Arms near Alresford, who are known for their excellent, locally sourced food, including the ‘Worthy Earth Salad’ on their menu. You can also find their products in West Lea Farm Shop, and at other local businesses. This summer they have started to sell their produce from their own site at Dummer Down Farm from 5pm – 7pm every Thursday evening. A great opportunity to see the impressive vegetable garden, and pick up some very tasty, locally grown vegetables and salads.
The growers at Worthy Earth also organise their own festival in September which showcases fresh produce from their gardens, and features poetry, talks on foraging, workshops, music, dance and craft. It’s a great opportunity to see what they are doing, boost your feeling of community, and get inspired about growing your own food. They also encourage people to volunteer with them during the summer, in all aspects of production.
The team clearly work very hard at producing nourishing and healthy food in a way that is friendly to the earth, but they make it look very easy! Why aren’t there more market gardens run and used by communities – to reduce food miles, create jobs, respect our soils, bring us closer, and increase sustainability? Lawrence and his team are certainly a great example of how this can be done.
New Leaf Alresford is in the early stages of a community gardening project, and Worthy Earth have definitely motivated us to get this up and running as soon as we can. We will keep you posted. In the meantime, we hope this article has given you some ideas about how to grow and source your own sustainable and local food. If you are interested in getting involved with community growing in Alresford, please get in touch.
