New Face & New Crop Trials

After developing quinoa as a UK grown crop, we’re often asked, “what other alternative crops can you grow here in Britain?”, or “can you grow…..”. 

With an ever increasing number of people willing to eat a healthier and a more nutritious diet (quinoa’s rise to the top of the superfood tree is testament to that), we’re always on the look out to give new crops a go. Having tried several over the years we’ve got a reasonable idea of crops that have potential and those that don’t, but in reality, we’ve probably only scratched the surface.

This year we’re lucky to have the assistance of Elizabeth Chapman. Liz is currently studying for a Phd researching stay green wheat at the John Innes Centre in Norfolk, but as part of her PhD she is spending 3 months with us over in Shropshire. Using her experience of UK field trials, Liz is assembling a wide-ranging line up of crops to plant this Spring, ranging from new buckwheat varieties, lentils, to an interesting mix of novel barleys. You can typically find all these on sale in supermarkets, but we currently rely on imports from countries thousands of miles away from Britain, much as quinoa was a few years ago.

We’re super excited to give these crops a go and see what we can develop as a British grown crop, with genuine demand for. We’ll be sure to keep everyone updated, so do keep up with our progress on social media as the growing season unfolds!