Ben speaks to soft fruit grower Anna Barton who used to work in interior design before meeting her husband and moving to the farm.
Today we’re heading to Staffordshire to meet Anna Barton. Brought up in London and trained in interior design, Anna never imagined she’d become a farmer. Then she met her builder husband whose parents needed help running their soft fruit farm in Staffordshire, so in 2016 the pair moved there and Anna became an overnight expert in growing strawberries and running a busy café and shop.
Canalside Farm stands on the banks of the Trent and Mersey canal and is 26 acres in size (around 10 hectares). The farm has a large glasshouse and 20 polytunnels planted with strawberries and raspberries. The farm also grows rhubarb, tomatoes, cucumbers and seasonal flowers. Everything is sold through an on site farm shop and pick your own scheme.
The family also grow around 20,000 pumpkins each year; sold for the increasingly large Halloween market in October each year.
Image credit: Anna Barton.
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Ben Eagle is the founder and Head of Podcasts at RuralPod Media, a specialist rural podcast production agency. He is also a freelance rural affairs and agricultural journalist. You can find out more at ruralpodmedia.co.uk or benjamineagle.co.uk
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This episode is sponsored by our primary sponsor Howden Rural Insurance.