Woodlands Farm

We set up our Box Scheme as a pilot project nearly ten years ago, our idea being to supply people living locally with fresh, affordable organic produce. This is still our aim today. We grow, pick, pack and deliver 85% of the vegetables ourselves.

More recently we’ve added our own fruit and meat (beef, lamb and turkeys) to our range, together with eggs and numerous other items. Chicken table birds will soon follow. We also include flowers and even poems written and inspired by life on the farm. It’s hard work but very rewarding to have such a direct link with our customers. So much more satisfying than supplying large retailers.

The Box Scheme has been a wonderful source of employment. At a time when jobs have been lost in farming it has created around 25 full-time positions at Woodlands. It has also helped foster what might be called a family atmosphere on the farm. I often think these are consequences of moving away from a farming system based on quantitative values to qualitative ones.

At the heart of the Box Scheme is a wish to reconnect people with the land and to foster affection for it. You see the raw beauty of a field or the whisker of hare and you want to celebrate them. I like to feel our boxes carry the signature of such momentous things as well as food we can all enjoy.

Andrew Dennis