Producer Spotlight: 100% Hay - Vegetables, Fruit, flowers, eggs, ferments and goats cheese.
We're planning another film showing in Hay on Wye and will have some great food producers there: here's a spotlight on one of them!
You can find other producers that you can support on our Buy Good Food page.
Joe and Sein run a market garden adjacent to the River Wye just outside Hay. They have been trading at Hay Market for over 12 years selling virtually all their food less than a mile away from where it is grown.
Joe grows all the vegetables, herbs and fruit you would expect from a farm in Herefordshire plus aubergine, melon, cucumber, sweet potato, lemon grass and four varieties of chillies..
Of their 14 acres, under 2 are cultivated for vegetables, the rest is rotational pasture for the 3 Anglo Nubian billies and (at the last count) 12 nannies and kids. The hay bedding in their shelters is changed daily, composted, and used as fertiliser/mulch for the vegetable beds. The crops are protected from herbivores with strong horticultural fleece, and the weed/slug control is provided by the Indian Running ducks.
Sein makes two types of goats cheese, and Keffir with the goats’ milk.
Yusan, a Korean “WWOOFer” that stayed on the farm several years ago introduced Joe and Sein to his mother’s recipe for kimchi. At the time Kimchi was little known in the UK, but now, with the health benefits that have been realised, they can’t make it quick enough..
Joe is very much inspired by “Jadam” , an ultra low cost agriculture system developed by Korean scientist/horticulturalist Youngsang Cho, and published with free access. The system includes fertilisers and pesticides made entirely from natural products. Take a look, it’s super inspiring, hopeful and cheap. . Joe has began experimenting with ferments made with excess crop, leaf mould and water which will be used for fertilizing the crops next summer.
The eye to eye contact that Joe has at the market is central to his business and gives his customers an awareness of the seasonality and the passion that goes into growing. Hay markets (every Thursday morning and the new evening market every Tuesday from 3.30 - 6.30pm). You can also order over the phone and come and collect, just giving a few days notice. (01497 821113/07961 083808)