What we grow

Kelsey Farms is a specialist soft fruit producer. We grow raspberries and strawberries. Although we farm in an intensive manner we take great pride in the planting of trees and hedges, undertaken annually. These plantings help provide extra habitat for wildlife and make the farm a more pleasant place to work in.

Varietal selection is paramount to our success. We choose to grow and supply fruit that has good or superior flavour which will continually delight our customers.This year we are growing three varieties of strawberry, Driscoll Katrina and Driscoll Zara (a premium variety). To supplement our early offer for May and June, which is the start of the new UK season, we are also growing Malling Centenary.

Our expanding raspberry production is dominated by the versatile, industry leading variety Driscolls Maravilla. We crop this variety using an advanced growing technique from late May through to mid November.

All our soft fruit crops are covered by poly tunnels at some point in their development. Poly tunnels protect our crops from the rain and wind which improves quality and reduces disease. Tunnels, along with varietal selection, allow us to have a season that runs from May until November. For more information on the use of tunnels in soft fruit crops go to www.britishsummerfruits.co.uk

Our raspberries are grown in pots containing coir (processed coconut husk). Strawberries are grown in grow bags also containing coir which are raised up on wire structures known as table tops. Table tops reduce the amount of bending for pickers and makes harvesting easier. In addition, all our growing media is collected and reused as a soil conditioner. The pots and tunnel poly are also recycled.

Farming in a sensitive manner is important to us and for that reason we are members of LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) www.leafuk.org