Wonderfully tasty salads and vegetables – traditionally and locally grown in Herefordshire, 

Lane Cottage is based in the beautiful rolling hills of north Herefordshire, situated approximately halfway between Ludlow and Presteigne. The market garden at Lane Cottage was founded nearly three years ago by Richard and Mandy Sidgwick. We choose the varieties we grow for flavour and love to source and experiment with new ones. Our salad leaves are grown in the polytunnels (put up by Richard with the help of our son Louis!) and outside, in our fields, we grow seasonal crops.

Our produce is freshly delivered to our customers – local shops and restaurants.

 

 

Natural:

Prior to our arrival, the land in which we now grow our salads and vegetables was unused and largely undisturbed for many years, so wildlife abounds. Our neighbours tell us that artificial pesticides and fertilizers have never been used on the fields. Therefore, despite it being much harder to grow this way, we made the decision to continue to grow traditionally. We only use organic fertilizers and for pest control we use companion planting,beneficial bacillus and nematodes, which are creatures that eat the baddies that eat our crops! We strongly believe that the taste really is better and the health benefits too: 100% good for you, grown naturally, nothing artificial.

 

Local:

Our customers tell us that they love the fact our produce is local. Lane Cottage is just a stone’s throw from the shops and restaurants which we supply.

Our salads and vegetables are fresher than almost all supermarket veg; it comes straight from us to our customers. We only sell what we grow and we can tell you exactly which field or polytunnel it came from!

 

 

Lane Cottage Produce was established in April 2011 as a result of Richard leaving his job as Propagation Manager at Wyevale Nurseries in Hereford.

Richard had worked there for about twenty years, having originally trained at Merrist Wood Agricultural College. He has enormous horticultural knowledge and experience. Mandy is passionate about good food having run her own cafe in Hereford for eight years and worked in restaurants in both Hereford and London. Together we dreamed up the idea of establishing a market garden which grew slightly more unusual varieties and Lane Cottage Produce was born.

 

We turned a badly neglected field (approaching two acres) into a market garden and soon discovered that demand for the salad leaves outstripped supply.

 

Initially we sold from a van around the local villages and markets and food festivals, buying in stock of fruit and vegetables to offer a wider selection. However in April 2013 we made the decision to stop the stalls and concentrate on selling uniquely our own produce to shops and restaurants.

 

In an attempt to keep up with demand for our salad leaves we have put up a further four polytunnels in the next field, bringing it to a total of ten.

What Rich does: the sowing, digging, growing, weeding, pest-control, muck spreading, rotavating, tractor-driving and polytunnel building!

 

Produce is nearly always picked the day before it is delivered.  Mandy still picks and packs but has much-needed help from three local super-women, plus extra help as needed.