Market Garden
At the heart of Wealdbrook Farm lies our Market Garden.
Currently occupying an area of ca 3000m2 on our southern field, the Market Garden is where our vegetables are grown: we cultivate them with agro-ecological principles and methods, managed holistically at human scale aided by little to no heavy machinery, supplementing only with organic fertilisers and microorganisms and disturbing the soil minimally. We raise a huge diversity of crops within a relatively small space in a so-called bio-intensive way, ranging from staples in the Western diet to ingredients common in other parts of the world but seldom farmed and sold here.
History of Market Gardening
The concept of market gardening is itself nothing new, nor is it unproven: market gardens have historically and even today produced food – real food – often on the fringes or within cities where space is limited. These therefore provided food security to and tackled food poverty in population centres, while the market gardeners stewarding them embody a genuine link between consumers and where their food comes from. From restaurants growing to supplying themselves with ingredients to those seeking a more self-sufficient lifestyle, market gardens are now gaining popularity and springing up all around the world, including here in the Nordics.
A market garden has existed on this farm all but in name since at least 1960s. Previous occupants maintained a vegetable patch, for both their own consumption and selling to the local community. It along with the farm eventually fell out of use and became overgrown, until we the latest custodians set out to revitalise the farm and establish a new market garden in spring 2024.
Our farm over the years (from left to right): ca 1960; ca 1975; May 2024
Our market garden consists of 114 12m no-dig permanent raised beds in addition to a 30m polytunnel and various planting zones.
With most of market garden installed and ready for planting, 2024 saw our first-ever growing season and trial year. Despite unfamiliarity with local conditions, setbacks with soil fertility, lack of manpower and the constant divide between expanding the cropping area and tending to crops already in the ground, the results far exceeded our expectations: we were able to produce more than enough to attend markets in Gothenburg and Trollhättan and regularly put food on people’s plates.
This newfound experience and conviction is what we bring to our upcoming second growing season – but operating at full capacity. With better yields, nutrition, and more intense flavours than ever.
