News
Deliveries
Orders
Unibags
Recipes
Gallery
Vegetable Album
E mail
Guernsey Organic Growers
Hello,
I'm Anne Sandwith and my business is called Guernsey Organic Growers. I obtained the prestigious Soil Association organic symbol in 1991 and each year since then I've had to undergo a rigorous inspection to ensure that I meet the strict Soil Association 'standards'.
I am dedicated to producing high quality, locally grown organic produce and currently have a one acre greenhouse in the Castel for protected cropping and a slightly larger area in St Saviour's for outdoor crops.
On this website you can find recipes for many of the vegetables I grow, and the 'vegetable album' will help you identify the contents of your vegebox. Please check the News pages regularly for updates of vegetables in season, new organic conversions and other updates on the vegebox scheme.
I hope you find this website useful. It explains why locally grown produce is important, how my home delivery system works to provide premium produce at reasonable prices, and how you can join the scheme yourself. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me.
Organic Produce - Healthier for you and Better for the Environment
Food quality, nutrition and human health are inextricably linked, and we are clearly experiencing an escalation of food-related problems. Almost every day there are food scare stories raised somewhere in the media. More and more, connections are being suggested between intensive agriculture and the sources of these problems. There is increasing recognition that organic methods can supply safe, healthy and nutritious food that tastes good.
Recent research shows that pesticide residues sometimes as high as six times the recommended safety level can be found in intensively farmed food. Organic regulations restrict the use of artificial pesticides and fertilisers and precise records must be kept on all aspects of our operation. Herbicides are prohibited and genetically modified crops and processes are banned by the Soil Association. We aim to grow in a manner which is as environmentally sustainable as possible and to produce healthy, tasty, chemical-free produce.
Recent studies by the British Heart Foundation has shown that eating 5 portions of vegetable and fruit a day could save between 20% and 30% of the lives lost through heart disease. Of course organic produce is even better for you as it hasn't been treated with any noxious chemicals and some studies suggest it contains more vitamins and trace elements than conventionally grown food.
Organic farming and growing aims to employ sustainable methods which benefit the environment, animal welfare and wildlife. We seek to work in harmony with nature and encourage biodiversity.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY - GUERNSEY ORGANIC GROWERS
Organic and as Local as Possible
Local produce, organically grown is environmental in itself and when we need to import produce, we look first to our Jersey neighbours, who can supply most of the vegetables we need, but cannot grow ourselves.
If they can't help, then very occasionally we use a UK organic wholesaler (also for 'exotic' vegetables - e.g. sweet potatoes, ). NB This season, at last I hope to obtain some sweet potato 'slips' and will attempt to grow them myself on a small, experimental plot.
The fruit also comes from the same wholesaler, as we can only grow a limited amount of our own soft fruit during a short summer season.
None of the imported produce is air freighted.
Fair Trade
Fair trade starts at home by supporting local producers and giving us a fair price.
It's difficult to find organic and fair trade fruit because of the expense to the producer of the double certification fees. However, occasionally this is possible (e.g. some of the bananas we import).
Mostly the fruit is sourced from smaller producers rather than bigger companies.
Incidentally, we also aim to pay fair wages to our employees, certainly considerably above the (voluntary) minimum rates.
Transport and Fuel Costs
Delivering direct to most of our customers in a systematic manner is more environmental than customers coming individually to collect their boxes. Our delivery vehicle is fairly fuel efficient and we only use heating in the greenhouse for a very small propagation area for a short period.
Packaging
We try to use as little packaging as possible. We re-use supermarket plastic carriers for main-crop potatoes. We will be using some brown paper bags for smaller quantities of new potatoes. It's necessary to put certain produce - e.g. spinach, salad, celery and pak choi, etc. in plastic bags/sleeves to keep them fresh and enable storage overnight in our cooler, after rinsing them. Our local supplier is investigating biodegradable plastic.
You may return the punnets we use for soft fruit (only those supplied by us, please, and rinsed out).
Also you may return to us for re-use the large bags used for 'vegebag' customers who collect their produce (if in a reasonable condition).
We recycle and re-use as much of our own 'waste' as possible. We use organic and fair-trade products ourselves at work, including recycled paper.
I was a founder member of Friends of the Earth, Guernsey, am a member of Greenpeace, La Societe Guernesiaise, the Soil Association and the newly formed Guernsey Climate Action Network (G-CAN), so I have a fairly firm belief in environmental principles!
The Organic Symbol
Organic is a term defined by law and all organic food production and processing is governed by a strict set of rules. The Soil Association Symbol is given to organic products which have been inspected and conform to Standards for Organic Food & Farming.
Soil Association website: www.whyorganic.org
