He has just completed a melon project which has proved a great success, with two varieties of melon and watermelon moving on to a commercial trial stage this year. His fruit and some of the botanicals he grows are also going into a new London Dry Gin, Reliquum, one of his newest ventures. When they see the abstract bond 6 + 4 = 10, they can instantly relate to Farmer Pete’s story … if 6 sheep were in the pen, 4 must have got lost! Until we know the reality of labour availability and labour costs we can’t plant any orchards so it’s frozen the business,” he says.

Secondly, and more importantly, the song provides a fun-filled and engaging context that helps them find meaning in the concept.The account you're signing up for is aimed at teachers or staff at schools or organisations and independent providers. Innovation is at the heart of the business, and he now has planning permission for a Fresh Produce Innovation Centre, and expects to break ground on the project soon. Please ensure you have the correct licences in place for using or copying music, and that song usages are reported correctly, for the following: CCLI, PMLL, PRS for Music. It might also be encouraging suppliers to build in some padding above and beyond the exchange rate, he suspects. Pete’s is a smallish, highly specialist family farm at Great Oakley near Harwich, which benefits from its own special sea-warmed micro-climate and high light levels.

Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Jerry's book of selected columns, titled Dear County Agent Guy, was published by Workman Publishing in 2016. These have gained some industry plaudits: in 2018, Cotchel Topaz and Evelina Apple Juice scooped a coveted three stars at the Great Taste Awards.It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community. We used to grow five different types of lettuce on the farm, and there isn’t a lettuce on the farm now – it was loss-making for a whole number of reasons. As well as Brook Farm being a market leader and sole producer of Thompson’s Leaf, a key ingredient in Chinese restaurants also known as ‘crispy seaweed’, and jumbo salad onions selected and grown for the Chinese sector, he also trials a number of crops, such as citrus fruits, sometimes on behalf of other clients, and collaborates with other businesses.

At the same time, biodiversity and conservation are very important to him, so he incorporates that ethos into the business, with wildlife corridors and features to encourage pollinating insects. It’s clear to us we are getting about the same rainfall in the course of the year but we are getting it but we are getting it in much fewer and more violent episodes,” he says.The farm, home to owls, heron, cormorants, little grebes and kingfishers, is also a corporate member of Essex Wildlife Trust.