New Introduction to Market Gardening Course date this October 2022
We have decided to run a two day Introduction to Market Gardening course with Lally and Tomas from Springtail Farm on October 12th and 13th. To find out more go to the booking page.
We now have more capacity to make up more veg bags for delivery, so please get in touch if you are interested in getting veg from us by emailing [email protected]
Waiting list for box scheme
We have had huge demand for veg boxes in and around Axminster, Seaton and Lyme and we have had to stop taking new customers. If you are interested in getting our veg please email at [email protected] with your address and we can put you on a waiting list.
NEW BOX SCHEME LAUNCHED!
You can now start placing orders of organic veg bags from us, with extra additional items like organic bread, eggs and even beer. Collection points are in Axminster, Lyme Regis, Seaton and Rousdon at the moment. Go to our box scheme page for more details and to order.
Buy our produce from Rousdon Village Bakery
We will be opening up a new shop outside Rousdon Village Bakery along with other local producers. This will start on Saturday 21st march and will be open daily from 10-2. We are also looking at setting up a local box scheme with drop off points in Axminster, Seaton and Lyme, but we currently have limited variety of produce available so looking at supplementing our own produce with other organic veg not grown at the farm. Let us know if you would be interested in this!!
More course dates set for 2020
Check out the new course dates for Market Gardening, Salad Growing and Seed Production for 2020
We have new dates for our Market Gardening, Salad Growing and Seed Saving Courses. Go to the Trill Farm Garden Courses page to find out more.
Seed production at Trill Farm Garden
New date for Market Gardening Course 2018
The LandBase 3 day Market Gardening Course held at Trill Farm Garden, Fesh and Green in Ottery St Mary and Charles Dowdings' Homeacres in Somerset will be running from 21st to 23rd April 2018. Tickets will be available very soon. For more details go to the LandBase Market Gardening page. There will also be a Growing Salad All Year course run in May, ore information at LandBase on the Salad Course page.
No stall on 22nd July...
Sorry we will not be able to run our stall next weekend (22nd July), but will be back the following week - with lots of tomatoes I reckon!
Veg stall starting in Lyme Regis...
21st June 2017
We will be restarting our summer veg stall outside Town Mill Bakery on Saturday 24th June from 9:30 til 1:30. Come on down to get some cut flowers, salad, the first of the cucumbers, broad beans, beetroot and much much more.
The stall will run through the summer into Autumn, finishing around the end of October.
Early summer veg now available...
17th May 2017 We are finally getting lots of early summer vegetables coming through from both the polytunnels and outside, which means that there is more available from our online shop. You can order for delivery to Lyme (Tuesdays and Fridays), Rousdon (Thursdays) or pick up from the farm (Wednesdays and Saturdays - to fit in with the farm lunches that Chris does at The Old Dairy Kitchen at Trill.
You can choose just a salad bag, or a mixed bag, or select whatever you want from what we have on offer.
Salad now available to order at Rousdon Village Bakery
Go to the Trill Farm Garden online shop to order your salad to collect on a Thursday from Rousdon Village Bakery. Make sure you order by midday on Wednesday to get your order in on time.
Collect your salad and vegetables from the farm on a Wednesday or Saturday and have lunch at the Old Dairy Kitchen
Chris runs the Old Dairy Kitchen at Trill, and opens the restaurant for lunches on a Wednesday and Saturday (booking available on the ODK website), so if you are coming down for lunch, why not collect your salad and vegetables from the garden shed. Orders need to be in the day before collection. Go to our Open Food Network page to visit our shop and complete your order.
Now selling our salad bags at Town Mill Bakery in Lyme Regis
We are now selling salad bags through our online shop for collection from Town Mill Bakery in Lyme Regis or from the farm every Tuesday. We will soon be having a collection point at Rousdon Village Bakery too.
Market Gardening course at Trill Farm Garden
We have recently helped to setup an initiative called LandBase, which is a new centre for land based skills, based in Dorset. We will provide experience led, affordable, long and short-term courses for motivated landworkers, both current and aspiring We will be hosting one day of a three day Market Gardening course in April. Details below.
Course Date 8-10th April 2017
Course tutors
Ashley Wheeler Ashley runs Trill Farm Garden with his partner Kate. They specialise in growing salads to sell to restaurants around Lyme Regis. Ashley is a founding member of Landworkers' Alliance.
Charles Dowding Charles Dowding, runs a quarter acre, super intensive no dig garden in Somerset, selling salad bags and veg to local restaurants and shops. He writes and teaches extensively on growing vegetables, and on his speciality of no dig.
Hugh Chapman Hugh has been a field scale organic vegetable producer since 1984, for the last 30 years on a 10 acre smallholding in the Cerne valley near Dorchester, Dorset. Marketing as Longmeadow Organic Vegetables, was originally wholesale, then through a box scheme and farm shop.
Course detail This workshop will not only cover much of the fundamental principles of crop production, but will also focus on how to run a successful market garden business. One of the critical aspects of running a market garden well is being organised, so record keeping and basic accounts will be talked about as well as crop planning, sowing schedules and crop rotations. The course will be suitable for people who are looking into starting up a small scale market gardening business, as well as those who have already started. Soil types as well as soil health and fertility will be talked about along with other technical aspects of growing vegetables such as propagation, cultivation, protected cropping, pests and disease, seed saving and harvesting, packing and storing vegetables.
The course will be run over three days (8th, 9th and 10th April 2017) and led by three different tutors at three different holdings.
After meeting at Monkton Wyld Court, the participants will go to Trill Farm Garden where Ashley runs a 2.5 acre smallholding with his partner Kate. Ashley will cover the following:
Setting up a market garden, including infrastructure needed
Selling to restaurants
Growing salad all year round
Propagating all your plants
Small scale growing techniques with minimal machinery
Making the most of a small plot by growing high value crops that grow well on your soil and can be easily marketed.
Protected cropping
On the second day, participants will go to Longmeadow Organics near Dorchester where Hugh and Patsy Chapman have been organic vegetable growers for well over 20 years. Hugh will cover the following:
An introduction to and history of our 30 years growing here at Longmeadow, and the previous 4 years in west Somerset, with big differences in soil types, altitude, climate, accessibility etc.
Field scale rotations, green manures, crop planning and primary cultivation techniques ,bed preparation, row widths, beds or ridges etc.
A brief history of field scale horticultural equipment, and a look at the latest tackle available for the small grower. Then a more detailed look of what we have here, its use in the field hopefully with a demonstration conditions allowing. this will cover setting up,sowing, planting, mechanical weeding,inter-row/bed cultivating, harvesting.
Suitable tractors, how to find them, basic maintenance, necessary adjustments and safety issues.
Field scale irrigation, pest control, crop covers.
On the final day of the course we will be visiting Homeacres, where Charles Dowding grows salad and vegetables using a no dig system. He will talk about the merits of using no dig in a market garden, covering the following:
small scale no dig
initial weed clearance using compost and/or polythene
being clear of pests, especially slugs
intensive cropping, early cropping and double cropping
low weed pressure
time management, setting beds up in winter for minimum time needed in summer
using a hotbed for propagation
share yield figures to assess profitability of certain veg
methods for growing and packing salad leaves
selling methods - boxes, markets, direct sales.
Overall the course will cover three very different production systems from tutors with a combined experience of over 70 years of growing vegetables.
Accommodation will be at Monkton Wyld Court. For course prices click on the link below.
We will soon be launching online sales so that you can order your salad and vegetable boxes online and either collect from the farm or collect from Lyme Regis. We will be using the Open Food Network as a platform for our sales.