A HIDDEN GEM

Kathryn Clover is swept off her feet as she visits Green Broom co-operative farm in Berkshire and finds plenty to write home about

- Kathryn Clover

Green Broom Farm has been hidden in the woods of the Hardwicke Estate, at Crays Pond near Reading, since 2015. It is a low impact vegetable and fruit farm which has nine members. It is also a co-operative community with a shared communal barn and workshops on basketry, natural dyes and permaculture, to name but a few!

On arriving, there is the farm shop (run on honesty) selling rare and heritage vegetables such as ‘Crystal Lemon’ cucumbers and cut flowers. I follow the track through the woods until I stop under the hand-painted wooden sign and survey the patchwork of texture and colour that is the growing beds. There is a joyous mix of wildflowers, brassicas, beans, sunflowers and herbs.

At the newly self-built barn I meet co-op member Tom, who shows me his Japanese wineberry and Viking aronia bushes. We fill a small bramble basket with luscious red wineberries which are already fermenting (hence the suitability for wine!). Tom’s partner Emily gives me some lovage and pungent herb Robert to taste, which she adds to the farm’s mixed salad bags.

Andrew Brackenborough arrives from finishing a delivery to show me his hügelkultur beds. Andrew is one of the founding members of the farm and built much of the infrastructure.