We now have planning permission!!!
Please monitor this page about the Elsworth Avenue Farm Food Park
Community Apple Press
The Food Park is a proposal to convert some of the old office buildings at Avenue Business Park to a Food Park of artisan food shops, producers and interactive foodie courses.
The park is designed to build an inclusive, enlightened, caring community around food and could be duplicated all over the UK.
We hope the park will provide:
– jobs in the park and adjoining land
– a wide range of interactive courses
– education with links to the school. Click here for videos
– produce for the Community shop to make it more viable
– apple pressing and seasonal food celebrations
And in the long term, post covid, food security through local food growing and sharing
fresh healthy home grown food
We have already started to plant an orchard, asparagus bed (see below), fruit bushes and have 5 cows so far, to mob graze and 4 chickens to regenerate the soil. All will provide produce for the cafe, shops and butcher.
We also hope to set up a small automated dairy with a raw milk vending machine. Grow a wide range of fruit and vegetables similar to what was grown on local farms 60 years ago. From Brussel sprouts to Beetroot, cauliflower to corn on the cob, apples to gages a fruit the area was famous for.
Or even with global warming, olive, avocado & citrus trees, and a vineyard for a celebrated Elsworth Merlot!
We hope to attract many artisan food business and already have WebbSour Bakery, Fifi’s Cakery, House of Biscotti and Passione Pasta at the park. Now that we have planning permission for the park Malloys Butchers, Courtyard Coffee Roastery & Cafe and Truffles & Chocolates will join.
If you would like us to keep you up to date please email [email protected] with your feedback or to add your details to our mailing list for latest news and offers. You could even volunteer for community work like planting a community orchard or joining our Community Supported Agriculture project to help in the fields and get paid in fruit & veg.
‘Possible’ Food park layout
Possible food park layout
Food Growing at The Food Park with potential Flood protection for the village
Food park with pond
Possible Community Supported Agriculture CSA
Our first efforts of forming a CSA took place recently
Asparagus planting team
A local farmer donated 250 asparagus crowns to the Food Park and 6 locals joined us to plant them. We were all imagining enjoying delicious fresh asparagus in 2 years time.
To get more locals looking forward to the big ‘home grown asparagus’ day we will celebrate an Asparagus Festival and buy in some asparagus from our local farmer at a wholesale price. Once we are officially open and trading we will sell asparagus through the shops and cafe and eventually reduce food miles to zero.
We increased our food production at the park with the addition of 4 chickens in our Chicken Tractor. We are developing the ChuckTrac to move round the livestock pasture very slowly under solar power and provide the chucks with fresh grass and cow pats to spread. All helping regenerate soil and produce food at the same time