(Warminster, Wiltshire)

Produce:

Watercress

John Hurd’s Organic Watercress is a family run business, founded in 1954 after John Hurd returned from his National Service. He came back to the Dairy farm his father owned but needed to find another job as the farm could not support both him and his brother. His father followed NFU advice at the time, which suggested the land was perfect for growing watercress. Watercress is a very nutrient dense product per hundred grams. John, who is now ninety-two, has been eating watercress almost everyday! He believes his cress has kept him going. John has incorporated his wife, son and eldest grandson into the business- making everyone partners. His son, Simon, started with the business aged 17 and is now on a mission is to “health up the nation by sticking watercress in your bacon sandwich.”

Watercress grows in chalky areas; it thrives on the nutrients in alkaline water. There is an abundance of water that has been absorbed by the aquifers underneath the chalk. This water is fed into the network by boreholes. There are four boreholes on site that John dug himself in the 1960s. He did not use any modern technology- simply drilled down into the ground and inserted cast steel pipes. Each watercress bed has an individual tap to control the water input for varying stages of growth. This approach means pure water is used for growing with no risk of contamination.

Watercress can take six to eight weeks to come to fruition after planting, depending on the time of year. It is harvested using a specially engineered machine, replacing hand cutting, which was the original method for harvesting the crop. The watercress passes through a washing plant and progresses to a vacuum chiller. This reduces the temperature of the product from five to two- point- six degrees celsius. The aim of this process is to increase longevity. After that, the watercress is hand packed into trays, film wrapped and ready to sell.

John Hurd’s Organic Watercress strive for a “quality over quantity” approach. Despite being a medium sized grower, they incur some of the same costs as bigger growers do, without the capacity for the same output. John’s grandson, Fergus, says the business wouldn’t have survived if the farm wasn’t organic. Having the ability to produce a premium product just about covers the costs of being a medium size grower.