Fancyleaf

Posts Tagged ‘Cucumbers’

We grow Fancy Lettuce with an increasing focus on the new Salanova varieties.

FANCY LETTUCE

We grow eleven varieties of lettuce for whole head production only, which are supplied to Woolworths . We do no salad mixes such as Mesclum (no, it is not Mescaline which we hear so commonly) as we believe there is too much processing of food already, as well AS the fact that if you produce these products, from a Quality Assurance point of view, you then become a high risk supplier, whereas we are a currently a low risk supplier.

Traditional Fancy Lettuce

SALANOVA LETTUCE

The most exciting thing to happen in lettuce production for years has been the introduction of Salanova varieties. These are generally a little smaller than traditional varieties, but usually quite a bit heavier. The extra weight is because these varieties have many, many more leaves than traditionals. The Salanova varieties are all patented, and the patent refers to 200 leaves on each plant. All these leaves grow from the one spot so it only requires a single cut to break the lettuce apart.

However the most exciting part is the taste. Salanova varieties have a lovely sweet taste with no traces of the bitterness you can get sometimes with other lettuce varieties. You really need to try them yourself. Woolworths are so impressed they have decided the traditional varieties are sooo yesterday and have asked their growers such as ourselves to switch entirely to salanova production.

ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT

Our chemical usage policy is quite firm as we produce under the WQA Standard (Woolworths Quality Assurance Standard). This means we use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) where consultants monitor all crops and advise us on what needs to be taken care off. Our first preference when any spraying is necessary is for soft, short lived or natural chemicals such a Pyrethrum. We also use beneficial predators, released on a regular basis.

Most chemical usage is avoided by growing more quickly than others, or investing in structures such as rain covers.

We are not organic and don’t claim to be but you can be assured our food is safe and has been produced with minimal, if any chemical usage, and in a very sustainable way (we use about 10-15% of the water required for ground crops). 90% of the water we use comes from rain runoff captured in our own dam, with very little used from the mains supply.