Day One

It was the first full day in England and our group of 18 headed from London toward Hereford, which is about an hour and a half west. And since we were in England we had to stop and see a castle - Warwick Castle (http://www.warwick-castle.co.uk) and its 1,100 years of history. We walked up the 560 steps to the top of Guy’s Tower that was built in 1395 and looked over the beautiful rolling countryside. The interesting thing about the castle experience was how the owners have made it very entertaining and interactive with Halloween ghost tours, a restaurant, a fortress looking playground, four gift shops, a falconer, jousting and an interactive walk through the castle with live and animated characters. Just as farm marketers have turned to agri-entertainment to attract visitors, so have the castle owners of England turned to castle-entertainment.

We also walked into the town of Warwick for lunch and visited the Collegiate Church of St. Mary where people have been worshipping for 1,000 years. (www.stmaryswarwick.org.uk) It was filled with tombs of former Earl’s of Warwick and was breathtaking in its size and beauty. As an American it is hard to fathom the historic legacy that encapsulates this country.

After a few hours at the castle and town we headed off to Hereford to a Rugby clubhouse for an overview of the tour by the Haygrove staff. John Berry, one of the two owners of the company, talked about the roots of Haygrove that started when he and his college buddy started growing strawberries the traditional way - on open ground where the season lasted 6-8 weeks. For anyone who has grown strawberries on open ground you know about the erratic and unpredictable nature of this system. The largest demand for strawberries in England comes during the Wimbledon tennis championship at the end of June when the English enjoy their tradition of eating strawberries and watching the tournament. If the berries weren’t ready for this timing the stores would get upset and they’d lose the best prices of the year. The large chains expected a consistent, high quality, reliable crop and the English lost nearly all of their market to Spanish-grown strawberries because they just could meet those standards.

To try and change this they decided to import a high tunnel from Spain and put it over one hectare (2.47 acres) of strawberries. Unfortunately it wasn’t big enough to drive a tractor through and was not strong enough for the windy conditions on the island country. After modifying it to fit their needs the Haygrove high tunnel was born. In 1996 they sold their first high tunnel and have now sold the systems to growers in more than 30 countries.

The impact of the introduction of the high tunnel system on the English strawberry market has been huge. Under the Haygrove system they have extended the season to 20-26 weeks, dramatically increased quality and have been able to steal back their own market from the Spanish. England has increased strawberry production by 60% in the past 10 years because they are no longer controlled by the weather.

The Haygrove farming operation has also been expanding over the past decade and now grows 250 hectares (600 acres) of fruit under tunnels including strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries and flowers.

Tomorrow will be a full day with stops at their growing operation, packinghouse and a local grower who is growing plums under high tunnels.




– Matt McCallum, Great American Publishing