Buy our Veg

We don’t buy in from other sources and focus on veg that are in season. Our aim is to grow organic, tasty food, rather than perfect looking veg!

Order a weekly veg bag

You can order a veg bag each week and pick it up from the field on Monday,Tuesdays or Wednesdays or from a member’s house near you. You can either order a seasonal veg bag or you can order what veg you want each week using our online system.

Prices for weekly bags

Small £8.00 – suitable for 1-2 people, about 6 varieties of veg

5th Sept 2022

Medium £12.00 – suitable for 2-3 people, 6+ varieties of veg

10th July 2023

Large £16.00 – suitable for 4+ households, 6-8 varieties of veg, or more if available and larger amounts

We will fill a bag of veg and adjust what we give you to make sure it adds up to your chosen size bag. Between July and December we will have quite a wide range of veg so we should be able to give you some basic staples – potatoes, onions and garlic plus rotating some of the other veg available: cabbage, kale, chard, swede, tomatoes, beetroot, beans, sprout tops, sprouts, leeks and winter lettuce.

After December/January we will have less veg available and so we might say to you that we can only offer a lower price of a seasonal veg bag.

Online veg order (minimum amount £6 an order)

The list of available veg and their prices will be available each Thursday from midday until the end of Saturday for the following week on the online system. You choose which veg and how much you want on the order form. You will have until Saturday midnight to complete your order and submit it. You need to register by emailing the address below to access our online system.

How to buy our veg

Email gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com to join the scheme and you can choose when you’d like to receive your first veg bag. Membership costs £10 per year (1st April – 31st March). As a member you will be able to:

• Buy veg bags
• Join in events on the field – planting or harvesting
• Come to social events
• Get a discount to training events (e.g. making obelisks from willow)
• Become a regular volunteer on the field
• Help run the organisation – admin, marketing, fundraising, organise the growing
• Come to members meetings to help influence the direction of GCF

We’ll find a delivery point near you, or you can pick it up directly from the field on Fellside Road in Burnopfield on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, usually between 2 and 3.30pm.

Payment
When you place your order you will be directed to make payment online.

Veg pickup points

Can’t get to the field? Then you can pick up your veg pack from one of our pickup points (usually between 5 and 8pm):

• Burnopfield – Wednesday
• Blackhall Mill – Monday
• Corbridge – Tuesday
• Crawcrook – Wednesday
• Highfield – Wednesday
• Low Fell – Monday
• Rowlands Gill – Monday
• Ryton – Wednesday
• Whickham – Monday
• Wylam – Wednesday

Veg available seasonally during the year

Autumn –  Winter

potatoes| turnips | swede | leeks | cauliflower | onions | beetroot | squash | cabbage (red, pointy, round) | brussel sprouts |broccoli | purple sprouting broccoli |

Winter – Spring

chard | spinach | kale | mustards | onions | rocket | chives | cabbage | chicory | rhubarb | potatoes

Spring – Summer

beans (broad, French)| peas | (mange tout, sugar snap)| lettuce | potatoes | garlic | pak choi | Chinese cabbage | chard | onions | courgette | mooli | onions

Summer – Autumn

onions |tomatoes | cucumber | peppers | chillies | squash | pumpkin | cauliflower | cabbage (round, pointy, red) | calabrese | garlic | fennel | courgettes | kohl rabi | beetroot | runner beans

Holidays
If you are ordering what you want each week – then you won’t order for the week that you are away. For the seasonal veg bag please give us one week’s notice of when you are away and when you are returning. When collection points aren’t available due to member holidays (rarely occurs), we will let you know one week in advance that veg will not be available that week or what the alternative arrangement will be.

The veg
We only sell the veg we grow, which means that it is seasonal to a windy field in Gateshead. We don’t buy veg in, so if we don’t have any we can’t sell any. This means that between April and July we will not have as much veg to sell, this is known as the hungry gap. (We now have a polytunnel, so we will be able to grow some veg to fill this gap, but not a lot!)

We are certified organic by the Soil Association who inspect us each year. This means that we do not use artificial
fertiliser, herbicides or pesticides. We use green manures (plants that are grown to be nutritious to the soil, which are ploughed back into the ground) and we also use horse manure supplied by the riding stables next door. (The horse manure is certified that the horses are not fed any GM based feed.)

We try and get the highest quality veg from the harvest, however sometimes it will be imperfectly shaped or might have provided a small meal to insects! If it is wet when we harvest the veg might be muddy. (We don’t wash veg because we want to avoid introducing bacteria, also veg that hasn’t been cleaned keeps for longer). So, it isn’t the pristine veg you find in supermarkets but we think it tastes much better. It is also much better for the environment and for sustainable agriculture.

Packaging/Bags

Your veg will arrive in a jute bag.  Please return these bags each week to your collection point so they can be re-used for your following week’s veg. We put some veg in compostable/recycled plastic bags to keep them clean from the dirtier veg. You will be sent information about recycling your own bags for veg packaging.

Where else to find our veg

We put produce on display shelves in the market place at Gibside National Trust near the cafe.  The produce is usually available from mid July to the end of March. The shelves are re-stocked regularly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. Anyone is welcome to take the produce and donate what you think it’s worth by either putting cash in a box or using an app on your phone.

We also sell veg to other organic local veg suppliers.