Swedes

K S Coles was established in 1967 and has now developed into a business growing over 500 ha of swede, 400 ha of fresh peas and broad beans and 320 ha of cereals.

Swede is grown within a 100 mile radius of the Packhouse, some in Taunton Vale, the rest in Mid, North and West Devon and into Cornwall.

Peas and beans are grown in Tauton Vale; all mainly grown on seasonally rented land. The main holding, Eastcombe Farm, is in Countryside Stewardship, with a FWAG Farm Biodiversity Plan, LEAF membership and established Bumblebee margins, now part of Operation Bumblebee.

We currently grow in Airlie, Helanor and Maigres varieties of swede. We are constantly working towards fining commercial varieties that give better colour and taste and are continually involved in variety tasting sessions and seed open days.

Since 1959, Alfred G Pearce Ltd have delivered bulk processing solutions to food manufactures, handling 70,000 tonnes of vegetable products annually.

Crops are processed direct from the field, along with growing partners within a state-of-the-art purpose-built Processing Centre.

Vegetable washing, grading and storage - through to final preparation and packaging - is all undertaken under one roof with full traceability control from seed to factory production line and dispatch.