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Growing Quinoa
The production cycle
We’ve spent years perfecting our quinoa growing technique. Quinoa is not an easy crop to grow, requiring full attention to detail to ensure that the crop is healthy and will eventually produce a harvestable crop. Our production cycle runs from Spring to Autumn, where it is quality checked at all stages, to allow for a healthy, delicious grain.
April
Planting
We plant the tiny seeds at an accurate depth to ensure they emerge successfully. The seed germinates quickly but is initially slow to establish into a full crop until the weather gets warmer. At this stage, we want the crop to move quickly so it can get ahead of the weeds that will no doubt germinate alongside it.
May
Weed control
We use mechanical weeding in the young crop to control weeds without the use of artificial herbicides. This involves the use of a tractor hoe, which cultivates the space in between the quinoa rows to reduce the number of weeds present. This is a tough job, requiring excellent concentration to avoid damaging the young quinoa seedlings.
June
Flowering
During the Summer each plant will begin to flower, after which the seeds will soon begin to develop. The seeds start off being very small and full of water, but as the summer progresses they begin to swell and become much denser. This is an exciting stage as we can finally see all of our work start to come together.
September
Harvest
Once the quinoa crop has fully matured and the seeds have dried out in the Summer sun, a combine harvester is used to collect the seeds from the head of the plant. The combine empties its tank into a tractor and trailer and we bring the crop back to the farm so it can be rapidly dried to preserve quality. The seeds are then carefully stored in our shed until they are ready to be sent for cleaning.
October
Cleaning
Following harvesting we clean the crop to prepare it for consumption. During this stage we sieve the crop remove pieces of stem, weed seeds and chaff to ensure a high level of purity, while also removing small and discoloured quinoa grains to ensure we achieve a good quality product. All our products are cleaned in a modern food grade facility to ensure excellent standards of safely.
Grow with us
We are the UK’s largest quinoa producer, supplying supermarkets and food manufacturers alike with our British grown quinoa grains. We grow as much quinoa as we can on our family farm in Shropshire, but as we’ve expanded, we’ve taken on additional quinoa growers from across the UK to help meet demand.
If you’re a conventional or organic grower and are interested in working with us, please get in touch.
Who we work with
We’re proud to work in partnership with some of Britain’s leading food retailers
