We are East Neuk Market Garden, a 4 acre agroecological farm in the East Neuk of Fife. Our biggest polytunnel has suffered serious damage in Storm Eowyn, and we are asking our community of friends, colleagues and customers to help us re-build it.
As a business, we are wary of asking for help. Many people and businesses will have suffered damage in the storm. We don't take this step lightly.
One of the reasons for asking our friends for help now is because polytunnels are notoriously difficult to insure, so we can't expect any help from our insurers.
We are merging with Falkland Kitchen Farm (Nat and Bryde) and so this winter we have much higher costs than we would usually have due to moving all their equipment and materials over to our farm. This is a big hit to any farm at any time, but it's particularly bad for us right now.
Our other big reason is because although we are a business, we are a small business driven by the desire to grow healthy, nutritious food for our community. We have created a haven for wildlife and people on the farm, and are now feeding over 170 families every week. Our solidarity scheme ensures that higher income customers can subsidise veg bags for those on lower incomes. Helping us to rebuild this tunnel ensures that we can continue to feed our local community.
Many people have offered their time to help us rebuild this tunnel, and for that we are extremely grateful. But the reality is that this is a difficult job and ideally we would have professionals carry out the work; freeing all of the farm team up to continue with our sowing and planting schedule for the season ahead, instead of managing teams of volunteers to rebuild. In either case we would need to purchase all new materials. This helps to explain the amount of money we are hoping to raise.
Any help at all is so so appreciated and we are, as ever, so happy to be part of the supportive East Neuk community. Thanks to everyone for reading this far and please share with anyone you think might be willing to help.
Very best wishes and thanks from all of the ENMG team
Connie, Tom, Nat, Bryde, Neill, Louise, Holly and Zander