Target reached!
Woah. We are blown away by how quickly we've met our target! Such a generous and rap...
Polytunnel, Please!
Sheffield, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us raise £6,000 to buy a polytunnel so we can transform our propagation system and take our veg and flower business to the next level!
Polywho?
We're Sally, Matt and El - collectively known as Over the Hedge. We grow vegetables and flowers on three acres of open field in the Moss Valley, on the outskirts of Sheffield.
Throughout the year we deliver our flowers and veg to several small, independent businesses in and around Sheffield's city centre. If you've ever shopped in the organic veg section of Beanies Wholefoods or dined at TONCO, there's a good chance we grew some of what you chowed down on.
You might also have bought our bouquets from TONCO bakery or I Said Bread, and possibly seen us flogging more flowers and wreaths at Nether Edge farmers' market.
Polywhat?
You'll have seen one before: a polytunnel is a large steel frame structure with a polythene cover, designed to create warmer, protected conditions for crops that would otherwise struggle to grow in the UK. They're essential for propagating and raising seedlings on a large scale.
In a typical growing season, we raise thousands of plants from seed before planting them out in the field. We're about to begin our third growing season and we still don't have our own polytunnel.
How have we managed so far? Honestly, it's been a bloody nightmare! For the past two seasons we've been sharing crammed corners of another grower's polytunnels, near (but not actually on) our main growing site, with nowhere near enough space to propagate seedlings or cure our squash. (Below: not our polytunnel)
Polywhy?
Having a polytunnel would provide us with the necessary infrastructure to make our business more resilient and help it evolve into the next phase of production.
It would:
- completely transform our current propagation area and give us enough space to monitor our seedlings closer to our growing site.
- provide essential storage space to cure (ripen) our squash after harvesting, and to dry all our garlic and shallots.
- create warmth and shelter so we can overwinter some flower varieties and begin our growing season earlier.
- enable us to extend our season at the other end, too: we could dry even more grasses and seed heads for our dried flower arrangements, which make a significant contribution to our income over the winter.
A Polyte Request For Help:
Being a food and flower grower sometimes feels like gambling: each growing season is essentially an exercise in managing expectations and dealing with whatever weather the year throws at us. In our business' short life we've already seen both drought and extreme flooding - creating all manner of problems for our crops, and a significant financial hit to our young business.
An unstable climate isn't the only problem we're up against; costs have risen sharply in recent years and small scale growers like us don't get any meaningful subsidy from the government.
We love and value the work we do, and want to keep on doing it for as long as we can, but our current polytunnel-less situation is unsustainable. In order for us to continue growing food and flowers for Sheffield on this scale, and for our business to really take off, we need a financial leg-up.
We feel extremely lucky to farm on rural land that is so close to the centre of Sheffield, because it means we have a stronger relationship with the community and really get to know our customers. Throughout the summer we host pick-your-own-flower sessions and volunteer days, give informative farm tours and host workshops at our annual Open Day. We also occasionally put on ceilidhs and concerts in the barn!
How You Can Help Us:
Any donation will be warmly received, and all money raised will go directly towards the cost of buying a polytunnel.
We also have a number of exciting rewards on offer, any money raised through buying a reward will also go towards reaching our target. We've kept the price low for lots of our rewards so that we can be more inclusive and accessible. If you feel you can spare a bit extra, you can top up with a donation and this will help us reach our target.
If you're not in a position to give money we'd still be really grateful if you could share the link to this Crowdfunder page or to our video on Youtube. Your support will make a huge impact on the number of people who know about our Crowdfunder, and it will help us achieve our goal of raising £6,000 in only three weeks!
Thank you so much for your support!
The Rewards:
Please refer to the 'Rewards' section, but below are some pics to help you decide between the lino prints...
Poppy lino print on A4 paper:
Person holding a bunch of helichrysum flowers, colour print on A3 paper:
Pack of 3 separate vegetable prints on A5 paper (please note - colours may vary):
This project successfully funded on 23rd March 2024