POM - helping us re-establish a new market garden

Aim

POM is seeking to raise £15,000 to re-establish a thriving market garden for our local community.

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."

This quote from Rumi encapsulates the ethos of what we are creating at POM. POM is short for pomegranate, which symbolises love and fertility and at POM we’re all about good food and helping mother nature.

Our small team is headed by me, Mark. I started market gardening in 2021 and steadily expanded to food box deliveries and local farmers markets. I was sadly asked to leave my growing site in October 2024 and with the help of friends and my partner Bina (who is in her last year of training for a doctorate in Clinical Psychology), we are in the process of moving the market garden to the new site on the Lizard.

To fund the new POM Market Garden, we are launching a Crowdfunding campaign.

WHAT ARE WE RAISING MONEY FOR?

POM Market Garden is seeking to raise £15,000 to re-establish a thriving market garden for the local community. Historically each week we have fed around 35 families through our food box deliveries, 80 families at the Farmers Market (and even more since recently opening up our POM Shop and Deli in Porthleven). 

The main focus of our crowdfunding campaign is to cover the costs of:

• Purchasing seeds, seedlings, compost, and woodchip to grow our market garden whilst also improving soil health and biodiversity
• Tools and equipment for visitors and volunteers to utilise on site to include wheelbarrows, rakes, hoes, spades, shovels, trowels, dibbers and more
• Moving infrastructure from the old site (for example our wash and pack facilities, sheds and equipment) and transplanting plants
• Creating a welcoming space for visitors and volunteers. An undercover space will give people a comfortable space to enjoy the garden and relax surrounded by beautiful fresh herbs and medicinal flowers
• Planting a cover crop to improve soil health and increase biodiversity
• Crop protection and fencing to keep produce safe from wildlife 

 We plan to re-establish a Market Garden which will involve transplanting plants and working the ground which has been covered in grass for years. Whilst we will not be able to grow root crops in our first year due to pest pressure (namely the pesky wire worm!), we will plant salad leaves, herbs, kales, chard, cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes and more for our farmers market customers (in St Ives), POM food box deliveries, POM shop and deli, and local restaurants. Our aim is to connect people to the land and to support a culture of enjoying space and food together. We are excited to invite local groups to visit and utilise the space for garden therapy and for families to pick and taste beautiful produce. 

THE PLANS

• A NEW MARKET GARDEN

The new market garden on the Lizard (Cornwall) is on organically certified land verified by the Soil Association. It will supply our POM shop & deli (situated in the small fishing town of Porthleven) with mindfully and agroecologically produced fruit, vegetables, flowers (of the edible variety) and herbs and will allow us to grow produce that can be challenging to source locally. 

• COMMUNITY GROWING

In POM market garden, we will grow using human scale principles which are kind to both people and the planet in that the food produced is free from chemicals, we follow ‘no-dig’ growing, and production is not reliant on heavy duty farming machinery. Importantly, this promotes accessibility because all that is needed the majority of the time is either a spade, trowel or a hoe. POM market garden will open the gates to volunteers from diverse backgrounds. As well as utilising the natural environment as a tool for healing, promoting mental and physical well-being through activities like gardening, or mindful walks or green bathing, POM market garden will become a safe haven to relax, enjoy and inspire the local community.

• LAND STEWARD 

POM market garden will also provide and nurture habitat that encourages wildlife. Our one-acre market garden sits at the heart of the ancient field layout of beautiful Mount Carlees Farm and will contribute to a community of conscientious small-scale growers.

The wonderful habitat created by the people at Mount Carlees is rich in flora, grasses, sedges, reeds, rushes, hedgerows, trees and wildflowers (including several red list species), and supports the multivariate population of spiders, moths, butterflies, and other insects. The impact of what has already been nurtured is evident as visitors are greeted by the sound of bird song as soon as they arrive on site. The bird population is thriving there and at the last count there were thirty-two nesting species (with eight on the endangered red list). Crucially, POM market garden will be fully sympathetic to and integrated within this wider ecological project. 

WHO WE ARE & WHO WE STAND FOR

We (Mark and Bina) have grown up in West Cornwall and have a strong connection to the community, as well as a love of food and growing. A chance occurrence led me to open a shop in Porthleven and Lewis (a Falmouth market customer and now close friend) led me to the new growing site. As luck would have it, we were invited to be part of Mount Carless on the same day I was asked to move off the old market garden I had established for over 4 years.

Importantly, we are committed to promoting and embodying ‘Land Sovereignty’ which is the right of individuals and communities to have effective access to, use of, and control over land, including its benefits, and to understand land as a resource, territory, and landscape. Part of this involves a continued commitment to ethical practices which includes working closely with local small-scale growers in Cornwall and we also believe we have an ethical duty to think about and respond to issues that are happening globally for growers. At POM, we are committed to supporting the resilience of Palestinian and South Asian communities through fair trade. We stock Zaytoun products, organic ethically sourced tea and much more. 

POM MARKET SHOP & DELI, FOOD BOX DELIVERY & FARMERS MARKET

Last December we were encouraged to take over two old shipping containers at the Shipyard in our hometown of Porthleven to increase access to local and organic fruit and veg to our neighbours. We spent 5 months refurbishing and finally opened the doors on the 5th April. The plan is to offer local and organic produce all year round, and also share South Asian and Middle Eastern culture and cuisine which centres on love ethics and community. Our deli showcases foods from these regions, and we will host feast nights in the year which will offer a fun shared dining experience with detail about the heritage and culture of where our home-cooked dishes come from. 

Please follow us on instagram.com/pomcornwall 

Our website is https://pomcornwall.co.uk/

I close with a note of sincere appreciation for the wonderful efforts of the community on the Lizard and for the continued support from our customers and the community old and new. Needless to say, nothing would have happened without you.  

REWARDS INFO

All rewards purchased  will be sent out or available for collection from our POM shop & deli from October.

We are finalising a date for our Guided Tour and Feast Night which we expect to be a Saturday in September! 

Please feel free to contact us to discuss any of these rewards if you are interested via Instagram, Facebook or visit us at our POM shop and deli in Porthleven Shipyard. Thank you.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made