Nichol Farm in Teynham, Kent, is an organic apple and pear farm that has been supplying Waitrose for 17 years. Originally a conventional farm, Nick and John Moor moved over to organic production in the 1990’s as they were keen to farm with as little chemical assistance as possible. Nick and John’s trial work on minimising waste fruit on the farm by employing “fruit wall” systems, of scab-resistant varieties has seen an increase in the tonnage of fruit meeting the Waitrose standard.

There will always be an element of the crop that doesn’t make it, though, and for this reason, Nick installed a juicing plant to utilise those fruits that are too big, too small or too misshapen. It’s these fundamental changes to their practices that saw them awarded Waitrose Demonstration Farm status in the Waste Reduction category.

Following on from Nicks original Waitrose Farm Assessment, one area identified for potential improvement was energy usage, and since then, they bought the first 3-row sprayer in the country which has substantially reduced their energy use and carbon. The key challenge going forward is consistent size and quality of the crop: fruit walls and careful variety selection should help overcome these.