With a family history in agriculture going back many generations in the Isle of Axholme, it seemed natural to follow on the family tradition.
At the age of 14, Mark started work at the local bedding plant nursery and, after leaving school went to Bishop Burton College of Agriculture to study Commercial Horticulture for 2 years.
At 20 years old he set up a successful landscaping business and for many years grew the company, taking on commercial work as well as looking after a lot of local gardens.
In 2018 he finally got the chance to work in agriculture. To start with it was just to help plant potatoes in Spring. As that came to an end he was asked if he would come back to help with the potato harvest that Autumn, then stayed on for a few years.
Covid struck, and although the country came to a stop with many industries farming carried on. It became obvious that people needed help to find food locally so Mark set up The Isle of Axholme Produce Group on Facebook. It was a huge help for local people to find local produce. It continues to be a place where people return to offer their produce, both as a business or roadside stalls.
In 2019, sat on a tractor and trailer waiting for the combine to come round again to empty, Mark thought about the lack of soft fruit locally. He decided to rent 2 acres of land in Belton and, with help from the family planted 8000 strawberry plants, 900 Raspberry canes, 180 Rhubarb crowns and Blackcurrant bushes. Since then we have grown lettuce, Charlotte potatoes, garlic, Chard and a variety of other vegetables, all offered in our veg boxes and to the chefs we supply.
We had some space on the land after planting the fruit so we drilled it with sunflowers. They grew well and a farmer friend brought his combine in to harvest them for us. We sell it as birdseed but after some research it brought about and made our current business. We realised people were growing sunflowers as shoots and eating them as a health boost in their diet. We now grow an extensive range of microgreens, micro herbs and edible flowers.
Our range, as of September 2022 has just been shortlisted as a finalist in the Yorkshire Taste Awards. We're very honoured to have got so far in such a highly regarded competition!
Our business is one of promoting other local produce businesses, promoting seasonal produce, reduced packaging, reduced chemicals and low food miles.
We practice regenerative farming and trying each year to become more "no dig" Our facebook page and instagram page show our journey so far -
Our first shop.
We opened our shop in Crowle Market Place in June 2024. Mark no longer has time to grow produce but focuses heavily on finding as much local produce as possible. Seasonality is important, low food miles and very little plastic packaging is an important ethos in making the shop a traditional green grocers
https://www.facebook.com/axholmeproduce
axholmeproduce on instagram