The East Kent Fruit Society Orchard growing competition is for fruit growers across the county and it showcases the technical and orchard management skills of the farm teams.
The Goatham’s growing team have achieved first prizes in the categories:
- Best Orchard over 1,000 trees/acre (Howt Farm)
- Dessert Apples Gala (Howt Farm)
- Culinary Apples (Howt Farm)
- Most Commercial Orchard (White Gables Farm)
- Pears – any variety (Forge Farm)
- Best Young Orchard in 3rd Leaf (Turkey Hall Farm)
Other prizes include:
- Second and third prize Dessert Apples Gala (White Gables and Shrubbery Farms)
- Second prize Pears any variety (Shrubbery Farm)
Nigel Stewart, technical director at AC Goatham & Son said: “We are delighted to have once again won a number of first prizes in this annual competition in which fruit growers with businesses of all size across Kent take part. It is a great accolade to win a first prize against such great competition and to be judged the best by our peers in the industry is fantastic recognition of the hard work of our farm teams. There is a great deal of skill and technical ability needed to consistently grow the best quality apples and pears on the scale of our business and I would like to thank our growing team across our 28 farms for all their hard work.”
AC Goatham & Son grows 1 in every 4.5 British apples and 1 in 3 British pears sold each year in the UK.
Pictured: The new Conference Pear orchard at Howt Green
