The Hungry Gap

You might notice that home grown crops are a little more limited from early Spring until early Summer in the UK growing calendar. It's even got it's own name.
Here's everything you need to know about it....

What is the hungry gap?

Put simply, it's the period all UK farmers face every March through to early June, when locally grown veg is limited. Overwintered produce in the fields begins to dwindle, stored roots run out and the new season’s crops are not yet ready to harvest.

Our approach to it

As a box scheme we do our very best to keep our boxes varied through this tricky period but, in order to do that, you’ll notice some produce is coming from other farms and countries. Unless growers use heated glasshouses, which come with a hefty carbon footprint, importing is a reality at this time for all UK veg box farms and sourcing organic tomatoes from Spain, for example, uses less carbon then growing them in heated glasshouses here at this time in the season.

The choice is yours

Our website makes it easy to see what's grown locally and what isn't and it's very straightforward to swap any contents if you prefer to keep your box more local. Our suppliers and partnered farms are all governed by the regulations we are so you can expect the same commitment to ecology, health and sustainability that we are built on.

Don't worry

Despite it's name we won't go hungry! Thankfully we’re in a fortunate position here at Barcombe. We’re blessed with an acre of under cover cropping and at this time of the year, as long as the weather is kind, we should still have quite a bit of our own produce at various times across this gap, like salad leaves, leeks, cauliflowers, cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli and stored squash. We just wanted to explain why there isn't everything you might expect!