SCRUMPTIOUS GARDEN

The team at Scrumptious Garden is motivated by the desire to make fresh, nutritious, delicious fruit and veg accessible to everyone.

Founder, Ellie, was inspired to start Scrumptious Garden after working on a community farm in Japan. There she saw first hand just how difficult growing food conventionally is. She said: “One day, while planting baby onions, we saw the devastation caused by one particular grub that crawls from one onion to the next in a row, snipping each plant off at the base and killing it. The grubs can decimate whole fields in a single night and the only “organic” control was to scrabble in the dirt between the last victim and the next, hoping to find and kill the rice-grain sized culprit. Imagine how it must feel to arrive in the morning to find weeks of hard work laying wilting in the sun. Who can blame farmers for resorting to pesticides under those circumstances?

“We believe there is a better way. Scrumptious Garden mimics Nature: we grow mixtures of plants together in undisturbed soil. We actively create complex ecosystems in our gardens that welcome as many species of insects and animals as possible. There are no long rows or huge monocultures, which act as signposts for pests, and we don’t try to prevent damage with chemicals, instead we focus on creating as healthy and diverse an ecosystem as we can. This brings natural predators in and ensures all our plants are strong enough to fight off pests and diseases by themselves. The healthier the plant, the more nutritious it is and the better it tastes, so everyone wins!”

“We are currently building our first market garden and training centre on the North shore of Loch Tay as part of Tombreck Farm. We sell our produce to chefs and restaurants locally and direct to customers through our NeighbourFood portal in Killin.”

Scrumptious Garden is a Community Interest Company and Wildcard EDGE winner. Ellie added: “We are currently partnering with the city council and housing associations in Glasgow to bring our growing model to areas of urban derelict and underused land, turning ugly urban plots into clusters of productive, financially self-sustaining, market gardens. We are also creating a training program teaching business and horticultural skills to people living near those sites, enabling them to access the new jobs we are creating.”