Chris Kitchen and his wife Ann set up ‘Kitchen Garden Produce’ in 1979 when they purchased 22 acres in Lincolnshire.
Chris and Ann had extensive agricultural experience in farm management in Lincolnshire, and so decided to set up their own business. Initially the farm reared calves and grew soft fruit for ‘pick your own’.
A conversation with a supermarket buyer who mentioned that asparagus would be a good vegetable to grow in volume inspired Chris to change direction. So in the early 1980s asparagus was added to the crops and a pack house was built in 1989. The farm now uses state of the art equipment to streamline production during the busy harvest season.
The farm employs 23 full time staff, as well as seasonal temporary staff each year. Chris finds a number of workers return year on year, helping to achieve a real team spirit, which he thrives on.
The couple have two children Joe and Rachel, who also help on the farm when they are at home. Rachel is currently studying Russian at Durham University so she is sometimes called upon to act as interpreter for the Eastern European workers who come to work on the farm each year.
Rachel can regularly be found driving tractors and forklifts around the farm and spends her summers dealing with the temporary workers – sorting out everything from travel and visa problems to relationships between the staff!
Chris and Ann’s favourite way to eat asparagus is baked in the Aga with olive oil, black pepper and raspberry vinegar and served with a reduced tomato sauce with garlic and sprinkled with Parmesan or Lincolnshire Poacher cheese.
