Devon’s Crealy grow their own fruit and veg

Crealy Great Adventure Park near Exeter has embarked on new organic project that will see the park grow their very own fruit and veg.

The produce has been grown by the Head Gardener, John Murphy on site at Crealy. Crealy will also produce will also be growing more vegetables right outside the Crealy Bear Café with lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs all being used by the parks catering team.

Global sales of organic food are rising at a rate of about 10% yearly and The Soil Association report even found a massive 30% growth in organic vegetables production from the previous year.

The park is committed to local sustainability initiatives with 70% of produce used by Crealy coming from within Devon. Crealy use locally sourced meat and vegetables, free-range chicken and eggs, nearby bakeries, Devon dairies, Westcountry ice cream and confectionary, local vineyards and breweries.

Crealy recognize the health and environmental benefits of home-grown produce and organic farming and will expand this further in 2010, which is also the target year for Crealy’s planned environmental achievement of being carbon neutral.

John Murphy, Head Gardener at Devon’s Crealy said:

“We are delighted to be able to serve up home-grown salad to our visitors and I’ve been really pleased with how well the vegetables have grown here at Crealy. It makes perfect sense for Crealy to grow our own fruit and vegetables as Crealy’s main aims is to raise awareness about the importance of farming and of course we are never short of nutrient packed manure, with our stable of forty ponies right on site!”

Home grown fruit and vegetables are just one part of Crealy’s wider environmental plan of increasing local partnerships, improving sustainability by reducing their carbon footprint with over thirty thousand trees being planted in 2009 and their ongoing aim since opening in 1989, of increasing children’s understanding of the importance of farming.

For further information visit www.crealy.co.uk

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