Asparagus Hut to Double Award Winner: Groombridge Farm Shop's Best Month in Years

It's been the best run in years for Groombridge Farm Shop. Within the space of a few weeks, the Tunbridge Wells farm shop has picked up Gold at the Taste of Kent Awards, a further award at the Kent Business Awards, and an invitation onto national radio to talk pumpkins - recognition for a business that started out in 1993 as a single roadside asparagus stall.

The run started with the news we reported earlier this month: Gold in the Kent Independent Retailer of the Year category at the 20th Taste of Kent Awards, decided by a mix of public votes, a written entry and a secret-shopper visit that gave the shop a perfect score. The shop's own account of the day says the Gold award was presented by food broadcaster Nigel Barden. By the end of October, Groombridge Farm Shop was celebrating again, after picking up a Kent Business Award for Tunbridge Wells - Best Hospitality, Leisure & Tourism, Best Food & Drink Producer, as the shop announced on Facebook, thanking its staff, customers and suppliers for the win.

Groombridge Farm Shop traces its roots back to 1993, when it began as what its owners call "the Asparagus Hut" - a single stall selling the farm's own asparagus direct to the public. More than three decades on, the shop now grows 12 acres of asparagus on the sandy soil around Tunbridge Wells, still its busiest season each spring, and works with more than 50 local suppliers - including Groombridge's own village bakery and the Weald Smokery - to get around 90% of what's on its shelves from Kent or Sussex. The farm behind the shop, New Park Farm, still supplies much of the fresh fruit and veg itself, alongside free-range eggs, soft fruit through the summer, and the pumpkins and squashes currently filling its displays for autumn.

The awards came with an unexpected bonus: an invitation onto Greatest Hits Radio's Simon Mayo Show on 22 October, as part of Nigel Barden's Foodie Thursday slot, after the pair met at the Taste of Kent Awards. The segment covered seasonal autumn cooking, including a pumpkin curry recipe - fitting, given the shop's own pumpkin and squash patch is currently in full swing, with varieties from patty pan and crown prince to traditional carving pumpkins on sale through to Halloween.

Source: Groombridge Farm Shop and Groombridge Farm Shop: About Us.