Family-run farm Laurence J Betts Ltd, of Offham, near West Malling in Kent, has reached a production level of 17.5 million lettuces.
The farm originally comprised 60 acres of hops, but now, under the management of fourth-generation Betts - Stephen and Ian - it grows a wide range of vegetables and salads, including 625a of lettuce.
The Betts now own 400a at Offham, with a further 165a at Golden Green, near Tonbridge - in addition to this, the farm rents land in Hadlow, Yalding and Wrotham in Kent and Chelmsford in Essex.
The farm grows mainly iceberg, little gem, sweet romaine, frisée, oakleaf, lollo rosso and lollo verde. This year has also seen wild rocket added to the line up.
Farm Refrigeration had installed chilled storage refrigeration on the farm in the past, and the Betts again turned to the company this year for two 400m3 stores. Two air-cooled condensing units use ozone-friendly refrigerant R404A, and each store has a ceiling-mounted cooler. The produce enters the chill stores after being cooled in the vacuum cooler and the temperature is maintained at 3.5oC.
The lettuce is marketed to a wide range of customers in catering and retail, wholesalers, markets and processors. During the summer, around 80 workers from Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania join the eight permanent staff in a real ‘league of nations’ harvesting operation.
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