The Thompson family have been farming fruit and vegetables at Holt Farm, in Great Oakley near Colchester in Essex since 1948.
We are specialist growers for the oriental foodservice sector and tree fruit like apricots, as well as growing apples and pears for retail. We also produce award-winning apple juice Cotchel, and Reliquum gin and brandy using fruit grown on the farm that would otherwise have gone to waste.
In the light of the Covid-19 epidemic and closure of restaurants and pubs we are no longer able to supply the hospitality sector, so we have completely transformed our business to to offer home delivery of fruit and vegetables to the local area.
We are operating this on a cost neutral basis to keep some our staff employed and to ensure people have access to fresh food.
Our fruit and vegetable boxes include some produce grown on the farm such as rhubarb and spring greens, topped up with essentials from Spitalfields Market. As the seasons evolve we will introduce more produce grown on our farm such as plums and apples.
Stone fruit, figs, rhubarb and citrus.
We grow a selection of varieties of apricots and plums, while our outdoor fig orchard is the only one in the UK. We also have our own variety of rhubarb. The farm is home a number of trials of other new fruit including citrus.
Apples & Pears
We grow Braeburn, Opal® and Topaz and Evelina apples and Conference Pears. We are innovators in fruit growing, always selecting and tasting new varieties to find the best.
Thompson’s Leaf and Salad Onions
We are the sole producer of Thompson’s Leaf, an important ingredient for Chinese restaurants and Jumbo Salad Onions selected and grown exclusively for the Chinese sector.
Cotchel Juice
Instead of letting the unwanted apples and pears from our farm be wasted, we turn it into delicious juice. Our range of four juices have won many awards with Topaz & Evelina achieving the highest Three Star accolade at the Great Taste Awards 2018.
Reliquum Spirits
Small batch spirits made with fruit grown on our farm. At Reliquum Spirits, we marry innovation in fruit growing with the experience and wisdom of our partners the English Spirit Distillery to create exceptionally delicious spirits including an Apple Brandy akin to Calvados but smooth and flavourful; London Dry Gin made with own-grown botanicals and . Reliquum Plum and Apricot with tree-ripened fruit from our orchards.
Where we Are
Our fields and orchards at Holt Farm near Colchester straddle the ridge that runs down the north eastern tip of Essex. We enjoy a maritime climate perfect for growing with the Stour Estuary to the north, the marshes and backwaters of Hamford Water to the south and the North Sea to the East. The combination of light and the mild climate make give us the ideal conditions for fruit and vegetable growing.
How we Farm
As farmers we are aware of our duty to care for the land, for the benefit of future generations, as previous generations have cared for it before us. It is incredibly important that we look after our local and wider environment and we take this responsibility seriously.We manage the farm sensitively to try to encourage wildlife and to ensure we reduce our impact on the wider, global environment.
Our History
George Thompson, grandfather of Pete who runs the farm today, worked in agriculture all his life moving from Suffolk to Essex after the Second World War. In 1948 he bought Wash Farm, as it was called then, after the old wash pond used for swelling cart wheels. George was a wholesaler, growing and selling fruit and vegetables to London markets.
Over the years George’s son, Michael, expanded the farm buying up land as it became available and growing large quantities of vegetables for London’s wholesale markets and local customers. In the 1980s we grew lots of lettuce, but as the supermarkets took hold, we weren’t big enough to keep up with their demand and weren’t able to acquire more land quickly enough so got left behind.
Today we farm about 400 acres, working with neighbouring farmers to allow rotations. The farm is run by George’s grandson Pete Thompson, who lives at Holt Farm with his wife and young boys.
