Ten miles west of Salisbury, Broad Chalke is one of several villages that form the beautiful Chalke Valley. The village sits in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the banks of the River Ebble - one of England's finest chalk streams. It is here, where rainwater falling on the hills higher up the valley filters down through the chalk, picking up natural minerals on its way, that in 1889 John Hitchings chose this site to start growing watercress because of the fantastic spring water source that naturally rises. The farm was started in 1880, the same time as the main watercress farms in Alresford, just 40 miles away and known as the Watercress Capital of the UK. Watercress production had started by 1889, with development of water control and the forming of basic soil-banked beds made to the site. Initially everything was cut by hand, back-breaking work in often bad weather, picked into bunches, packed into wicker baskets and sent off by train to the markets of Covent Garden and Spitalfields. Harry Hitchings joined the business in 2013 - the sixth generation of the Hitchings family to grow watercress in Broad Chalke. Together with a small but dedicated team, they still grow their own dark green variety in a traditional way. The watercress is now harvested by machine daily, packaged and sent out the same day to restaurants, hotels, food service and farm shops, predominantly through the wholesale markets, also by local deliveries and direct postal deliveries. Watercress is among the most nutritionally dense leaves grown in Britain. Gram for gram it contains more vitamin C than oranges, more vitamin E than broccoli, more calcium than cow's milk and more folate than bananas. It also contains iron and beta carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A. It has been considered a superfood since long before the word existed.

Social Media

https://www.instagram.com/chalkevalleywatercress/

Can people visit or buy direct?

Watercress can be bought direct from the packing station at The Marsh, at the western end of South Street, Broad Chalke. Take a bunch from the fridge and put your money down the tube in payment. You are also able to order online for postal delivery. The watercress is also available through the following wholesale markets: New Covent Garden, Spitalfields, Bristol, Cardiff, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester and Sheffield Cambridge Network It is also supplied fresh daily to restaurants, hotels, food service operations and farm shops nationwide.

Website

https://www.chalkevalleywatercress.co.uk

Address Summary

Broad Chalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire