From potato to crisps... the journey to Walkers...

Elveden farms are the first farm in the East of England that Walkers Crisps visit with their grading line. Elveden provide them with the first 7,000 tonnes of potatoes.

The potatoes which are grown 3 rows in a bed of soil, are first topped using flails, as seen below:

A harvester follows, removing the tops and soil and putting the potatoes on top of the next bed.

The second harvester follows and gently lifts the potatoes from both beds, removes the tops and sifts out the soil before elevating them to a cart running along side.

Back in the yard the potatoes are first inspected dry.

They are then washed and rinsed before further inspection.

A final check before loading into a lorry, seen below:

and off to the factory in Leicestershire.

How many packets of crisps in 7,000 tonnes of potatoes??



...



Around 75 million Bags!

Whats going on at Elveden Farms...

Over winter we have prepared stone free beds of soil.

The land is first ridged into beds using a bed former, pulled by 575hp. Caterpillar tractor. Steered by satellite technology, it forms 3 beds at a time.

Stone separators scoop up the bed onto a series of webs. The soil falls through the webs, while the stones are carried to a cross conveyor which throws the stones into the trough between the 2 beds ahead of the operation.

It can be a slow and laborious job, but stone free soil means damage free crops.

In March and April we sow most of the carrots, parsnips and onions.

The Stone free soil is first tilled to freshen it up and leave fine, moist, level and deep beds.

Precision drills place individual seeds at exact spacings in pairs of rows, 3 beds at a time.

A different gang are planting potatoes also into stone free beds.

The 2 machines carefully place chitted (sprouted) tubers, 3 rows to each bed of soil.



It'stime for organic manure...

In January, we are busy spreading vast quantities of organic manure on the fields.

The manure helps to feed the plants and to hold moisture in our sandy soils. 

Parsnips... are well under way!

There's always a camera ready and waiting at Elveden...

Below are several photographs and video clips showing the delights of (a fantastic) Parsnip harvest.

The beginning...

The crop is topped, removing any stalks and leaves, as the video below shows, 

 

The harvester then gently lifts the crop, sifting out any soil and then loading parsnips into trailers.

The end....

The trailers then transport the roots to the grader which further cleans and loads them into lorries.

The parsnips are then transported to the packer, where the parsnips are washed and inspected to ensure they are to the correct standard, they are then packed for the supermarket or green grocer.

Below are selection of photographs showing the end product at their very best... Inside the Elveden Estate Farm Shop

All the vegetables and trimmings for your Christmas Dinner...

The final potatoes are lifted at Elveden

550 Hectares (1350 acres) of potatoes are grown at Elveden Farms each year.

These are grown in 3 rows in a stone separated bed.

We start harvesting the crop in July.  The potatoes are then used for the production of crisps, for McCains (McDonalds chips) as well as salad, loose and baking potatoes for many supermarkets.

Handling potatoes from harvesting to the consumer is all about being gentle to ensure potatoes are not cut or bruised.

We harvest the potatoes from stone free soil into trailers which transport them to the grader.

Any remaining soil is removed, small potatoes are graded out and they are inspected for green or misshapen potatoes, as seen above.

The potatoes are then loaded into bulk trailers or boxes for transport to the packer.

Onion Season at Elveden is nearing an end...

We grow around 550 hectares (1350 acres) of onions at Elveden Farms each year which produce up to 25,000 tons of onions.  Four double rows of seeds are sown in stone separated beds. 

When the bulbs have swollen and the tops have died back, the two toppers cut the tops off and the windrower soon follows,  gently lifting the onions and leaving them in one row to dry for a day or so. 

With a target of 1,000 tons each day, the giant (but very manoeuvrable) harvester scoops up the row of onions and removes soil and weeds on their way up the elevator and gently into 18 ton container boxes towed along side.

The video below shows the harvester.

The boxes are transported to the farm store on skeleton trailers where they are lifted by a giant forklift and placed in rows in the store. 

The box number, its weight, the position in the store and the field where the onions grew are all recorded on the computer. The onions are dried, cured and cooled in the boxes in the store until required for sale up to May the next year to supermarkets and processors. Our store at Elveden is called Avenue.

Below are a few more photographs showing some of the onion harvest:

Below are photographs showing the final stages of onion harvest, the tractors dropping the onions off at the store.