About Grow West

Our 12-acre market garden site, situated in Allerby provides essential training opportunities for young people and adults with disabilities in our community.

As a proud enterprise of West House, we work to give them knowledge, experience and accredited qualifications in horticulture. This helps our trainees with their confidence and everyday skills, helping to set them up for future employment opportunities.

Using our garden as an educational tool for our trainees, we are able to grow a range of seasonal fruit, vegetables, flowers and plants. These are available to purchase from our on-site farm shop or through our vegetable box delivery scheme. We also use our produce in the production of our preserves and in our enterprise partner café, Cafe West.

Our Trainees

Our trainees are made up of young adults with learning disabilities. Working in close partnership with Cumbria County Council and Adults Education, we are able to offer them 20 work practice placements per day, 7 days per week.

Our trainees have the opportunity to gain an accredited qualification and/or NVQ at the end of three years which are linked to the Employment Scheme, helping them access future employment opportunities.

Whilst with us, our trainees learn a wide range of skills, such as the basics of food knowledge, healthy eating and cooking, as well as practical sessions in garden maintenance and produce growing. Alongside this, we ensure that all our trainees gain transferable skills like customer care and cash handling within the setting of our farm shop. Here at Grow West we also work closely with local schools, giving them the opportunity to facilitate their own sessions and projects on-site promoting and increasing children’s awareness and understanding of different people and tolerance of others.

Meet the Growers Find out more about West House

How we use our garden

We grow a range of flowers, plants and vegetables with the help of our resident gardeners and trainee growers.

Examples of what we grow include annuals, bedding plants, carrots, onions, cabbages and parsnips. We also have our own orchard where we grow a variety of apples. The way we use our garden is very important to us, focusing on efficiency, minimising waste and reducing our impact on the environment. We make full use of approximately 2½ acres of land by making raised and retained beds of a manageable size. These help us to increase the amount of food produced each year thereby decreasing the number of vegetables bought in and the attached food miles. We also have a composting area of 8.8m³ to recycle all plant and paper waste produced on-site, cutting down on landfill and waste collection.

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Choose your veg box today

Start enjoying local, seasonal fruit and vegetables delivered directly to your door

Each box contains a selection of seasonal fruit and vegetables grown at our market garden site. With the option of adding some extra bits of produce from our Grow West gardens, our boxes will be delivered to your door ready for you to start getting creative in the kitchen!

Choose your veg box