My Farm Shop Home Delivery is the first fully fledged Online Farm Shop around the Canterbury area offering everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, to bakery, meat and a great variety of local wines & spirits, with a fully professionalised service as well as next day delivery. They deliver to most CT postcodes. The business was set up by two Directors from the Fashion industry who, frustrated by the lack of availability of quality produce during lockdown, and worried about how physical farm shops and supermarkets were going to be able to offer them, and customers general peace of mind in terms of the required levels of “safe shopping”, they decided to set up My Farm Shop.

One of the two business partners Nathan, has lived around the local area his whole life and always had a passion for fresh produce, having grown his own vegetables since childhood. Growing up around farmers, he already had numerous contacts within the farming industry. Lockdown spurred the pair to make the leap to launch My Farm Shop in July this year.

“Our vision was based on a few pillars that were extremely important to us. First we are both extremely passionate about supporting local businesses and we wanted to create a business that would do just that. However we are also big foodies, so providing top quality was of paramount importance to us. As bad as lockdown was, one of the positives that came out of this negative situation was that people started to become even more aware of how crucial it is to start paying attention to what we are putting inside our bodies and to start supporting local businesses around us. Even if lockdown restrictions are starting to ease, most people are still concerned about over exposing themselves to physical shopping spaces where hundreds or thousands of people go each day, leaving fruit and vegetables at everyone’s reach for days before a customer makes a purchase. We wanted to create a place where people can do their weekly shopping in a safe environment at their own leisure”.

One of My Farm Shop’s main aims has been to provide a one stop shop for all, whilst placing emphasis on partnering with the best local farmers, butchers, bakers and other suppliers to bring freshly cut and picked produce to their customers on a daily basis. “Most people want to support local, however our busy lives don’t always make this possible. With My Farm Shop, we are enabling people to do this without the hassle and at very competitive prices (or so our customers say!), which is really wonderful”.

The level of freshness of the produce is also another element they wanted to bring in. Whereas most food that we normally find in supermarkets or farm shops, could be sitting there for a few days before they are bought, My Farm Shop places their orders in the evening and have the product ready to be delivered to their customers the following day, which means that a lot of the produce that their customers receive has been picked that same morning or the afternoon before.

“We support our local growers and suppliers as much as possible and aim to have the biggest selection of local and British produce before going further afield. By doing this, we also reduce food miles and improve the freshness of the produce”. The amount of plastic used in food is another area of concern for the pair, who aim to minimise the use of plastic as much as possible. “Sometimes this is not possible if the vegetables are exposed to potential damage or a diminished life span, also, for instance, with meat, as having the meat paper wrapped drastically reduces the time that it will stay fresh for our customers. It is about achieving the right balance that enables us to look after our environment while also looking after our customers”.

What’s next? “There are so many exciting new additions and collaborations that we are currently developing which we think our customers will absolutely love. We are constantly looking suppliers with exciting produce to enhance our offer. In addition to this we are soon launching a lovely Eco-Friendly Household Cleaning Range. Freshly prepared meals using local produce as also an area which really interests us so we are looking into an amazing collaboration with a top Chef to create Freshly Prepared Five Star Restaurant quality yet very reasonably priced Meals. We honestly cannot wait to bring it all in!”.

www.myfarmshophomedelivery.com