Wholesale buyers ask first not about price, but about availability: will you deliver in February, or only right after harvest? We answer plainly. We have onions all year round, and the rest of our vegetables in windows that we stretch out with our own storage facility for around 13,000 tonnes. In this post we lay it all out in a simple calendar: what we deliver, when, and in what form.
Why we even have produce all year round
Continuity of supply does not come from imports or from buying in stock from neighbours. It comes from two things we have on our own farm: from combining different growing schedules and from a large storage facility.
We harvest onions from two sources. Onions from sets ripen earliest, so we have fresh produce from early summer. Spring-sown onions come off the field in late summer, and it is those that fill the store for the rest of the year. That way, when one source runs out of season, the other is already working.
The second leg is the storage facility for around 13,000 tonnes with automatic ventilation. Before the onions go in, we cure them for 2-4 days so the moisture comes off and the produce keeps well. Then we control temperature and airflow, so the onions come out of the store firm and healthy in winter and spring too. How exactly we spread sales over time is something we describe in the post on how we steer sales from the storage facility.
Availability calendar: the short version
We farm over 800 hectares, of which around 400 hectares are vegetables. We have eight items in our offer, and each has its own availability window. Below is the whole thing in a single table.
| Crop | When available | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow onion | all year round | spring-sown + storage |
| Red onion | all year round | spring-sown + storage |
| Onions from sets | from early summer | early harvest, fresh produce |
| Potatoes | from harvest through autumn, winter and spring | field + storage |
| Beetroot | autumn, winter, early spring | autumn harvest + storage |
| Green peas | summer (short window) | harvested green |
| Wheat | all year round | grain from the store |
| Triticale | all year round | grain from the store |
Onions: the only vegetable truly available round the clock
Onions are our growing gem and the only vegetable we have practically without a break. We grow around 250 hectares of them, at a yield of roughly 60 tonnes per hectare, so there is enough produce for long months. In winter and spring we sell onions from storage, from early summer fresh onions from sets, and from late summer spring-sown onions straight from the field.
For a wholesale buyer this is the most important information: a schedule spanning months, not the odd batch on the fly. We deliver yellow and red onions in February and in May too, in a form matched to the buyer's process. What exactly we offer and in which grades we describe in the onion offer.
Potatoes, beetroot and cereals: seasonal windows
We harvest potatoes in summer and autumn, and thanks to storage we deliver them through winter right into spring. For chips we rely on the Innovator variety, the same one Farm Frites builds its production on, and for the fresh market we have table varieties. Beetroot comes off the field in autumn and, after storage, is available through winter and early spring.
Green peas have the shortest window: we harvest them green in the middle of summer, and that is when they are fresh. Cereals, meaning wheat and triticale, are a dry commodity, so after the harvest we store them and release them all year round.
Availability is not the same as the calendar of field work. When we sow, plant and harvest each crop, we set out separately in the post on the onion harvest season. This calendar is about something else: when we can deliver that produce to you.
How we plan deliveries with the buyer
A serious buyer does not look at the field, but organises supply for the whole season. That is why we start the conversation with a schedule: how much produce, in what grade and on what dates it should reach their dock. Our own storage facility gives us flexibility, so instead of one huge delivery at once we can release produce evenly, in batches over many months.
Every batch goes through quality control and grading on the DOWNS CropVision optical sorter, which scans the vegetables and rejects defects. On top of that, the paperwork: we run the farm with GlobalG.A.P., GRASP, FSA Gold (Farm Sustainability Assessment, the highest level of the sustainability rating) and GMP+ certificates, in line with the principles of Integrated Crop Production. What the whole wholesale partnership looks like step by step we describe in the post for wholesale vegetable buyers.
Our vegetables reach market leaders such as Onix, Farm Frites and FreshPol, partners supplying the largest retail chains and processing plants in Poland and Europe. Continuity of supply is the condition such buyers watch most closely.
Do you need vegetables in continuous supply all year round? Write to us via the contact page, and we will match a schedule to your order.
