Fruit Hill Farm

We stock over 300 tools from the simplest hand planter to the professional blocker and out of that we have a top ten for you to mull over. Whilst some tools on the list are newly popular, there are some that are consistent favourites with our customers over the years. Our tools are definitely for life - not just for...

We can all agree that growing your own vegetables has many advantages.  Nothing compares to home-grown for taste; growing your own means that your vegetables are very fresh, full of nutrients and taste delicious.  Then there’s the satisfaction – that sense of achievement that comes with picking your first tomato, or better still, when serve your first salad to a...

We have been stocking the Livos range of non toxic paints and wood treatments for some years now. As far as we know, Livos are the world’s first manufacturer of natural paints. The company was born in 1974 when a group of hippyish scientists and technicians began researching the use of plant compounds (phytochemicals) to create high quality paints and...

Supporting Farming and Farmers through Crowdfarming There has been an outbreak of irony at Fruit Hill Farm – we have become proud owners of a fruit tree! To be precise an Orange tree.  Our tree is growing on a family farm in Bétera, just north of Valencia in Spain – and most deliciously – we have just received our first...

Parsnips are a very reliable winter root vegetable.  They have a distinct nutty flavour and sweetness and are very versatile in the kitchen.  In Roman times they were believed to be an aphrodisiac and they were often used as a source of sugar before cane and beet sugars were available.  Parsnips are a member of the cow parsley family along...

The History of the Turnip & Swede Turnips are a cruciferous vegetable (member of the mustard family). Turnips thrive in cool climates. The turnip that we know is thought to have descended from the Wild Turnip which is native to Central Asia, the Mediterranean and the Near East. The turnip was a well-established crop in Roman times. Fast forward to...

It's that time of the year again when wild blackberries are getting ripe and can be found in abundance growing wild around Ireland. We think that wild blackberries have an amazing flavour and we have a few tips for picking the best berries and, if you can manage to refrain from eating them all as you pick them, we have...

Congratulations this month go to Eve from Lowertown in Schull, Co.Cork. We love how she deals with the slug problem in a very organic and beneficial way and that her garden is a place for relaxing in whilst also providing food for her large family. Well done Eve, hope you enjoy spending your €50 voucher here at Fruit Hill Farm...

Easy to grow and producing a rewarding crop, courgettes are a popular vegetable to grow.  Sow indoors from April in medium sized pots at a minimum temperature 20c. Harden the plants off slowly and plant outside after last frost at a spacing of 30cm x 30cm.  Courgettes like a sunny spot and rich soil so incorporate some compost or well...

Bolting refers to when a plant rather rudely decides to enter its flowering stage before we would like it to. Essentially, it has come to the conclusion that it is time to produce seed, and energy previously flowing into leaf growth is diverted to this task. As a result, the leafy part of the plant, which we were more than...