Meet the carrot producer

RBOrganic provide six million bags of carrots for Waitrose Duchy Organic every year.

Norfolk has a reputation for flatness. Not so Houghton Hall: the 1,200-acre estate near King’s Lynn is gently undulating and dotted with woodland, hedgerows, trees and technicolour wildflower borders.

It’s also the home of estate tenant RBOrganic (RBO) – specifically, the company’s carrot-growing operation, which provides six million bags for the Waitrose Duchy Organic range every year.

“I think it’s their versatility,” says Joe Rolfe, RBO’s managing director. “You can do more with a carrot than you think.”

Being organic, RBO’s farm doesn’t use the kind of chemicals that allow a single strain to be cultivated year-round. Waitrose Duchy Organic bunched carrots are pulled out by November, before the green fronds start to rot.

With the organic approach, Joe says, “you’re letting the plant plod along, working quite hard drawing nutrition from the soil. It gives it a phenomenal flavour: working to survive in that way creates extra sweetness.”