Maynards is a family fruit farm, which was started by David and Mary back in 1952. When they came there were no buildings and no fruit, but the site had the right elevation for avoiding spring frosts, and was also a beautiful place!

As well as building up the first pick your own business in the country they had four children (Judi, Tom, Chris and Bill) who helped and hindered with the farm work as they grew up, and Tom decided to come and join the business after his studies and working abroad for a while. He and his wife Alison also built a house on the farm and brought up their three sons (Andrew, Sam and Fred) so a good part of the workforce (in university vacations) is family labour! And as the wider family is spread about the world and often comes back to Ticehurst in the summer, customers may be served by Maynard cousins of all ages.

We also usually have two or three student workers from Eastern Europe on the farm over the summer whose English is often poor but who are always great at getting on with the fruit harvest. One, Piotr, has returned for many years and is the mainstay of the workforce. Jenny, the physiotherapy student who has been serving in the shed for the last few years is doing Camp America this summer but she was weeding strawberries for a couple of weeks before she left!

As well as growing fruit for pick your own, local sales and farmers' markets we also grow blackcurrants for Ribena and plums for supermarkets, and our business continues to evolve to meet the needs of our customers, our family and our community. We enjoy seeing the fruits of our labours being consumed and appreciated by our customers, and hope that you will continue to support us.