Dagenham Farm produces excellent, organic food close to where people actually live, as well as engaging local people of all ages in food growing. The farm shows the enormous potential for growing – and selling – significant amounts of produce from farms on the outskirts of London and other cities.
Alice Holden and her team grow organic vegetables (and fruit) in glasshouses and polytunnels and outdoors for sale locally and through Growing Communities' fruit and veg bag scheme.
Join us on the farm
The farm grows about five tonnes of veg every year. In the spring, there are significant quantities of spring greens, spinach and other greens. Then in summer/autumn, we grow salad and tomatoes, as well as chillies, cucumbers, squashes, beans, aubergines, courgettes, strawberries and melons. There are always jobs to do from preparing ground and sowing seeds to watering, weeding and harvesting, as well as bigger projects.
We welcome corporate groups and individual volunteers to join in.
Watch the film made by Georgia Freiha Berkhout to hear more about the farm from Alice and Ashlea.
Find out about booking team awaydays or individual volunteering sessions (Thursday afternoons) at Dagenham Farm.
Eat produce grown in Dagenham
If you are local to the farm, you can sign up to hear when bags of seasonal produce are available to buy direct from the farm (summer and autumn only – produce and availability vary through the season).
If you live in Hackney, Haringey or Tower Hamlets, join the Growing Communities veg scheme to enjoy a weekly selection of seasonal organic produce from local farms including salad, tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables grown in Dagenham.
Click here if you're interested in ordering wholesale from Dagenham Farm.
Or you can eat meals featuring Dagenham produce at these restaurants:
A Portuguese Love Affair, Hackney Road
The Clarence, Stoke Newington Church Street
Frizzante cafe at Hackney City Farm
Sodo Pizza, Clapton, Hoxton, Walthamstow, Deptford
Our work with students and schoolchildren
The farm team train new growers and have taught hundreds of local young people about nature and food by welcoming them here. Schoolchildren and youth groups sample tastes, smells and activities many of them have never experienced before, while discovering how to grow delicious food in ways that look after wildlife and the planet.
The farm's 2023 Dagenham Grown project enabled students with special educational needs to “learn through doing” at Growing Communities’ Dagenham Farm. Afterwards, 92% of students felt they knew more about food growing than at the beginning, 58% of students said they now spend more time in nature, and 29% said they eat more vegetables and fruit as a result of the project.
"The opportunities you've provided for our students to visit the farm have been incredibly impactful. These hands-on experiences deepen their understanding of where their food comes from and foster a greater appreciation for the hard work and dedication of farmers like yours." Schoolteacher, Barking & Dagenham 2024
Arrange a school visit to Dagenham Farm
What's next for the farm
We aim to expand the farm's covered space by "reskinning" more of our polytunnels, enabling us to significantly increase our yields.
We're continuing with our education work with young people from local schools and colleges.
We're part of an exciting project to envision a new education hub, enabling us to become an exemplar for biodiversity and agroecological growing in the city.
The farm is a member of the Sustainable Food Trust's UK network of Beacon Farms. The vision behind this initiative is to offer a “seeing is believing” experience to a new generation of children – ideally on a farm close to where they live or go to school.
History of Dagenham Farm
To see photos of the farm when we started growing there in 2012 click here. Before that it was a council plant nursery.
The farm's development was originally funded by the Local Food Fund, part of the Big Lottery, from March 2012 to March 2014, when it also became fully certified as organic. The grower's salary and farm costs are now financed through sales of produce. From 2015 to 2018, the farm was home to the Grown in Dagenham project funded by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities' Fund, training local residents in food-growing and preparation skills and helping young people to learn about where their food comes from. (Read more about the Grown in Dagenham project here.)
We continued our community outreach work in 2019 through the Recipe for Life project funded by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, working with families on low income, young people and older residents.
Keep in touch with Dagenham Farm
Click here to request email updates about the farm and what's happening there. Or sign up for Growing Communities' regular weekly emails (covering all our activities, local news, jobs, seasonal recipes etc) at the bottom of this page.
Growing Communities Dagenham Farm, Central Park Nursery, off Luke Allsopp Square, Rainham Road North, Dagenham RM10 7EJ. Nearest tube: Dagenham East.
