Sun Salads
Our sister company Sun Salads, was acquired by NWF in 2004 and is a speciality grower of Watercress.
Sun Salads watercress is grown on three sites - Holwell, on the ancient Holy Well near Cranborne, Dorset; Wimbourne also in Dorset; Andover and Ludwell, both in Wiltshire.
The company has been growing at Holwell for over 40 years for retail, wholesale and food processing markets and is the third largest watercress producer in the UK. We also have a site in Spain where we have 20 acres of covered beds so we can guarantee a year-round supply. The majority of our watercress is sold to the British supermarkets - with 20% grown as organic.
Watercress is a modern ‘super food’ and has been grown commercially in the pure spring waters of Southern England since the early 1800s.
What’s in a Super Food ?
Watercress has been in the British diet for hundreds of years. It was originally a sta
ple part of the working man’s diet and most often eaten in a sandwich at breakfast. If the family was too poor to buy bread, they would eat it on its own and so watercress became known as the ‘poor man’s bread’.
A member of the cabbage family and botanically related to garden cress and mustard, Watercress is said to have many nutritional benefits. It is believed to act as a mild stimulant, is a source of phytochemicals and antioxidants, is a diuretic, an expectorant and a digestive aid. It also appears to have cancer-suppressing properties. Gram for gram, watercress provides as much vitamin C as oranges; more calcium than whole milk and more iron than spinach. Watercress is one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by humans.