Artnacrea Farm - Bruce Mathews

A farm growing soft fruit for local shops and businesses in the Ballymena area between May and September

Artnacrea Farm is a 70 acre mixed farm near Ballymena, County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

The farm currently supports a small flock of around 120 dorset, texel, romney, and crossbred sheep and a small herd of aberdeen angus, belgian blue and hereford cows.

Between May and September the farm produces strawberries, raspberries and redcurrants, which are grown under 27, 000 square feet of polytunnels.

In 2010 the farm featured in the final of series 5 of BBC's "Great British Menu" as chef Niall McKenna had hoped to use Bruce's strawberries in his winning dessert recipe for the banquet. Unfortunately, a spell of very cold weather in March /April set the strawberries back a couple of weeks and they were not ripe in time for the banquet which was held in in early May. But we were very happy to be picked to represent the region regardless!