There is a version of this story where I am writing to you from a huge urban farm in the middle of Weston-super-Mare, with muddy hands, crates of salad leaves by the door and orders waiting to be packed.
That version has not happened yet.
But Moltons Farm absolutely did happen. We planted it, built it, grew food from it and turned a small town space into something productive, healthy and surprisingly rewarding. It just became something slightly different from the original plan.
It Started with a Six-Year-Old and a Very Big Question
Moltons Farm began the way most good ideas do, which is to say it began with a child.
My son Harry, six at the time, decided that we should grow food. Not just a tomato plant on the windowsill. A farm. With a name, a logo and eventually a shop.
I said yes, partly because saying no to that sort of enthusiasm feels like a small crime, and partly because I wanted to see where it went. With my ADHD, it almost immediately grew beyond anything resembling a modest gardening project.
What Moltons Farm Was Going to Be
The plan was an urban farm in central Weston-super-Mare, tucked into North Somerset between the Somerset countryside and the southern edge of Bristol.
No fields, no tractors and no big red barn. Instead, we would use pots, grow lights, raised growing areas and hydroponics, making the most of the space we actually had.
The idea was simple: to find out how much real food a family could grow in an ordinary town setting, while keeping the whole process enjoyable, chemical-free and as organic as practically possible.
We had a full range planned:
- Healthy plants and seedlings, grown in soil or hydroponically
- Fresh produce, picked and supplied quickly
- A natural kitchen range, including Healthy Ketchup, dried mixed herbs and salad leaf powder
- Seeds and simple growing equipment for anyone who wanted to try it themselves
And then there was the bigger dream: a huge farm one day, with soft play, outdoor play areas, little trains, pumpkins and the works.
Here Is the Important Part: We Actually Built It
Moltons Farm was not just a website idea or a logo created during an enthusiastic evening. We genuinely planted and grew it.
We filled large pots with tomato plants and watched them produce more and more fruit through the season. We planted strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, along with basil and other useful herbs.
We also filled several desktop hydroponic growing systems with baby salad leaves, turning small indoor spaces into productive little growing areas.
There were seedlings, compost, plant feed, grow lights, watering schedules, mistakes, successes and plenty of excitement whenever something new appeared.
Harry helped plant things, watered things, watched them grow and learned that food does not simply appear in a packet at the supermarket.
That made Moltons Farm real in every way that mattered.
We Built the Brand and the Shop Too
Alongside the actual growing, we built the entire identity around it.
There was a name and a logo with the family drawn into it. There was product photography, packaging ideas, jar labels, a farm diary and a complete online shop.
The website had categories, filters and labels explaining whether products had been grown in soil or hydroponically.
You could have visited the site and believed you were looking at a fully operating urban farm business, because in many respects you were. The growing was real, the produce was real and the long-term plan was real.
Why the Shop Did Not Become the Main Focus
Somewhere between planting the farm and preparing to launch the shop properly, I began to understand what selling the produce would change.
The farm had become an escape. It was time spent with Harry, checking plants, moving pots, arguing cheerfully over whether strawberries were ready and celebrating every new tomato as though nobody had ever grown one before.
A commercial shop would have introduced stock levels, packaging, postage, food-labelling rules, deadlines and customers waiting for deliveries.
It would have changed “shall we check the seedlings?” into “we need to check the seedlings”.
I did not want to hand a young child a job. He asked for a farm, not a warehouse.
There is a more honest reason as well. Building the site, designing the brand and planning the products was exciting. Growing enough produce consistently to fulfil orders throughout the year would have required a completely different level of commitment.
The farm was working. The question was whether turning it into a full commercial operation would make it better, or simply take away the part we enjoyed most.
What Moltons Farm Is Now
Moltons Farm now exists to feed us.
We use what we grow in our own meals, whether that means fresh tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, berries or baby salad leaves grown inside the hydroponic systems.
When there is more than we need, lucky friends and family benefit too.
That has become the perfect balance. We grow useful food, learn from the process and enjoy the results without needing to treat every plant as stock or every harvest as an order.
The aim remains to maintain a chemical-free, organic growing experience wherever possible, while encouraging a healthier lifestyle and a better understanding of where food comes from.
Growing Without Unnecessary Chemicals
One of the principles behind Moltons Farm is keeping the growing process as natural as we reasonably can.
We avoid synthetic chemicals wherever possible and prefer organic compost, natural feeds and simple growing methods.
That does not mean every plant behaves perfectly or that every harvest succeeds. Some plants grow brilliantly, while others seem personally offended by everything we do.
But that is part of the experience.
Growing food this way makes us think more carefully about what we eat, what goes into the soil and how much effort is involved in producing even a small amount of fresh food.
What We Are Keeping
Almost all of it, apart from the pressure to turn it into a traditional shop.
The tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, basil and salad leaves continue to grow. The hydroponic systems remain full. New seeds still get planted and new ideas still appear regularly.
Harry still helps, still gets excited by every green shoot and still occasionally gives plants far more water than any living organism could reasonably need.
Moltons Farm remains a family project, an experiment and a source of genuinely useful food.
It has also taught us a few important lessons:
- Building a business around something can change the reason you enjoyed it in the first place.
- A project does not need to become enormous to be successful.
- Growing food for your own household is still productive, valuable and worthwhile.
- Children learn more from planting, waiting and harvesting than they ever could from simply being told where food comes from.
- A healthy lifestyle becomes easier when fresh food is growing a few steps away.
What Happens to the Site Now
Moltons Farm will remain online as the home of the project, but it will no longer pretend the immediate aim is to operate a large public shop.
Instead, it will document what we are growing, what works, what fails and how much food can be produced from a relatively small urban space.
The name is not going anywhere. Neither is the logo, the idea or the bigger ambition behind it.
One day, Moltons Farm may still become the huge public farm we imagined, complete with pumpkins, play areas, trains and everything else.
For now, though, it is doing something more immediate and more useful.
It is feeding us, helping us live a little healthier, giving Harry practical experience and providing lucky friends with the occasional share of whatever we have grown too much of.
Moltons Farm did get planted. It grew, it produced food and it continues to do so.
It simply became a family urban farm before it became a business, and that may have been the better result all along.
