Jon Tyler has always lived in a lush green world of watercress. His family have worked the land alongside the River Chess at the bottom of Moor Lane where they have cultivated watercress for 130 years. Crestyl is now the only working watercress farm on the Chess, one of originally 19 beds between Sarratt and Chesham, and the sole survivor in the whole of the Chilterns.
“The business was set up in 1886 by my great grandfather” says Jon, “He, and later my grandfather, would go on the steam train from Chorleywood to London to sell bunches at Covent Garden Market. They supplied hotels too. My dad worked in it all his life. As a baby I used to sit in the shed in a bushel box next to the bunching bench. They used the boxes for harvesting the cress by hand. I had my first sickle when I was five years old and always helped out!”
Jon took over the farm when his father Terry died in 2014 and runs it with the help of his sister Suzanne Burr and his nephew Henry Cooper.
“ We grow the cress the same way as it has always been done in gravel beds which are bathed in the flow of pure spring water from the Chess. We cut the plant back, knock it with wooden rakes to root and produce more plants. We collect it using the same bone handled kitchen knives that have been passed down the generations! We have my great grandfather’s diary to refer to – if there’s an infestation of flies we flood the bed down which washes the all away – it’s a tried and tested method and never fails!”
The peppery green leaves have been recognised as highly nutritious since Victorian times when they were eaten to help kept scurvy at bay. Watercress is packed with goodness.. iron ( more than spinach) calcium ( more than milk), Vitamin C (more than oranges and lemons) and so much more that it has been given superfood status. Recent research also suggests it helps prevent cancer.
“Our watercress is naturally grown – there is nothing artificial in it at all. It gets its purity through the water.”
The secret is water from chalk soil, which provide the calcium nutrients.
“One of the beds is artesian bored and the water rises and flows out naturally on its own because of pressure of the aquifer. (permeable rock which contains the groundwater). We pump others gently.”
The distinctive peppery heat of watercress comes from mustard oils and the enzymes that create this heat are linked to cancer-fighting properties
“The more peppery the watercress, the fresher and healthier it is.” adds Jon, ”You won’t get it any fresher than from us – supermarket watercress comes all the way from America or Spain. The season is from May to December – it used to be March to November but has extended due to global warming.
It’s so brilliant that we are able to carry on the Tyler family tradition. I want to teach my children what father taught me!”
E Tyler & Sons, The Water Cress Beds, Moor Lane, Sarratt, WD3 6BZ
Buy watercress at the farm gate, £2 for a 3oz bunch. Also available at Three Sons, Lower Road, Chorleywood. WD3 5LQ
Photo: Purpix Photography
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