About Paradise Farm Organics - Locally grown fruit and vegetables!

The British Geological Survey recently completed a study of the farm and it's surrounding area - fascinating stuff!

The land surrounding the farm is underlain by mudstones deposited around 205 million years ago in lacustrine and shallow marine environments; they range from the late Triassic Mercia Mudstone and Penarth Groups to the early Jurassic Redcar Formation. At the surface these rocks are weathered to give a clay soil. On the higher ground away from the River Derwent, overlying the weathered mudstones, patches of glacial till are found. These gravelly and sandy clay deposits were transported and deposited by a glacier as ice advanced and then retreated from the Vale of York finally melting approximately 12000 years ago, its southern limit marked by the Escrick Moraine south of York.

Paradise Farm itself is located on the sandy soils of an alluvial terrace representing a former flood plain of the River Derwent, which has been subsequently abandoned as the river has cut down over time. The course of the River Derwent was established between the ice sheet and the higher ground of the Yorkshire Wolds by drainage southwards from glacial lake Pickering that was dammed by ice at both ends.

For more infomation see the British Geological Survey Website at: www.bgs.ac.uk