Leamington family went from rat race to good life to set up homegrown produce company

A visit to The Edible Garden Show in 2013 proved so inspirational for Leamington Man Michael Price that he ditched the rat race to create an award-winning business.
The Price Family are getting ready for The Edible Garden Show 2015.The Price Family are getting ready for The Edible Garden Show 2015.
The Price Family are getting ready for The Edible Garden Show 2015.

This year, the 38-year-old father-of-one will be back at the UK’s only show dedicated to grow-your-own selling his own homegrown produce when it returns to Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire alongside Good Life Live from March 11 to 13.

“We’re really looking forward to it as The Edible Garden Show is where it all really started,” says Mr Price who with the support of his wife Heather - a merchandiser for Sainsbury’s - has set up Prices Spices, producing artisan preserves, sauces and chutneys from their home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I was already growing chillies in my greenhouse but it wasn’t until I bought some of the Dorset Naga variety from Joy Michaud’s Sea Spring Seeds stand at The Edible Garden Show that things got serious.

“They were running a growing competition and I won.

“I had to buy a new freezer as the 50+ kg of chillies from my small greenhouse needed somewhere to go.”

The couple spent a family holiday in Greece with their four-year-old son Zachary coming up with a plan to start producing chutney and selling it at various chilli festivals.

And Prices Spices quickly received some great feedback and in just a few short months even the food critics were taking note as in August 2015 the company’s pineapple and Dorset Naga chilli chutney India Joywala won a Great Taste Gold Award from the Guild of Fine Food.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Price said: “Our customers seem to like that everything we produce contains some level of spice from our home grown chillies. For the produce we don’t grow we try to source items locally.”

Related topics: