Giovanni Abella was born in Sicily on 12th September 1934. From the age
of 11 he worked on his father's land in Sicily growing vegetables. John
(as he is nowadays) moved to this country in 1957. His working life started
at a prime age of 34, and he worked long hours at Concrete Utilities. As
time progressed his love for growing became harder and harder to resist.
He approached a Nursery owner who was semi-retiring, and struck a deal with
him to rent 4 glasshouses. From that day on he worked by day and spent any
spare time in the glasshouses growing cucumbers. Within two years he had
bought 10 glasshouses. Cucumbers were grown on straw bales with a covering
of manure, which was very labour intensive. All the feed was given by hand
to each individual plant.
Today UK Salads has an Environmental Control System which gives equal nutrients
to all the plants, giving a higher yield of first class crop. In 1992 UK
Salads was formed which consists of John and Rosa Abella, Pasquale Milazzo,
Giuseppe Schillaci and Vito Colletti, all three son-in-laws. UK Salads is
still a family run business which prides itself on quality and service.
In 1992 UK Salads rebuilt a large part of the nursery with new glasshouses.
