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A
Weekly Diary from Hilary Peters as she travels around Britain Number 1 Hilary
Peters is travelling round Britain, visiting people on farms, in
farm shops and farmer's markets, meeting the people who are
telling the public about farming. Hilary says, "There is so much misunderstanding, misinformation and ignorance about farming that even the word 'farmer' means opposite things to different people. To
me, it means someone who co-operates with the land and animals to
produce food and there are many ways of doing this. In
the second half of the twentieth century, chemicals, drugs and
heavy machinery became widely used in farming, transforming
husbandry into industry. I see this sort of farming as a
dead end, so my journey is a search for farmers who are not
agro-industrialists, farms where animals are not exploited and the
soil is nourished. Outlets where profits go straight to the farmer
and teaching material which shows the whole story of farming. Given my prejudices, I mainly visit organic farms and local projects, but I want to see industrial farms too and I shall be reporting every week on what I find! I
think the public and my readers here should hear both sides of the
debate, so do let me know what you think - You can e-mail me
easily so just click
here! September 16th - October 7th 2002 ALDER CARR FARM, NEEDHAM MARKET. SUFFOLK. PYO fruit,shop selling their own ice cream (delicious), fruit, veg. And much organic produce. They also host a farmers’ market once a month (3rd Sat.) There
is a “mission statement pinned to a shelf in the shop: FAIR
TRADE
- Fairly traded goods give small farmers like us in the “third
world” a fair price for their
produce. By choosing
to eat these products you can
become involved
in changing the way the world
works. Changing
the way the world works. Yes! That’s what we need to
do. Before I can give up Tesco’s, I need Alder Carr and
places like it, to
sell Greek-style yoghurt, dog food, a bran based cereal September 17th 2002 FRIDAY STREET FARM SHOP, SAXMUNDHAM, SUFFOLK. Very
successful and established. They sell their own vegetables
and have a PYO dept, mainly for their own maize. They also
have a café, which I have not yet tried, but the main attraction
is their up-market shop. Some excellent local produce
(smoked fish from Orford, pies and cakes from Glemham Hall and
more). What worries me is the amount of stuff that is just
expensive. They fit more easily into the “niche market”
niche that the NFU would like to cover all local activity. September 18th 2002 FARM CAFÉ ON THE A12 AT MARLESFORD, SUFFOLK. The idea is to use only local food and local labour. They use local suppliers for anything not grown locally. The café is open from 7 to 7 every day, so they give employment to 16 local people. A quality transport cafe. Even the tomato ketchup and brown sauce are made locally. They also do cream teas and quite posh lunches! POUND FARM, GLEMHAM, SUFFOLK. Traditional Suffolk farm taken over by the Woodland Trust. Areas of woodland (mostly newly planted, broadleaf, mixed) interspersed with “wildflower meadows” which are mown. No farm animals at all, but wildlife is encouraged, with dense areas of scrub. As a do-walker, I enjoyed it, but how does it make an income? Is this the future of farming? BRUISYARD VINEYARD, SAXMUNDHAM, SUFFOLK. Informative and interesting Walkman tour of the vines and processes. Wine tasting included. Flourishing and welcoming family business. EASTON FARM PARK, WICKHAM MARKET. SUFFOLK. Teaching farm with splendid Victorian dairy. This is no longer used commercially, but is a museum, as is the Victorian laundry. There is historic farm machinery too. Always
on view are chicks being hatched in incubators, fluffy animals for
children to meet, pigs, goats, and Suffolk Punch horses, which
they breed. I went to the Suffolk Punch Spectacular here.
With forty Suffolks in a ring it was quite a sight! Today
the whole farm was host to a farmers’ market. Local and
organic fruit and veg, specially featuring the new apple crop,
fruit juices, meat, poultry, game, fish and fish-cakes, preserves
and chutneys, a few woollen goods, cheeses, ice cream, bread and
cakes. A very high standard of produce and not unnecessarily
expensive. Suffolk abounds in local produce and local
talent. I intend to visit these farmers on their farms. Easton is very good at teaching material, which appears on notice boards all over the farm. It is particularly informative in the milking parlour, much of it posters produced by the Milk Marketing Board. Until this June, the public could look down from the vast gallery onto the cows being milked beneath. Now Easton has given up its milking herd and the gallery remains, an echoing memorial to twentieth century farming. October 1st 2002 The
lanes of Suffolk are choked with heavy machinery. On all
sides, beats are being carved out of the ground, ploughing
tractors are hidden in clouds of dust as the soil is blown away,
fields are saturated with assorted poisons. The lanes I drive
through are lined with notices warning that sulphuric acid will
attack anyone venturing EARL
SOHAM : A MEDIUM SIZED VILLAGE WITH TWO FLOURISHING
SHOPS AND ITS OWN BREWERY The
Post Office sells its own range of pre-cooked meals, the local
beer 'Earl Soham' and cider 'Aspal' on draught, organic veg, local
bread, including a potato loaf, fresh fish, and most other
essentials. The butcher, John Hutton, under a large flag of St. George, sells organic and free range meat from local farms, his own sausages, and even milk which is as local as you’ll get, from Marybell Dairy in Walpole, which processes milk from East Anglian cows. THE
WILD MEAT COMPANY Started
3 years ago to process and pack the surplus game from shoots, deer
culled from Rendlesham Forest, rabbits etc. They also give you
recipes. October 3rd 2002 HIGH
HOUSE FRUIT FARM, SUDBOURNE, SUFFOLK. PYO
fruit. Fine range of apples at the moment: Cox, Russet,
James Greaves, Jonagored, Bramley, Discovery. Also
superb apple juice made from all the above and a very good Cox and
Bramley mix. BLAXHALL
RARE BREEDS, BLAXHALL, SUFFOLK. Run by a farmer’s daughter, Nigella Youngs-Dunnett, whose story sums up twentieth century farming. Her father had a 130 acre mixed farm, which became too small to flourish, as it had when she was a child. He then had a milking herd of Jerseys and again did well for a time. When the pressure to get bigger and bigger defeated him, and the farm was sold. Nigella now keeps her animals on any bits of land she can rent in the area. She has Highland cattle, Red Polls and English Whites on the marshes, Gloucester Old Spot pigs and Jacob and Shetland sheep on the local sand. She goes with her animals to the local slaughter house and has a local firm who cut up her meat. “It’s as good as it can be,” she says. She sells meat, wool and woollen garments to her own circle of customers and at farmers’ markets. GREENWAY
VEG. STONHAM, SUFFOLK. Certified
organic seasonal veg. I had squashes, courgettes and leeks.
Very good. They also have 2 flocks of free range hens, fed
on organic, feed. Very fresh eggs. GRANGEWORTH
QUALITY FARM FOODS. Their own beef, slaughtered locally, butchered and packed by Grangeworth. They also buy in local pigs and lambs. Some of their cows are grazing on the farm I am looking after, so I know they have a good life. Bill Palfreman who runs Grangeworth says “We diversified before diversify was a word!” FARMERS’
MARKET AT BECCLES HELIPORT A
hell of a place, miles from anywhere and smelling of sour farming.
Even the heliport is abandoned. Norfolk wind slams against the
derelict hangers. But inside, the farmers’ market is well
attended, both by stall holders and customers. Just think
what they could do in the centre of Beccles! Several
growers from Norfolk including Greenwood's apple juice -
outstandingly good! They also do cider, though not at this market.
Many free-range, organic and even Freedom Food Approved meat
stalls, organic fruit and vegetables, especially roots and apples,
pies and cakes galore, fresh fish, herbs and plants. I
see an opening for local, organic potato crisps and organic
breakfast cereals. There
was only one local cheese and that was from Church Farm,
Saxmundham, in Suffolk.
I mean to visit them! More from my travel diary next week! - Best wishes and happy shopping! - Hilary Peters
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