“Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
Another fine mess she’s got me into…
It all began with my wife’s insistence that we have our own hens. I was hesitant but in a fit of pique and with Jim’s connivance she ordered a cheap diy hen house which arrived flat-packed. With a wicked grin, Jim quickly assembled it much to my annoyance and the hens were ordered. Apparently looking after them was going to be my problem! The flimsy little coop was a disaster and in the following months much bigger investments had to be made including electric fences, fox proof runs, a vermin proof food shed, feeding and watering troughs and ultimately a £3,500 state of the art chicken shed! The first 12 chickens quickly became 24 and soon we were at peak of 49 (after that the Government steps in and regulates you out of sight). We couldn’t eat all the eggs so a little board appeared outside our house and we started to sell eggs from the door. This led to sales of our own honey and surplus plants. Then one fateful day we heard that our neighbours were closing their tractor parts shop and I casually (and stupidly) said “How about renting it out to us?”
And so it came to pass that on April Fools Day 2022, we took on Tesco and opened our own food shop. We reckoned the big supermarkets had had their day. They were too large, over staffed, capital intensive with vulnerable supply chains and, more importantly, their food was so full of pesticides, preservatives and flavour enhancers we had long since stopped buying anything from them. So we gave the empty tractor parts shop next door a quick makeover and went into what others laughingly call “business”. Anyway it seems to work. By not taking any wages and accepting huge losses each month, we are able to offer the most amazing selection of great organic food on the planet at affordable prices.
Monoculture versus gardening
Of course, we are not farmers but most farmers these days have been so regulated that they tend to have large fields with a single crop. Monoculture has it’s problems. Firstly, it is very prone to attack by pests which can easily wipe out a whole field making pesticides are essential. Also the lack of a diverse range of plants each drawing up different trace minerals from different levels in the ground gradually depletes the soil of its nutrrients. Artificial fertilisers are a short term solution but even so there are concerns that soils abused in this way will eventually become barren. So generally, when you do see a farm shop on a proper farm, most produce is bought in anyway because they do not produce the variety of crops needed to stock a farm shop.
We market garden rather than farm our little acreage so in our first year of operation we produced and sold all of the following items on our smallholding….honey (Adrian Doward beekeeper), cut flowers (Blodau Clwyd), raspberries, salad bags, rhubarb, potatoes, leeks, onions, peas, broad beans, runner beans, french beans, herbs, carrots, radish, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and eggs of course. Fortunately, most people still happily drive past our shop to visit the big boys in town so we don’t have to produce vast quantities. However, as interest in our little shop has increased the irony is that we find little time these days to produce as much of our own produce. Maybe next year it will be different…..
Most of our fruit and vegetables today come from Organic North, a members-run co-operative, the largest and longest-established wholesalers of certified organic produce in the north. They operate from New Smithfield’s Market in Manchester and proudly boast they are “on a mission to help mend our broken, wasteful and polluting food system”. Our kind of people!
“Raw milk” or as my grandmother called it “milk”
Now milk was a problem. We drink unprocessed milk direct from Mr Oultram of Newbridge Farm at Ewloe. He has a pedigree pure-bred Ayshire herd and has supplied what the authorities now laughingly label as “raw” milk for over 40 years. He feeds his cows on grass in summer and on silage and maize in winter. The resulting milk is delicious and, of course, is extremely nutritious, full of vitamins, pro-biotics and certainly, an important part of any healthy diet. Sales have been increasing as people have become more aware of the health benefits and we are always happy to promote Mr Oultram’s milk and send people direct to him if it is easier and cheaper for them.
However, in order to make sure farmers can only sell their milk to supermarkets and therefore be at the mercy of whatever ridiculously low price the supermarkets set, our corporates-friendly government has regulated the sale of “raw milk” to the point where it is almost impossible to get hold of anywhere. In particular, Mr Oultram can only sell it direct from his own premises. We therefore cannot buy it for sale at our shop. However, the law does allow us to act as his milkman. In other words we can supply against your prior order only collecting it from him on your behalf and adding a small delivery charge.
We do carry in stock organic, bottled pasteurised-only milk which at least hasn’t been homogenised like the supermarket stuff. This is provided by Cotteswold Dairy from their depot at Llandudno Junction. The homogenisation process effectively turns milk into a tasteless white watery substance. It extracts the fatty globules from the milk and chops them all into tiny balls of the same size before reinjecting them back into the ‘milk’. In any sane society supermarkets would be stopped from calling that stuff milk as a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. In my opinion it should be labelled ‘heavily processed white liquid made from milk” and perhaps branded “I can’t believe this stuff is milk”. No wonder so many people have developed allergies and ‘lactose intolerance’ to the processed stuff. Cotteswold are also pretty much the only reliable supplier of fresh goat’s milk so we have that available fresh every Friday.
The Cotteswold milk is however flash pasterised and that can affect the consistency and taste of the milk compared to slow pasteurisation. Slow pasteurisation heats the mild to 63 to 65°C over 30 minutes. Rapid, high or flash pasteurisation heats the milk to 85 to 90°C or more for a time only in the order of seconds. So we also carry a slow pasteurisation product from Daisy Bank Dairy. They are third generation dairy farmers high in the hills above Llandyssil overlooking Welshpool and Newtown in Mid–Wales and their milk is just plain delicious and is flying off our shelves.
Fresh and Tasty Microgreens
On the way back from Llandudno Junction each week, we stop off at Steve’s place to collect his “fresh and tasty microgreens” probably our healthiest and tastiest line in the whole shop. Each variety of our microgreens offers its own unique flavour, ranging from sweet to spicy. This means you can easily add a burst of colour to your dishes – smoothies, salads, sandwiches & wraps – or garnish any dish for a high-class finish. Apparently, “They are rich in a diverse array of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and phytosterols. These bioactive compounds have been linked to numerous health benefits, including reducing oxidative stress and protecting cells from damage, underscoring their potential role in preventing the onset of various chronic conditions, bolstering immune function, regulating mood, reducing depression and anxiety symptoms, and enhancing overall well-being.” If that is far too scarily healthy for you, try them with chips (from our organic potatoes fried in organic coconut oil of course).
Bread
Bread was another problem. Organic bread is virtually impossible to source though we can sell you organic flour and give you some great sourdough recipes. We are six miles from the nearest town and the days of the little independent bakers making bread on their premises are long gone. Again, it was another area where supermarkets do not cover themselves in glory though most people seem to have reconciled themselves into buying tasteless bread full of preservatives that goes mouldy instead of stale.
You can imagine our delight when we found the wonderful Becws Islyn at Ruthin. This is no factory operation. They bake in the traditional manner on their premises and have a wide selection of speciality breads. We quickly decided to make a weekly trip to them and also to Chatwins to get fantastic quality bread to suit all of our customers foibles (and believe me have they got foibles!). Chatwins admittedly are a larger enterprise but provide lovely bread and are based locally at Chester. So now, early every Friday morning, we dive down narrow country lanes across the mountain pass taking in stunning views to collect fresh quality bread for our village. Fresh Friday has become our busiest day of the week with often upwards of three or sometimes even as many as four customers collecting veg boxes and bread for the weekend. The sky is the limit.
Hufen iâ (that’s ice cream to you missus)
Whilst we do our best to avoid supermarkets altogether we (that’s the royal ‘we’, I mean the wife) still had an achilles heel – ice cream. My wife is partial, to put it mildly, to her daily ice cream fix and that used to mean regular trips to Lidl. It didn’t sit well buying from a large corporate even though we do have some respect for Lidl’s produce. Happily on one of our trips to Ruthin over the mountain we chanced across Chilly Cow Dairy Farm. A few samples of heaven in a tub in several stunning flavours was enough to convince us of the pressing need to invest £700 in an ice cream freezer that holds the ice cream at just the right temperature. Needless to say, at £2.50 a tub this is quickly becoming one of our most popular lines although any profits from this are short-lived because we are eating most of the stock ourselves.
So here we are two years in to our (ad)venture. It makes no sense, most people consider us eccentric (in other words, stupid) but we love being busy fools and it is always a pleasure to meet up with our friends and neighbours and hopefully make their lives a bit happier. Watch out Tesco, your days are numbered.