CELEBRATING THE BEST FOOD AND DRINK FROM NATIONAL TRUST LAND
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National Trust Press release Nov. 07: CELEBRATING THE BEST FOOD AND DRINK FROM NATIONAL TRUST LAND |
Fine Farm Produce Award... a stamp of distinction
The National Trust today announced its Fine Farm Produce award winners for 2007. The award to promote the best quality food and drink products from its farms, orchards and gardens is in its second year. Nineteen products - including jam, apple juice and lamb - received the National Trust's Fine Farm Produce Award.The award is designed to recognise high environmental and animal welfare standards, high quality production methods and great tasting food and drink. At a time when people are increasingly looking to buy local and seasonal produce, the award will make strong links to the places where the food and drink has come from.
Rob Macklin, Head of Agriculture at the National Trust, says, "The Fine Farm Produce Award has been designed to recognise the very best produce from National Trust land. At a time when there is a growing appetite for local food, shoppers want to know more about the place the food and drink they are buying comes from. The Fine Farm Produce Award does just that, giving consumers confidence in the origin of the food and drink, its production methods and quality."
Eligible applicants include farmers, horticulturalists, jam makers, millers, bakers and brewers using ingredients sourced from National Trust land across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Rob Macklin continues, "It's important for the National Trust, as a major landowner, to provide that extra level of support to our tenants who are leading the way in promoting local and seasonal food. The Fine Farm Produce Award sits neatly within our food policy where we are looking to source more local and seasonal food in our tearooms and restaurants."
Henrietta Green - founder of FoodLoversBritain.com and regional British food expert - helped set the standards for the Fine Farm Produce Awards' and is a member of the tasting panel: "The standards set by the National Trust for these awards are extremely high. As someone who has pioneered the cause of the small British producer, it is so encouraging to see such fantastic regional British food delivering on quality, distinctiveness, provenance and taste. As such all the award winners will be FoodLovers Approved and featured on FoodLoversBritain.com."
The three criteria for the award are
Tamarisk Farm Organic Beef (topside) - "The beef had a good flavour and was satisfyingly chewy without being tough"
Tamarisk Farm Organic Rye Flour - "The packaging was charming and honest. The texture of the loaf was moist and it had a lovely nutty flavour with a good edge."
We were asked in the application to explain what was distinctive about our farm and products, and why they are special and of Fine Farm Produce standard. Our application is set out below.
More information about the other recipients of the Fine Farm Produce Award is available on the National Trust website
Tamarisk Farm is a 600 acre mixed organic farm on the slopes to the sea above the Chesil beach in West Dorset. The family has farmed here since 1960, starting then with the Organic market garden and evolving to the present form. The market garden is about 6 acres of fruit and vegetable in the centre of the village. We have about 50 acres in arable rotation of which about one half is in corn in any one year. The rest of the land is in long term pasture or scrub and other semi natural habitats. Grazing this land we have a flock of Dorset Down cross sheep, a herd of North Devon "Ruby Red" cattle and some horses and ponies for work and pleasure. Conservation is a major interest and our land supports many rare and uncommon plants, insects and mammals. Our aim is to produce good food and a good environment - 'farming and wildlife side by side'.
The wheat and rye are grown on the farm as part of our arable rotation which includes two years of fertility building red clover. The whole farm is in Countryside Stewardship so there is usually also a winter stubble and summer fallow phase to encourage overwintering and nesting birds. All fields have broad headlands which provide a haven for wildlife, including crop pest predators. Of particular significance, supported by the arable rotation, is a range of rare and unusual arable weeds and a healthy population of brown hares, and harvest mice are known to be present. We grow a traditional variety of wheat, Maris Wigeon, because it grows well in our area, is much favoured by craftsmen bakers and is in demand locally as thatching reed. The cleaned wheat and rye are milled on the farm between stones to make wholemeal flour.
This flour is a good, simple nutritious product with nothing added and nothing taken away. It is fresh and well flavoured and bakes a good traditional loaf. Rye flour is at its best as a sour dough, or makes a lovely Scandinavian style bread. Both wheat and rye can be used for cakes and pastries. As such ours is no better than any other organic stone-ground wholemeal flour milled solely from English grain. It is special because it is part of an integrated farming system which maintains a rich native flora and fauna within a living, working - and therefore sustainable - landscape, and because it carries the burden of minimal food miles. We operate on an appropriate scale to maintain this and do not have aspirations to expand significantly. Because we sell very locally we make relationships with customers and, especially with the recent popularity of breadmaking machines, we are part of the trend which is encouraging people to cook fresh local food and generally to develop a healthier diet.
All our animals live a stress free life grazing varied and herb rich pastures managed largely for conservation. As much as we are able they are treatred with dignity in death as they were with respect in life. We keep a closed herd so we don't introduce or spread disease, and their ability to choose their own diet from a very varied pasture over a large area coupled with rotational grazing and minimal medication leads to healthy stock. We have local, traditional breeds (Red Ruby North Devon cattle and Dorset Down sheep) which do well here and fit into the landscape. We are lucky to be able to use an organic abattoir which is quite close so keep journeys short. They hang carcasses for us in a traditional manner (3 - 4 weeks for beef and 7 - 10 days for lamb and mutton) and butcher to our specifications. Meat is collected and packed by us and stored in freezers for sale from the farm shop.
The meat we produce is of Fine Farm Produce Award standard because it comes from traditional breeds which are entirely grass fed on varied pastures and appropriately hung to develop full flavour. It is also special because it is part of a sustainable landscape. Animals are kept to very high welfare standards, able to choose their own diet and live in their own family groups and generally have an interesting life. Because our farm is very extensive with relatively low grade pasture we keep them as long as practical so they generally have a longer life than under a more intensive system. The farm shop is our only point of sale so customers can talk to us about production methods and welfare issues and can walk amongst the stock on the footpaths and see for themselves. We sometimes use the strap line 'Good food on a clean conscience'.