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How I did it - Agricultural

Edible Ornamentals: ‘Our response to market demand’
Joanna Plumb's family had been growing and selling fresh chillies for about 40 years. However, in 2001 they were suddenly left with a huge overstock. A large store cancelled an order at the last minute and was left with 3,000 unwanted plants. Joanna stepped up to the challenge, but rather than trying to sell the chillies separately, she sold the plants at local car boot sales. She successfully sold them all and realised there was a healthy demand for the plants. She soon moved into selling jarred chillies and sauces.

Naming her company Edible Ornamentals Joanna has built up the business, supplying restaurants and farmers’ markets and is now selling in large retailers and supermarkets. During this time, Joanna has seen demand steadily grow and the market change. “We sometimes have difficulty convincing people that you can grow chillies in this country and that they don't have to be hot. However, now the public is getting a lot more savvy and asking for a wider range of varieties,” she says.

In 2007, she gained a £1,000 grant from Bedfordshire Council to establish her own site in Cherwood, Bedfordshire. This is now open to the public as a ‘Pick Your Own’ (PYO) venue, one of the few places that does PYO for chillies. The business now has six staff, but is looking to quadruple in size in the next four years. “In the next few years we’re going to expand the business, so we’ll be putting up more tunnels to increase production. We need to quadruple production in order to keep up with demand.”

Mackie’s of Scotland: ‘How we created our own food brand’
Karin Hayhow's family (the Mackie family) has run Westertown Farm for four generations and initially produced milk for the local area. The 1,600 acre farm has a herd of 500 dairy cows and each cow can produce between 20 and 30 litres of milk each day. However, during the 1980s the milk market began to change; customers were increasingly buying from shops and supermarkets.

Also, tastes were moving towards semi-skimmed milk, rather than full fat and creamier varieties. Karin’s father, Maitland, began to experiment and soon he created his own ice cream. He named it Mackie’s of Scotland and his ‘affordable luxury’ brand was born. The company started selling to local shops and stores, but is now available at large supermarkets across the UK. Today, the business makes about 10 million litres of ice cream per year. Karin believes that much of its success is down to the company's brand values: “I think that provenance is becoming much more important to the public when they’re buying products.

They can find information very easily and there’s quite a drive for local businesses. Our background is very genuine, this is a family business and our ice cream is created on a working farm.” With the success of its ice cream business pushing them forward, the company is now involved in a joint venture with another farm to produce Mackie’s Crisps, made from locally produced potatoes.

Also, in recent years Westertown Farm has enabled wind turbines to be put up on its farm, which means that it’s powered by 100% renewable energy.

The Farm Kitchen: ‘We moved from farming to catering’
Victoria Howe comes from a family of farmers, as does her husband. However, after a stint in industry, and a Cordon Bleu training course, she decided to make a new business based on her husband’s family farm and her knowledge of food.

Founded in 2006, The Farm Kitchen supplies schools across Lincolnshire with meals created from fresh food. “We started in a small way by supplying four local schools with food from a local restaurant kitchen that we hired,” Victoria says. “We realised very quickly that we needed to expand and with some redundant buildings on the farm were able to convert them into a fully fitted bespoke catering kitchen.”

The company has now grown considerably and currently employs 20 staff and provides 1,500 meals per day at 46 schools. The Farm Kitchen also buys products from other farms, but these are primarily local providers. Indeed, Victoria puts down much of the business’ success to the fact that the meals are made from fresh, locally grown produce. “The meals are freshly prepared each morning and then delivered using our own delivery vans to the schools. We only use British meat and try to use as much local produce as possible. We are in a brilliant position being in Lincolnshire with so much high quality fresh vegetables surrounding us. We offer a menu with a variety of traditional meals and also give the children the chance to try meals they may not have tried at home.” The business is expecting to expand and rent another kitchen and is also honing its credentials to win The Gold Food for Life Partnership Award.