“October is here! How did that happen?”

On The Farm with

Jimmy Doherty

Suffolk farmer and retailer

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Our new menu is well under way. Seasonality is key and this month we’re still reaping what we’ve sown earlier in the year. Squashes, greens and root vegetables from our garden coupled with our rare-breed meats give us a taster of what’s to come throughout the winter. Of course, shooting season has started and we will be adding all kinds of game to the offering.

We’re committed to using as much as we can from right on our doorstep, and this is where our head chef, Jon Gay and his team can get creative with what we forage – blackberries hazelnuts and puffball mushrooms are all to be found within metres of the kitchen door, and not forgetting all the delicious preserved produce that was worked hard for over the summer and will add even more flavour and colour.

Butchery-wise, demand for the cheaper cuts rises as people are starting to hunker down for hearty winter stews, so we tailor our online offerings and target those products. We have to make sure we keep a track of trends and how previous years have been to keep ahead of the game, and this year we expect to be sending out plenty of our winter meat boxes! The online ‘grab and go’ meat box concept is one that really works as it’s quick and simple, and we are looking at enhancing the whole online shopping experience.

Working farm-wise we’re always on the go, and with Christmas on the horizon we’re caring for our 10,000 free-range Kelly Bronze turkeys to make sure they’re fattening up nicely! They’re great to have on the farm and it’s even better to know that we are providing something that will be part of so many families’ special day.

Talking about Christmas when it feels like it was only yesterday that it was ‘back to school’ day reminds me that we need to keep ahead of the game. We’ve got plenty planned for half term, as it’s our chance to bring new people to the Farm Park as the main attraction and then explore all of our other offerings. We hope that they might head to the restaurant for lunch and then talk a walk around the butchery and Farm Shop and see what else we can offer. This means it’s important that we keep our offerings seasonally relevant and broad enough to be valid to a wide cross section, yet not dilute the main products and farm ethos – this keeps our team very busy! It’s a great team and that’s part of our strength. We’re a real family and, whilst we have a broad and varied business, we’re all aiming for the same thing – sharing the good life.