Farm of the Week: North Yorkshire purveyor of fresh meat good enough for Gurkhas

When one customer only orders five jungle chicken and having already given the cell phone nod to 60 goats Paul cheekily replies: “Are you not hungry this week?”

It’s a whole different world from when this farm was home to 240 dairy cows a decade ago when the milk price was on the floor, as it is today, and when the milk cheque was the largest slice of his income.

Today any monies accrued from farming their 330-acres of land no longer forms the lion’s share of a business that Paul and his wife Kate have built through overcoming individual challenges, spotting opportunities and making the most of good fortune.

“We started keeping buffalo because our son Andrew, who is now 20, was allergic to cow’s milk, but could drink buffalo milk. We bought a few and ran them with the cows. They’re generally a quiet, domesticated breed, but we’d never given a thought to what we would do with the young stock they were going to produce until we were at that stage. We fattened them up and approached a local butcher, but he told me in no uncertain terms ‘we don’t buy anything like that, lad’.”

Undeterred Paul and Kate took to the road and started selling buffalo meat in the form of steaks, joints and burgers at farmers markets. It took off and soon they were attending 12 throughout Yorkshire and County Durham adding lamb, beef, venison and whatever other produce would sell.

“We had a great reaction and I enjoyed getting out and meeting customers. I can see it wouldn’t be for everyone, but it was right for me. We’ve now cut down to just four farmers markets in Northallerton, Harrogate, Otley and Hartlepool but I don’t attend anymore personally.”

Paul’s transformation from being in the milking parlour every morning and evening, checking out cow family traits for appropriate replacement stock and improving his herd’s milk yield, into the full-time wheeling and dealing world of the meat trader came about due to various factors.

Realising there was a market for buffalo burgers and other cuts, he gradually reduced his dairy herd before calling time ten years ago. The buffalo herd now runs to around 200 head of cattle with a suckler herd of 70. He opened an abattoir on the farm eight years ago and a farm shop and café on Christmas Eve 2011. But the real game changer came when a soldier based at Catterick arrived at Paul’s abattoir just as it opened.

“They’re a resourceful lot the Gurkhas and this one chap had found out that we were to process buffalo meat. Unlike the cow, the buffalo is not regarded as sacred so can be eaten by those of the Hindu religion. The Gurkhas also like their meat fresh rather than hung so they buy from me as soon as they are allowed to under Foods Standards Agency regulations.”

Word soon spread amongst the Gurkhas resident in the UK and the calls that Paul was fielding on Monday when I visited were all from customers filing their weekly orders for Gurkha shops in London, Aldershot and Doncaster.

“We now deliver to London every Tuesday and Aldershot on a Thursday. Our market has grown further too. I had a man of Indian heritage come to me about a year ago. He came about nine o’clock one morning and by 9.30 a pal of his arrived to buy from me, by 10am another pal was here. We also now sell particularly well to the African community and when we’re down in London we go to the vegetable market and the African and Indian wholesalers where we buy for the Gurkha corner shop in Catterick.”

Paul’s farm shop and café benefits from all of this activity and as a result has a distinctive aroma as he now stocks rice and spices. His meat counter is perhaps one of the longest in North Yorkshire, but it’s the international flavours in the shop that set it apart from others.

“We now sell two tonnes of rice a month and on a Sunday we have a Gurkha chef who comes in to prepare his own curry alongside the traditional roast beef and roast pork we have on offer. Many of our customers now enjoy a Yorkshire Pudding with their Gurkha curry. It’s very popular. I’d always had a hankering for a farm shop and what we have now is beyond what I could ever have imagined.”

Paul’s parents Bert and Mary ran the farm previously having taken over from Paul’s grandfather Herbert. Paul recalls their good days in dairying when the herd was a regular winner in the Yorkshire County Milk Recording Herds competition but while he has fond memories he’s more than happy with where the farm is today.

“We have the buffalo herd and a herd of 30 red deer. Andrew runs the livestock and has his own small herd of four rare Northern Dairy Shorthorn cows as well as a flock of 15 breeding sheep. One of our neighbours takes a part of the farm each year and puts it into wheat. He then takes it back to grass for us. He gets a good crop of wheat, we get the straw and a big crop of grass afterwards, plus we don’t need to have any cultivation equipment.

“I buy whatever stock we need for the abattoir by attending York Auction Centre every Monday and also through buying direct. Our throughput in the abattoir includes pigs, goats, sheep, buffalo, deer and beef. We also process meat for other farm shops and local butchers. I could sell 10 times more buffalo than we already have so I make sure I have a regular supply.

“I’ve never regretted stopping milking cows or standing at a farmers market and what I really enjoy today is that my phone keeps ringing.”

Kate comes from Darlington and they met through her working with his sister Denise. As well as Andrew they also have twin girls Jennifer and Diane.