Local meat supplies raise the flavour at Fewston Farm Shop

Farmers markets, local food festivals and farm shops have flourished in the past 15 years as food miles, animal welfare, thinking and buying local and celebrity chefs extolling their virtues have taken a grip on our collective senses and palates.
Lee Abbott of Upper Cobbey Farm, Fewston. (GL1008/54e)Lee Abbott of Upper Cobbey Farm, Fewston. (GL1008/54e)
Lee Abbott of Upper Cobbey Farm, Fewston. (GL1008/54e)

Fewston Farm Shop at Upper Cobby Syke Farm near Fewston Reservoir; close to the normally busy A59 opened its doors for the first time in September 2013.

Lee and Beverley Abbott haven’t looked back since. Lee’s belief in native beef and keeping everything connected with the butchery, farm shop produce and the café very much local, right through to the staffing of the café, has proved a winner with everyone from neighbouring farmers, whose produce he now stocks, to his regular weekly customers, daytrippers and walkers.

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“We have our own herd of 15 pedigree Beef Shorthorn suckler cows and a few Hereford X cows which, with followers, means we have around 45-50 head of cattle, but these days that’s not providing sufficient for what we need in the butcher’s shop.

“I’ve just bought two Belted Galloways from one of our regulars Derek Simmons and I buy from others too. I bought some White Faced Woodland lambs from him last year and they went really well as people are keen to try different breeds.

“I buy all my pigs from Daniel Thackray who breeds them at the next farm and two of his pigs I bought recently were second and third at Wharfedale Mart’s Christmas Show and Sale.”

Even though Lee has been in the butchery trade all his working life he admits to having found the past five years, and since he and Bev opened Fewston Farm Shop two-and-a-half years ago, a real eye-opener.

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“What has been almost unbelievable is how much more aware and interested everyone now is in where the meat they buy comes from and how long it is hung.

“I always hang my meat for four to five weeks and I’m sticking with native beef raised to between 26-28 months but they are certainly not going before then. It’s all about the taste and that is better as they are more mature.

“The beef always hangs well with that bit more fat on it. I also keep their respective ear tag numbers and chat with customers about how they were raised and if it is beef from someone else’s animal I’m able to tell them about our neighbours’ farms as I keep everything within a five mile radius. We have nothing to hide.

“One customer came in the other day and I showed him a topside that was black in places because it had been hung for a long while. I offered to cut the black off as some customers can be put off by it, but he was a real beef connoisseur and told me to keep it and that he’d take it all. He knew his beef and where the taste is.”

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Lee and Beverley also have a flock of around 50 Charollais X and Texel X breeding sheep but their numbers are going down at present as their concentration is more on the farm shop, butchery and café business.

“We’ve expanded the café area, we’ve just taken on the supply of meat to the Sun Inn in Norwood just three minutes from here and on a Thursday through to Sunday we are usually rammed with customers.

People come here for the quality of what we and our friends rear and produce – or they come here if they’ve been for a walk around the reservoir for half an hour and fancy a cup of tea, bacon butty, slice of cake and sitting somewhere warmer.

“I’ve other ideas for this year but I don’t want to get it too commercialised. That wouldn’t be right. People travel here for what we sell and I like to give them good traditional butcher’s meat. I’m not into marinades and Chinese-style presentation in the shop the way some have gone, but I can give them what they need if they want to do that back home.”

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Since Christmas Lee’s passing trade, in common with all other businesses along the A59, has halved due to a road closure three miles west of Fewston. It’s a cause for concern.

“The winter months are our busiest time for walkers and daytrippers as people come out to go for a walk around the reservoir and then come up here but the road has been closed since Christmas and we’re not being given any real answer as to what is happening.

“There is talk of a crack in the road and possible landslide due to the floods. It’s really knocked our trade from the Skipton side of the A59. I have one customer who spends £40-£50 a week who I’ve not seen yet this year.

“We’ll keep cracking on though. I like talking with my customers and listening to what they have to say.

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“I’m hoping to put in an olde worlde butcher’s shop frontage and roof; and a canopy and seating outside for the summer.”

VISION FOR SHOP’S FUTURE

Beverley and Lee own 11 acres at Cobby Syke Farm and have a further 70 acres at Guiseley. They moved to Fewston four years ago.

Beverley’s father and uncle David and Richard Sandham were scrap merchants and farmers. The Sandham name could yet play a part in Fewston Farm Shop as Beverley’s relations run Sandham Cheeses that also supply Booths supermarkets and the couple are looking to stock their cheese varieties in future.

Other plans in the pipeline are to prepare and sell ready meals and home made soups. Lee is bringing in a professional chef to ensure the quality is spot on from the start.

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