Farm of the Week: Fruit and vegetables evolution at farm on the coast

These days it’s his vans carrying fruit and vegetables for his wholesale business that you’re more likely to see on the country lane that leads from the farm to Scarborough.

“It seemed like we were going to the other end of the world at the time as I was hauling a trailer load of old implements my dad wanted bringing. The two of us came up first, leaving my mum and two younger brothers at home because we wanted to get spring crops sown. We needn’t have bothered as it rained solidly for a month and we were stuck in a bungalow without any heating.”

Phil’s father Arthur had run a smaller acreage growing corn and vegetables including cauliflowers and cabbages, along with pigs and chickens on East End Road in Preston but had wanted more land and couldn’t find any at the right price, until he fell in love with Ellis Close Farm.

“My mum Val had a brother up here and it was through him that dad found out about the farm. The land was quite a change from what he’d been used to and he soon realised it was better to put it all down to grass and become a livestock farm.

“At one time every building we had was full of pigs. We had 45 sows of various crosses including Large White, Duroc, Landrace and Welsh. He tried with vegetables like swedes but wasn’t getting the results he had been achieving back in Preston.”

Having grown up going to Hull market with his father, and realising that another income stream would be helpful, Phil started his fruit and vegetable business in his early 20s.

“It was lovely being able to work with my parents. At the time we had cattle and about 60 Mule breeding ewes and although I always helped out I knew that a diversification would help.

“I’d started delivering produce for him and worked out that the people we were delivering to were getting a lot more out of the produce than us, so that sowed a seed in me to develop our offering by expanding the range and taking a better premium.

“We now have four vans on the road and supply pubs, hotels, schools, tearooms, restaurants and farm shops. We go about 30 miles from here to the other side of Whitby, into the North York Moors and on to the Wolds as well as having a strong local trade in and around Scarborough.

“There was a time when dad and I used to set off from here at 2.30am to get to the Hull fruit and vegetable market near the docks and fill the vans with produce. We still get a lot from Hull but everything is delivered here now, other than potatoes we pick up while out on the vans from a grower on the Wolds.”

Phil is mindful of changes in consumer demand.

“When we started the main garnish we would sell was cress, iceberg and flat lettuce, but the cress order has reduced as everything has gone much more colourful with the likes of raddichio lettuce, red amaranth, micro herbs, red onion and peppers. It’s been a gradual change and it is amazing to see how much it has evolved.”

One of Phil’s biggest sellers is still potatoes and as well as the Marfona variety he gets from the Wolds he buys from a producer near Whitby.

“What we’re looking for is a proper pub chip, one that has a bit of colour. We now do ready-prepared hand cut chunky chips and others in our prep room within our purpose-built store. We had outgrown the two stone barns and 14 years ago we brought everything together. We also prepare carrots, cole slaw mix, soup mix and a stew pack.

“We now employ a team of five and fortunately some of the lads have a farming background so help me out with that too. We usually start work around 5am with the prep lists and orders ready.”

Midday signals Phil’s daily transformation from fruit and vegetable wholesaler to farmer.

“As well as the 150 owned acres we also rent another 15. Our mix of livestock includes a small suckler herd of about half a dozen predominantly Aberdeen Angus X cows using Aberdeen Angus AI. We had about 50 at one time but calving and getting the vans ready for delivery didn’t go well together.

“Store cattle is where I’ve moved to and currently we have around 120 that we buy at around eight-months-old from Ruswarp livestock market and privately, which we then take to 22 months and sell largely back in Ruswarp as strong stores. We’ve just been granted permission for putting up a new shed and the aim is to have up to 200.”

Phil has moved out of lambing as well as reducing his calving in order that everything fits in with the farm and fruit and vegetable trade.

“We used to breed 100 Texel X ewes out of Mules but since we were short of shed room and time, especially as lambing at Easter coincided with when we were flat out, we’ve now moved to fattening 300 mainly Texel lambs over the winter. We’ll aim to sell them in the spring.

“Turnout for the cattle is around late April/early May and late October for being back inside dependent on the grass. We make good quality silage and haylage, getting at least two cuts and re-seed regularly.”

Although both his parents passed away some years ago, Phil retains his father’s interest in shooting and runs a small shoot with a neighbouring farm and a syndicate of 10 local farmers.

He has also never lost his love for Holderness and regularly returns to where he was once involved with Thorngumbald YFC to visit farming friends.

Phil is married to Angela who works for the NHS and handles accounts and wages matters at Ellis Close Farm, and the holiday cottages they have developed from their old farm buildings.