Meet the overseas workers coming to Yorkshire to help put strawberries on your plate

But Brexit and the Covid meant the supply of workers from Poland and the Czech they relied on dried up.

“We did have one year where we got very few overseas workers in so we had to use students as they were unable to go into university due to Covid” says Tom Spilman – the third generation of Spilmans.

“But it was a nightmare, some days 60 would turn up and then the next day half woulnd’t bother coming in.”

But now, thanks to a Government pilot scheme (started in 2023 and has just been extended to 2029) to recruit seasonal workers from further afield, Tom has a great team of workers from the ‘Stans’ .

When the pilot began, workers mostly came from Ukraine and Russia. Today a much wider range of nationalities is represented, including from Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

They are allowed to do certain types of work (such as crop harvesting) in edible and ornamental horticulture for up to six months in any year with around 45,000 places available each year.

“We employ about 20 overseas staff mainly from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,” says Tom.

“They come over in April to pick the asparagus and then go straight into strawberries. They are amazing workers.

"We pick the strawberries everyday starting at 5.30am and take them straight away to the farm shops we supply all over Yorkshire.”

Tom goes through an agency to find the workers, many who have returned this year. One couple who leave their children behind with family, come over to work for six months at Spilman’s and send money home.

"Last year we had a really good gang and that gang came back again this year and brought their brothers and wives with them so I knew every body that came back this year which makes my life a whole lot easier and they know they are going to get looked after.

"I am really hopeful that we now have a group of people who will come back year after year.”

The workers, most who don’t speak any English, live in caravans on site and watching them in the fields around Thirsk they seem very happy in what for many would be back breaking work.

Yorkshire photographer Olivia Brabbs photographed them first when they were harvesting Yorkshire asparagus and then strawberries.

"I have always had a fascination with documenting the story behind a product - the people and processes that make things happen. I adore capturing people at work and creating stories around what could be defined as mundane daily tasks," sasy Olivia.

“It is far too easy to take our food for granted and not take time to think about where it was grown and importantly who was involved in harvesting and processing it.

"There is so much planning and hard graft that goes into producing our favourite British crops and I really wanted to acknowledge this through my camera.

"It was amazing to document the seasonal workers in the fields at Spilmans Farm. They worked as a skilled and very tight team with so much respect for the produce.”

Tom met his wife Dorata who is from Poland while she was a seasonal worker at Spilmans.

The could now have three children a nine year old daughter and three year old twins – possibly a fourth generation of Spilman’s to run the farm.

It was Tom’s grandfather who started farming in Helperby in 1941 before, along with Tom’s father Richard, buying the farm at Sessay near Thirsk where 15 acres of land is now dedicated to ‘Pick Your Own’ strawberries.

“My dad started growing strawberries 50 years ago after he got the idea from his University tutor,” says Tom. "We’ve been growing strawberries ever since.”

Eight years ago they added a cafe and farmshop and started to do pick your own pumpkins around the same time.

"It just keeps growing,” adds Tom, who is joined by brother Joss, as well as dad Richard and mum Sally.

They collectively farm 700 acres, 600 as tenants at Lodge Farm, Helperby where they grow the asparagus, and 100 acres that they own at Church Farm, Sessay where they grow soft fruits, pumpkins and rear their own lamb and beef.

A recent addition has been table top strawberries as well as those in the ground which has extended Spilman’s strawberry season until the end of August. “It means we can now harvest strawberries from June through to the end of August.”

Table tops strawberries are grown outside in bags of compost on tables around one metre off the ground and are watered automatically from a pump everyday which allows Spilman’s more control over the growth of the strawberries.

"They are planted in May – they are called 60 day strawberries –because the crop 60 days after they are planted which means we get a crop mid July to the end of August when the field strawberries have finished and allows us to make the most of the school holidays which are out busiest times.”

You would think with all the sunshine this summer Tom would be a happy man. but the lack of rain has meant they have had to irrigate a lot, being food producers they are exempt from any hose pip ban, and also the hot weather means the fruit all ripen at once.

"It’s been a good crop,” he says of this year’s strawberries. “But when it’s so hot everything ripens at once and then it is difficult to pick everything as it comes together and sell everything.

"You can’t store strawberries for more than a day and there is a limit to how much you can pick in one. I just have to try to sell as much as I can as quickly as possible.”

After the end of August they have a break where the build the pumpkin festival and at the end of September the plant the pumpkins.

Tom says farming has never been more challenging.

"It’s very tough you’re always having to think what’s the next thing, how do we keep making money. Labour costs have gone through the roof. Not many years ago we were paying £7.50 an hour minimum wage which is now up to £12.21.

"My asparagus and strawberry customers don’t want to pay any more for my produce just because my costs have gone up. The restaurants they supply are struggling too so they don’t want to charge more and so my margins get squeezed.”

Tom said that was one of the reasons they had chosen to do Pick Your Own.

"There’s a lot less labour involved with that and people don’t mind paying a bit of a premium for it.” But they are still beholden to the weather.

“We really do need the rain, but if it rains at weekends then I get a lot people coming round to pick their own strawberries – we want rain but we don’t want it on the weekend.”

Then there is the Government’s introduction of inheritance tax on some farms.

"It has been a headache for my parent who have had to change things and plan, we will have to pay some tax, but luckily although we farm 700 acres we only own 100 acres and rent the rest. If we were any bigger it would be a massive issue.”

Would Tom, who spent five years in the army before joining the family business, encourage his young children in to farming?

“The way it is now I’m not fussed whether they go into farming just so long as they are happy. If I can built he business up to be really profitable and not so much at the whim of the Government then may be I’d encourage them ore but not if things stay as they are at the moment.

"If we hadn’t diversified we wouldn’t have a farm.”

Ever with an eye on how to diversify further to increase revenue Spilman’s is introducing a tulip festival for the first time.

“I am going to plant 375,000 tulip bulbs which will be ready for the festival in April. It’s going to be mega."

www.spilmans.co.uk