Producers join forces to launch farm shop

They make operating and management decisions and, with help from volunteers, staff the shop.

Great Rock, which is named after a local natural landmark, opened for business on April 6 at Staups Lea Farm, just outside the village of Blackshaw Head. It trades for just four hours a week, between 10am and 2pm on Saturdays, and has one of the lowest retail mark-ups around; in its bid to keep prices low for customers and the wholesale process viable for farmers.

High on the hills above Hebden Bridge, its members say it is already picking up a surprising amount of passing trade from walkers and cyclists.

Owners of Staups Lea Farm, Jonathan Stansfield and Sally Jones, invited their fellow producers to join them because they wanted to give something back to the community.

Sally, who works as an environmental health officer, says: “We’ve had real help from our neighbours.

“This is a new farm, and people don’t really like new buildings but we got lots 
of letters of support when 
we needed planning permission.

“We’re where we are because everyone knew us and knew we were farming. We felt really well supported.

“A lot of customers have supported us by buying our stuff as well,” she adds. “We wanted to give a bit back.”

She adds that there were good business reasons for working co-operatively too. “The first reason is business,” she says. “As producers we can all benefit from more footfall by working together.

“Setting up a shop on our own would have been too much for us. Jonathan farms and I work full-time. It’s sharing the load, and it’s more fun.”

They have been delighted with footfall and sales so far. Co-op co-founder Debbie McCall says: “Our first day was a huge success. All our produce came from within a 10 mile radius, some of it from established producers, some from people trying to sell for the first time.

“Because we’re a not-for-profit co-op, 80 per cent of the takings go straight back to the producers. We hope success like this will inspire others to have a go.”

The co-op now has 25 producer members and 50 consumer members, and membership is growing fast.

Sally and Jonathan farm 300 acres at Staups Lea, and have been selling their meat here since 2006. The co-op sells their outdoor reared chicken, turkey and rare breed pork and lamb, along with their own bacon, sausages and burgers.

Also supplying meat to the co-op is Burnt Edge Farm, a five-acre smallholding at Blackshaw Head, which is owned and worked by Phil Doherty and Lucy Brill. They will supply pork, lamb, duck and goose.

Other producer-members include Carl Warburton of the Pextenement Cheese Company, who produces handmade cheeses from organic milk at Pextenement Farm near Todmorden.

Their cheeses include East Lee, a soft cheese, Pexommier, a creamy soft cheese, Pikes Delight, a traditional cheddar style cheese, Pexo Blanco for cooking and Devils Rock, a soft blue cheese.

Milk comes from John and Frank Hitchen’s 500-acre dairy farm in Luddendenfoot. The Hitchens have a milk round in Hebden Bridge, and supply the shop through local milkman Steven Whitfield.

Home baker Claire Maguire and local food co-operative The Bakehouse are baking bread especially for the co-op. Cakes, biscuits and flapjacks come from Craggs Cakes, which is run by Josie and Paul Pemberton-Clarke at Top Land Business Park in Cragg Vale, near Mytholmroyd, as well as local home bakers.

Crimsworth Farm, a family business on the outskirts of Pecket Well, grows vegetables and makes sauerkraut and hummus for the co-op. In the future they hope to supply it with jams from their fruit orchards and vegan coleslaw.

The mark up at Great Rock is unusually low at 20 per cent across the board, and retail prices are dictated by the producers themselves.

Debbie says: “We decided to let producers set the price because we want as much income as possible to go back to them so that they can re-invest in and diversify their businesses. We give them our feedback and tell them what customers are saying so they can respond to customer demands.”