Organic growth of vital village venture

One of Chris's birds made the ultimate sacrifice to become my Christmas dinner this winter, and I have been finding out a bit more about how what started as eggs and vegetables on the back doorstep, went on to become a thriving farm shop, as well as the place to buy your morning paper, pick up your pension or post your letters.

Piercebridge is just a matter of yards over the boundary of North Yorkshire, beside the remains of the Roman fort built to guard the river crossing of Dere Street which ran from York to Scotland. Chris Hodgson's father first came to this farm in 1964. It is one of the few true mixed farms left, with pigs, sheep, cattle, hens and fields growing many of the arable crops to feed them. The Hodgsons are tenants of the massive Raby Estate. It was in 1998 that the Hodgsons decided to go organic.

"We started questioning the chemicals we were using, and the effects they were having on the environment." says Mrs Hodgson.

"We were also wondering what effects they were going to be having, initially on us as human beings."

All along they were keen to sell direct to the public. "It just grew, grew from selling eggs and potatoes," says Mrs Hodgson. Her husband says that going organic really made the difference. "Once we went organic we got involved with lots of other good people, who would supply us with vegetables, so we started selling vegetables at the back door along with these other things."

The shop, as opposed to the back-door, was ready to roll, just as Foot and Mouth disease struck the area in 2001.

Perhaps what became best known on the farm was the eggs and the organic chickens. "When we started with the chickens there were very few people doing small scale chickens like that. We wanted to fill a demand that was not being filled."

Although the farm was still in its organic conversion period, Liz Hodgson says that what made the difference to so many customers was their approach to chicken production.

"They're never touched with water." Scalding water is often used to remove the feathers from freshly killed birds. "They never leave the farm. They're killed in a humane way and then they're dry plucked, and hand finished."

The birds are the Ross Cobb breed, which can be quite substantial and is used in intensive poultry meat production. Organic birds have to be allowed to grow more slowly.

As well as the table birds sold through the shop, their son Harry has set up an organic laying operation with a thousand birds living free range in, and out of various hen-houses spread around the farm. "It was his interest in traceability of the food, so to complete the cycle to organic was really very easy for us to do, because we were already there", says Mr Hodgson.

His wife explains these principles have now been extended to the whole business. "We decided that everything in the shop, and subsequently everything in the cafe and anything we make is also organic. We decided not to fudge the edges."

Much of what is sold in the shop is either produced on the farm, or very close by. The organic milk, cream and butter come from Acorn Dairy just a few miles away.

Although the animals have to travel twelve miles to be slaughtered at a Soil Association approved abattoir, they are butchered on the farm. Sausages and bacon are also made on site. Food miles become food yards.

As well converting part of the shop into a caf, the Hodgsons also started to sell newspapers when the village shop closed a couple of years ago. Then, last year, Chris Hodgson agreed to have the village post office in one of the farm buildings.

"The newspapers and the post office we did as a service to the community," Mrs Hodgson tells me.

It's her husband who is the village postmaster.

"Initially we weren't very keen at all, because it wasn't the direction in which we were aiming, but we came to a compromise and we had a building which was suitable, separate from the shop.

"People have the privacy, it's a separate unit, they're not involved with the shoppers, so it doesn't affect the shopping business, and people using the post office don't have to come into the shop."

Liz Hodgson says that it makes sense to have the village post office at their farm shop.

"We're in the middle of the village. A farm shop in an isolated situation might not be such an ideal place, we're in the village so people can actually walk to us."

Chris Hodgson says they have survived the recession well, perhaps better than some other organic businesses. "We are cutting out the middle man, so although organic produce is dear we can be very competitive."

The Hodgsons were one of the first in this area to set off down that road a decade ago. "We were a bit like a trading post in the middle of the desert," says Chris Hodgson. That trading post is also providing vital jobs for local people.

Last year they won a high commendation in the Best Diversification category at the Countryside Alliance's national Best Rural Retailer awards.

http://www.pierce bridgefarm.co.uk/

01325 374251