Farm of the Week: Sowing seeds of success through fields of gold

Despite the colour, oilseed rape used to be a fairly mundane crop as far as farmers were concerned – a reliable seller, because of the many industrial uses of the oil, but a slow way to fame and fortune.

Now, however, its reputation is catching up with its looks. Rapeseed is becoming a fashionable buy for health-conscious 'foodies'.

Among those making a living in this new niche market are Adam Palmer and wife Jennie, at North Breckenholme, Thixendale, near Malton.

They inherited the farm from Mr Palmer's grandfather.

It is home to 200 acres of arable land and another 100 or so acres of rough grazing for sheep and has long been producing rapeseed crops.

Just over 18 months ago, Mr and Mrs Palmer began pressing, bottling and selling the oil as Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil, hand-bottled and sold both on its own and with flavourings such as herbs and chillis, predominantly sourced from local farms.

At the Fine Food Show in Harrogate tomorrow , the Breckenholme Trading Co. will launch four new deli-style dressings based on the oil – flavoured Honey and Mustard, Mint and Balsamic, Dijon and Black Pepper and Sweet Cranberry.

"When I took on the farm, I knew that a 200-acre arable farm in today's climate was going to need something else," said Mr Palmer.

"I wanted something that would keep me in touch with agriculture. Farming was one of my first loves – I didn't want to get too far away from that."

Mr Palmer's grandfather had run the farm since the 1940s and as a boy he would come to North Breckenholme farm on weekends.

He went on to study the business at Bishop Burton College before taking on the running of the farm full-time from 2008. However, for years beforehand he had been thinking about how to expand the business and researching possible ways to go.

"The interest in oil initially came about when diesel was very expensive and we thought about producing biodiesel," he says. "However, it became apparent that the quality of the oil being produced was a bit too good for that, so we decided to go down the culinary oil route."

His wife says: "It took off much more than we expected – it really took on a life of its own."

Taking the plunge involved a substantial gamble. The press cost 15,000 and the filtration system about the same. However, that gives them some spare capacity in hand.

The couple have confined themselves mainly to the Yorkshire market, because they think the local angle is so important.

Outlets include a few town delis, in Scarborough, Harrogate, York and Beverley, but farm shops and farmers' markets are still the main outlets. They are looking to get into restaurants too.

They are operating in a tight market, Mr Palmer acknowledges. "There are two or three really good companies in Yorkshire doing this."

Their angle is to stress the traditional and local elements of their operation and to keep innovating to keep up interest.

Mr Palmer says: "We took the decision to not be the kind of people who target a supermarket contract. We are a family business. All of the design work is done by Jennie's parents. We do most of the work ourselves. The bottling is not automated. If you want to service the supermarkets, you have to put out thousands of bottles a week. You cannot do that by hand."

The crops are all harvested in August but the nature of rapeseed means that it can be kept for nearly a year in seed form before being pressed – allowing the Palmers to produce oil all the year round.

They also farm around 300 head of breeding ewes. Lambs are taken right through to fattening and sold straight to local abattoirs.

Increasing the size of the sheep flock is another development they are looking into.

Meanwhile, they have recently begun an interesting sideline in rapeseed oil as a feed supplement for horses. Working with national wholesalers Battle, Hayward & Bower, they have launched Lincoln Omega Gold, which is already finding a strong customer base.

The brand name refers to the oil's high content of the nutrients Omega 3 and Omega 6 and the publicity quotes an independent equine nutritionist suggesting the oil benefits the behaviour, performance and health, of the animals.

The feed oil, in drums, is much cheaper than the food oils, in fancy little bottles.

The recommended retail price of the new range of barbecue oils is 3.95 for 220mls.

But Mr Palmer commented: "The bottle costs money, the label costs money, bottling costs time and selling costs time and money."

See www.YorkshireRapeseedOil.co.uk/

CW 19/6/10