Newsletter 10: for fortnight beginning 12 may 2008

Extras for all

I am pleased to see that customers serviced from the Andover / Norton distribution farm are taking advantage of our extras offer. Standardised meat boxes are never going to be for everyone but the associated economies of scale do allow us to cover the fixed costs reasonably easily. Extras should give us the best of both worlds. Hopefully, you will be able to get what you want and we will be able to get it to you with out having to price ourselves out of the business. Please keep sending those boxes back. Reusing them certainly helps keep the price down.

We have had a number of entirely reasonable comments about the plastic trays the meat is packed in. In response to these we have started putting the sausages and poultry cuts in a compostable cardboard alternative. These still have to go into a vac bag but it is definitely an improvement. They also take up less room in the box, fridge and freezer. Early signs are that the sausages and poultry will also keep for longer but until we have had the necessary tests done we will be giving them the same shelf life.

Years ago my brother Guy and I had a few minor (nobody got killed) disagreements about him not mentioning the farm shops in the veg box newsletters. His point was that for most of his customers, the farm shops were too far away to be of any interest. Right or wrong, times have changed and I now have my own newsletter in which I can write what I like. Estate agents have said that customers have said to them that they don't care how many bedrooms it has as long as it is close to Riverford so why not apply the same criteria to your holiday. It seems that with air travel and the exchange rate being cursed and everyone worried about their finances, that a few short breaks in the Westcountry might be as far as many of us get this year. I say 'us' because it definitely includes me and I live here. So if you are heading down this way come and see us in one of the shops; Totnes, Yealmpton, Staverton and, as of Whitsun, Sidmouth. As with most things, my feelings about the shops are cyclical. Sometimes I can't imagine why anyone would want to come while at other times, they seem unbeatable. After a number of good years I think we all got a little over confident and complacentand the result was, just at the time that other farm shops were opening right left and centre, that trade suffered. Well, after an extended mutual flagellation session, we have pulled our socks up and things are very definitely on the up again so please pay us a visit this summer and find out just how good a farm shop can be.

Our new shop is part of Sidmouth Garden Centre, just outside town at Stowford Cross. The owner has done an enormous amount of work smartening the place up, including putting up a green oak framed building which he is renting to us. Sidmouth ain't like Totnes so we are having to tidy up our act a little, which is a challenge, but the core of the business will be the same; meat, vegetables and good unadulterated, real food.

With the exception of those freaks of the botanical world, rhubarb and asparagus, we are very much in the hungry gap. Last years potatoes and carrots hold little appeal so I find myself eating more and more beans and chickpeas, often coupled with the indispensable chorizo sausage. Spanish cooking chorizo was the first thing to go on our extras list and I make no apologies for not making our own. Given that our pig food comes from as far a field as Australia and Argentina while in Spain they probably grow it themselves, the food miles are considerably less. Cherry picking from another countries food culture seems dubious. The humble chorizo evolved as part of a culture of hardship and austerity in which a little meat had to go a long way. Meat and two veg is not the same language at all.

Back to our new extras; as of 2nd June we are offering them to all and have included the list in this newsletter for you to consider at your leisure. We hope there's something (if not everything), to please most, but as always we welcome your comments and feedback.

Ben Watson