Local Food Heroes - Mise en Place
Stephen Wheeler, commercial manager at speciality food company Mise en Place, now part of Cheltenham-based Creed Foodservice, is responsible for sourcing the best food ingredients for top chefs across the country. Increasingly the demand is for quality, local produce – a task which puts him in touch with a wealth of food producers. In a new weekly column, he’ll be sharing some of their successes and challenges.
HERE in Gloucestershire we’re surrounded by wonderful farmland and a huge variety of independent food producers – who we should support and celebrate. Over the next few months, I’ll be introducing you to some of my local food heroes, all of whom play an important role in the regional economy but who also have a fascinating story to tell. Climate change is perhaps the biggest challenge that fruit farmer Martin Harrell has had to face in recent years.
Martin is the second generation owner of Hayles Fruit Farm near Winchcombe, which his father David bought in 1950.
Back then, Bramley and Cox’s English apples were quite literally, flavour of the month. But the onward march of global warming now threatens the future of the traditional Cox’s, as the species dislikes mild wet weather and much prefers the kind of cold, hard winters that today are just a dim and distant memory. To overcome this, Martin is constantly researching and establishing new varieties that flourish in today’s climate and crop well both in terms of yield and flavour. Look out for the Freckles and Red Gloss varieties coming
soon. Globalisation of apple production and the oversupply of cheapimports is another ever-present threat. But Martin believes there’s no substitute for quality produce with minimal food miles, so much of the 100 tonne crop produced by the farm is sold either to local wholesalers such as Creed Foodservice, direct to local supermarkets or from the farm shop.
But it was a freak hailstorm in June 1999 that gave Martin a golden opportunity to capitalise on what could so easily have been a disaster. The hailstones damaged the tender skins of his entire crop – leaving them marked and unsaleable – so Martin brought in a juicer and the rest as they say, is history. Hayles Fruit Farm now sells in the region of 30,000 bottles of apple juice a year. Martin has proved that by reacting positively, diversifying, and staying true to the company’s core values, he is well-placed to withstand any of the challenges that the 21st century may care to throw at him. A true Local Food Hero.
To see the actual article, click here
24th October 2009
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