TV cook to taste farmers' home-grown Christmas
MARK Whitehouse started preparing for his Christmas dinner in April.
Or to be absolutely precise, he began plans for the roast pork and turkey for his December 25 2009 dinner table at the end of the last century.
"The hardest part was getting the land," he explains, looking out over the Loxley Valley surrounded by nine saddleback pigs, eight chickens, eight ducks and 29 unsuspecting turkeys.
"I worked for nine years to get this piece of land."
Mark is a keen cook and like many modern gastronomes he wants to be as involved in the production of his food as possible.
"Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall captured my imagination a few years ago by promoting this sort of self-sufficient lifestyle."
On Long Lane, across the road from Loxley Garden Centre, is the new Loxley Valley Community Farm.
The 6.5 acre plot is managed as a workers co-operative by (currently) 25 adult members, soon to grow to 36 – with a dozen or more children also involved in the feeding, mucking out and general experience of the place.
"When I was young my father had a smallholding where we kept goats, cows, sheep and chickens," says Lynne Guest, who was working on the farm last Sunday with son Joshua, seven.
"We had our own milk and eggs and I knew what happened in an animal's life, how they grow and how they're raised, and I think young people can miss out on that now. That's why Joshua and I take part."
"In my opinion it's really important for people to understand where their food comes from," says Richard Allison. "Too many people go to the supermarkets and pick up a packet and have no idea of the process you have to go through to make what's inside it."
After being fired up by the principles of River Cottage, Mark Whitehouse put his name down on the 'Landshare' website, set up by the programme to connect potential growers, helpers and landowners to enable more people to grow their own food.
With the expanding interest in growing your own, there is now a huge demand for local allotments, with thousands on the waiting list locally, Mark says.
The result was that Mark's offer of land he'd found and leased from a supportive local farmer was soon matched with a host of potential helpers who got together and formed the Loxley Valley Community Farm co-op.
Mark says: "For me it's all about getting more connected with where food comes from and what a privilege it is to eat meat and if you're going to eat meat then the very least you can do is make sure the animal you're eating has a very good life."
The group met local officials of the Soil Association who gave the green light to the endeavour, due the quality of the land and the quality of the partnership structure of the business model.
"It's known as the Community Agriculture model," says Mark. "Effectively it means we are both producer and consumer."
New members pay a small fee to become part of the co-op and then buy shares which entitle them to, for example, half a pig.
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Letters But each share also requires a certain amount of work on the farm, on the feeding rota or tending the vegetables, for example.
So if a member or member group (often a family) want to buy three shares in, say, eggs, vegetables and pigs, they will then also need to work for 18 hours a month on the farm.
Of course this is not a chore at all for the enthusiastic smallholders, certainly not with the views of the Loxley Valley all around, say the members.
It was important to have a clear early focus when the group got together earlier in the year, says Mark.
"It was very simple: we decided that our Christmas dinner will be home produced, so we have pigs for pork, turkey, cabbages, sprouts and potatoes."
This also led to an unexpected approach from the River Cottage team, who have already been to Loxley to survey the site.
"We're going to be featured in a programme in December," says Mark. "It's a huge boost to say we've only been going a few months."
The long-term plan for the farm is to involve local schools and to spread expertise and advice to other local people and groups – and to extend the produce with more vegetables and possibly different animals and a full breeding programme.
The farm will run as a not-for-profit enterprise and any surplus will be given away to the poor or other charitable or community groups.
There is a huge interest in producing your own food, says Mark. "And if you've got a group of passionate people who want to do something like this, nothing can stop you," says Richard Allison.
In November Mark's hero Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will arrive to cook a meal in his Loxley kitchen.
"It's fantastic," says Mark. "I don't know what he'll be cooking yet but I can't wait."
Loxley Valley Community Farm is holding an open day on Saturday, from 11am to 3pm, to give advice, show people round and with family games including apple bobbing and welly wanging.
www.loxleyvalleycommunityfarm.org.uk
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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