Oils
Rapeseed Oil
Chili Oil
Dressings
Blackberry Vinaigrette
Classic Vinaigrette
Balsamic Dressing
Honey & Mustard
Ultimate Chilli DressingAfter several years of trying, I am excited to report that renewable energy has returned to Bottom Farm!
As a family we have always been environmentally aware and energy efficient even if, originally, we didn’t realise it. Let me explain. Most actions we take as a society to become more energy efficient are driven nowadays by doing the right thing for the environment and for future generations. In my mind this is the right thing to do. However, these actions are also good common sense and a great way to save a bit of money.
Many years ago, my pioneering Grandfather became one of the first people in Britain to generate electricity from a windmill for his home, see the timeline on our website showing this. He also built his own solar panels to heat water, so he could have a hot bath in the evenings. Later, my Father made his own central heating boiler to burn waste timber from the local timber yard to heat our house. I remember as a teenager in school holidays, having to fill and light the boiler every morning with six-foot lengths of off-cut pine, leftover from the manufacture of garden sheds and fences. Without this boiler, we wouldn’t have hot water, or a warm house.
Today such practices would be applauded as great examples of people doing their bit for the environment. However, the reality was that both my Father and Grandfather, were driven by ways to run their homes efficiently in order to save a bit of money. Plus they both enjoyed trying to do things a bit differently. Eventually the timber yard closed down and the boiler was at the end of its life, so it was replaced with a modern oil-fired central heating boiler.
Duncan’s grandfather’s home-built windmill
Move forward a few years and people became more aware of our effect on the environment and potential ways to ‘reduce one’s carbon footprint’ by creating ‘renewable energy’ using a whole range of new and exciting technologies such as: solar photo voltaic systems; biomass boilers or combined heat and power; ground source heat pumps; rain water harvesting and several more. We have collected rain water both on the farm and at our home for many years. Our youngest daughter, Amelia, was talking about this in her geography class only the other day, not realising that this is still relatively unusual, as she assumed this was standard in all homes and couldn’t understand why not.
Apart from rainwater harvesting and other good practises like using LED lighting, or even encouraging people to turn lights off, or to keep doors closed when it is cold, we have not had any renewable energy at Bottom Farm for over fifteen years. This was not for lack of trying though…
Around the turn of the Millennium, we looked at installing a wind farm on the farm. I was keen to follow in my Grandfather’s footsteps and thought people would love the idea, but unfortunately our neighbours in the village were not quite as enthusiastic as I was. We gave up on that idea soon after. Later, when Farrington Oils needed more electricity, I looked at putting solar panels on the factory roof, however it turned out that as we live in a small village, with Bottom Farm being at the end of the power line, we had the wrong sort of electricity and not enough of it to work with solar panels. So again, a dead end.
Our grain store, pre-solar panels
Our grain store, during solar panel installation
Now after three years of planning, working with the local electricity supplier and substantial investment on our part, we now have a new electricity supply to Bottom Farm. The local electricity supplier is delighted with this as they can give a more reliable supply to the rest of Hargrave, meaning that lights and televisions will stay on in the winter months. More importantly, it is now the right sort of electricity to work with solar panels!
We now finally have solar panels on two barn roofs, which will generate over half the total electricity we use at Bottom Farm. So, when you enjoy using Mellow Yellow in your cooking, just think, your little bottle of sunshine is grown using the power of the sun and then cold pressed with the power of the sun too. Surely that’s got to be good for all our futures?
Our grain store with completed solar panels
Duncan Farrington
Here at Farrington’s, we don’t use neonicotinoids on our rapeseed crop. This is for many reasons, mainly because of the concerns related to this pesticide and the effect on bees. You can read more about our bee friendly rapeseed and what else we do to keep the bees on our farm healthy and happy here.
Friends of the Earth, a campaign group looking for solutions to environmental problems, is concerned about the impact of neonicotinoids on bees and other pollinators and urged farmers to join them in pledging not to use neonicotinoids. We were asked us to join the Bee Friendly Shoppers Guide to Rapeseed Oil, of which we are 1 of only 7 rapeseed oil producers on this list. Of course we said yes! The guide aims to educate shoppers on which oils to buy, and how these oils are helping Britain’s bees. As part of the guide, we have pledged not to use the three neonicotinoid pesticides which are currently restricted across the EU, and will continue to avoid these pesticide even if the ban is lifted.
The Bee Friendly Shoppers Guide to Rapeseed Oil is supported by a number of leading chefs. These include Kevin Gratton, chef director for Mark Hix Restaurants, David Everitt-Matthias of Le Champignon Sauvage, Martin Burge, executive chef at Whatley Manor Hotel & Spa and Tom Hunt, eco chef owner of Poco Tapas Bar. Friends of the Earth, alongside the supporting farmers and chefs, are asking consumers to support the initiative by buying the bee-friendly rapeseed oils detailed in the guide.
Friends of the Earth’s Bee Campaigner, Nick Rau, said “We’re delighted Farrington’s Mellow Yellow is standing up for Britain’s bees by pledging not to use these three bee-harming pesticides on their rapeseed crops. They deserve our support. We hope more farmers and producers follow their lead and say no to these neonicotinoid pesticides. Nature-loving shoppers can back this pioneering initiative by checking out the Bee Friendly Shoppers Guide to Rapeseed Oil and choosing these products in supermarkets, local stores and online.”
To read more about the Bee Friendly Shoppers Guide to Rapeseed Oil, please visit: http://www.rapeseedoilguide.com/
Neonicotinoids insecticides hit the headlines because their use for controlling cabbage stem flea beetle in crops of rapeseed and the suspected links to declining numbers of honeybees and native bumble bees. At Farrington’s we have more questions from our valued customers about this, than any other topic. Before I go any further, just to confirm we are growing bee friendly rapeseed, we do not use Neonicotinoids in growing our rapeseed and do not intend to if the ban is lifted.
How we grow our crops and look after the wider environment has always been my top priority at Bottom Farm. Indeed, I joined LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) back in 1997 to learn more about doing the right thing in this area.
Why is Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle such a problem?
Rapeseed plants grow from the tiny little black seeds planted at the end of August each year. The first few weeks are vital in the survival of the crop, which requires a warm, moist soil to help it germinate and tentatively put its head above the surface, from which the tender young plants start to grow. However, these young tender plants are delicious to a number of predators including flea beetles. So much so that if the conditions are right for flea beetles, they can completely wipe out a crop overnight. After which it is often too late to replant a second crop of rapeseed, as the soil temperature has dropped below the minimum required for the plant to grow.
What is a Neonicotinoid?
Neonicotinoids are a group of insecticides based on nicotine. In rapeseed, the chemical is coated in tiny amounts onto the seed to be planted and moves (is translocated) into the growing plant as it emerges from the soil. When a flea beetle nibbles on said plant, there is just enough of the toxic chemical to kill the pest. But otherwise, it is a specifically targeted use of an insecticide in an ingenious way.
Concerns grew that numbers of both honey bees and bumble bees were declining, so scientists explored the potential causes. It appears there are several possible causes including; loss of habitat for bees to feed on and live in; potential pests and diseases affecting bees, such as Varroa mite; changing weather patterns, such as cool damp springs; use of agricultural pesticides.
Some research suggested that small amounts of Neonicotinoid translocated through to the pollen and nectar in the flowering rapeseed plants. When bees visited these flowers they were inadvertently ingesting the chemical which was causing them to lose their bearings; a bit like us trying to find our way home after having too much of a good night in the pub. Other research suggested longer term damage to the fertility of the bee colony.
Although research appeared inconclusive with the debate on both sides being passionate, the EU restricted the use of Neonicotinoids on rapeseed crops from 2013, until such time that more conclusive evidence is shown.
Growing Bee Friendly Rapeseed.
I use several approaches to try and grow a successful crop of rapeseed whilst looking after our bee populations.
– I use a crop rotation and have extended the rapeseed from one in 3 years, to one in 4 to 5 years. This will provide a bigger gap between the crop so as there is less food around for the flea beetle to live off, that will hopefully in time reduce the risk of attack.
– Established wildflower meadow areas around the farm to create a perfect habitat with a variety of pollinating plants for bees and other beneficial insects to live off.
– Planting the crop into fertile soil, with the use of a healthy crop rotation which includes nutrient building cover crops to give the rapeseed the best possible chance to grow quickly out of the danger period when it is susceptible to flea beetle damage. This is backed up with a small amount of fertiliser if required.
– A local beekeeper has hives on the farm. The bees help fertilise our rapeseed and other crops, making delicious honey in the process.
– I am experimenting by growing companion crops of vetch and clover within the rapeseed. These create a friable soil structure and add nutrition to help the rapeseed plant grow well. It may also confuse a passing flea beetle as to what crop is actually growing in the field and may pass by unaware that their favourite meal is below them.
– As a final resort, we use an insecticide as found in head lice shampoo to kill bad infestations of flea beetle. If we use this, we make sure we spray the crop early in the morning or late at night, as the flea beetle will still be feeding on the crop, but the bees are all tucked up in bed.
In Summary, this hopefully explains some of the conundrums I have as a farmer in trying to do the best thing. Hopefully also, as I write in December 2016, with a temperature of -4.5°C this morning, I am confident that nature will help us enormously in reducing the number of flea beetles surviving the winter.
It has been a wonderful warm sunshine filled April. The blossom on the trees this year is spectacular, thanks to the excellent growing conditions last season allowing trees to make extra budding points on their branches, combined with the warm days and cool nights during April extending the blossom survival. In addition to the trees, other plants are also looking spectacular; the fields of rapeseed part way through their brilliant yellow blossom; or the cow slips, violets and other wildflowers along farm tracks and hedgerow bottoms showing off their colours. Over the next few weeks other plants will come out in blossom in a changing carpet of colour over the countryside. As well as plants, I have also noticed the first bumble bees and odd butterfly making appearances. The birds are also looking their best; the pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers on the bird feeder in the garden; the first swallows arriving from their winter’s travel; or the Grey Partridges having dust baths around the farm. No doubt bird watchers have made the most of the early mornings to hear the full dawn chorus. During this lovely whether, we have only had 15mm of rain during April. On our clay soils of Northamptonshire, such lack of rain soon starts showing with cracks appearing and a rock like texture on the surface. However, I’m not too worried as there is still plenty of moisture underneath, but admittedly our spring planted crops which have not got their roots down into that moisture could do with a good drink. No doubt as I write just before the May bank holiday weekend, the weather will change and that rain will arrive. The lack of rain got me thinking about ‘April Showers’ that are supposedly the norm, but looking back through my records, four out of the last five years have had less than 25mm (one inch) of rain during April. Not exactly a wet month then. I am delighted to report that our business has been selected as a finalist in the prestigious, The Grocer Gold Awards, in the Green Initiative of the Year category, alongside major retailers and household food brands. The award winners will be announced at a gala evening in London in June. So whether we win or not, I will clean down the Dinner Jacket and look forward to a great evening out with the big boys.
It’s amazing how a few consecutive days of dry weather completely changes one’s mood after the long wet winter. Fields that were water logged on a Monday morning and looking more appropriate for planting rice than wheat were, by Thursday afternoon, dry enough to start thinking about preparing the soil to plant our spring crops.
From an impatient farmer’s perspective, spring arrived around the middle of March, since when we have been working continuously. It is not just us, as all our neighbours are busy working away in their fields as everything appears to need doing at once.
The first job was to put some fertiliser on the autumn planted crops as soils warm up and day length increases, letting dormant crops realise it is time to start their long growth through spring. To achieve this growth, crops, like humans, require good nutrition to grow healthily, which is gained from the soil and some extra plant food in the form of fertiliser.
Fertiliser applied, attention turned to crops that are not yet planted. Firstly the spring beans, which were planted in pretty much ideal conditions in the third week of March. Next, it is the spring wheat this will take a bit longer to create an ideal seedbed, rather than rushing in just to get the job done quickly. We have started cultivation in preparation for the wheat, but on our heavy clay soils they can change from mud pie texture to concrete in the space of 36 hours, meaning that a mixture of perfect timing, a bit of luck and working with nature rather than fighting it is the name of the game.
In addition to being busy on the farm, we also start thinking about the new season of shows in Farrington Oils. Farrington’s Mellow Yellow is now ten years old and I have always enjoyed meeting customers at food shows, as they provide the perfect opportunity to explain to existing and potential customers why they may like to try our products. The first show of 2015 will be the BBC Good Food Show in Harrogate. We are currently putting the stand together in the office, making sure everything looks spick and span, ready to go, as well as making sure we can get it all in the back of a van to take to Yorkshire. If you are going, we will look forward to seeing you there. If not, then look out for us at other shows during 2015.
Kate Quilton and the team from Channel 4 Food Unwrapped visited Bottom Farm to see first hand how Duncan produces our brand of cold pressed rapeseed oil. Grown to LEAF Marque standards, our rapeseed is cold pressed on the farm. Cold pressing is a traditional process whereby the seeds are simply pressed and filtered and the oil’s natural properties are retained. Cold pressed rapeseed oil is becoming more and more popular as home cooks and chefs appreciate it’s culinary and health benefits. Duncan first launched Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil in 2005 and was Britain’s first ‘seed to bottle’ producer, and today remain’s the only LEAF Marque branded rapeseed oil.
The programme airs Monday 20th April at 8 pm, Channel 4.
10 Years & Exclusive Preview
Farmer Duncan Farrington launched Farrington’s Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil in 2005. Produced on the Farrington’s family farm in Northamptonshire, we have since expanded our award-winning range to include dressings and mayonnaise. However, it was two years before its launch in 2003 that Duncan decided to become a LEAF Demonstration Farm and planted rapeseed crops under the LEAF Marque standard. This decision to grow and produce his brand of cold pressed rapeseed oil to the highest environmental standards raised the bar of British produced culinary oils as he led the growth of the sector within the UK and numerous awards followed.
Duncan started selling bottles of Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil to independent retailers from the boot of his car. Since then he has seen sales of Mellow Yellow grow as consumers switch to using the British product over other culinary oils. Duncan Farrington, said, “We are still a small farm producer. Compared to the olive oil and sunflower oil market in the UK we generate only a fraction of sales but we have focused on quality and grown sustainably. We will continue to produce a high-quality product that is accessible to everyone, from home cooks to the leading chefs in the world”.
Leading chefs to discover Farrington’s early on included Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. Duncan introduced himself to Jamie at a trade show in 2006, and since then has produced one of Jamie’s brands of rapeseed oil as well as being on the menu at his Union Jacks restaurant. Nigella was an early fan too, naming Farrington’s Mellow Yellow as her rapeseed oil of choice in her book Kitchen. More recently, we were chosen by Michel Roux Jr’s Cookery School to become a partner. The school contacted Farrington’s because their chefs have been using the oil since the school opened in 2013.
We received our first Gold Taste award for the oil in 2006, with the latest Gold Star awarded to our flagship cold pressed rapeseed oil in 2014. Duncan’s wife Eli Farrington shares his passion and with her meticulous approach, has produced our dressings and mayonnaise recipes, again picking up many awards. Continuing to strive for quality, the range is one of the few widely available that is completely free from additives and is Vegetarian Society Accredited and Coeliac UK Approved.
A key part of the rebrand involved customer research. We asked customers what they like about the Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil and what’s important to them when selecting a culinary oil. Based on this research, we have simplified the information on the front, retaining the important elements, particularly the British flag as provenance is one of the most important factors for shoppers.
Whilst putting branches on a bonfire is admittedly very different to talking to customers in a farm shop about the virtues of using Mellow Yellow to cook their roast potatoes in. They both make me feel that winter is here, getting one in a festive mood ready for Christmas. It’s a great time of year. It is also a great example of the diversity of jobs involved on a modern farm, and whilst we may not be masters of them all, we certainly have to be a Jack of all trades. For it to really work, though, you do need a great team of different skills which we have at Bottom Farm.
With the shortening of the days, winter routine on the farm is well underway. It is the time of year when trees and hedges are pruned or planted, ditches are cleaned and general maintenance takes place using a variety of men and machines. There is nothing better than a cold damp day, removing overgrown and falling braches from trees, sawing some of the wood into logs for the home fire and making a bonfire in the field for the rest. I love this work as it gives a real satisfaction of a hard day’s work done, whilst carrying out an important conservation operation, encouraging healthy hedges and copses.
These days I don’t get to do as much of the actual conservation work as I would like and have to delegate the role to the guys on the farm. Whilst my neighbouring farmers use this time of year as a chance for some good old fashioned exercise, before finishing early for a warm bath once the sun goes down. I turn my attention to selling our Farrington’s Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil brand, in the busy run up to Christmas.
November and December is a very busy time for Farrington Oils. In the factory, the presses run flat out producing oil, whilst the guys just as busy putting it into bottles ready for the shops. Additionally, we attend major food shows in London and Birmingham, as well as spending winter evenings going around our customers in the County and further a field supporting them in their festive evenings, where people come along to taste (and hopefully buy) many of the delicious foods on the show.
As September draws to a close, we are in the final stages of the busy workload. Harvest seems a distant memory, the rapeseed is all planted and growing well, although a little rain wouldn’t go a miss; now it is just the wheat that needs planting. So the question is to plant wheat or not to plant wheat?
Like many of the jobs on an arable farm, I don’t have the luxury of a crystal ball to see what the weather is going to do over the next few weeks. September has to date been the driest on record. The lack of rain has not allowed much blackgrass and other weed seeds to germinate and grow, which ideally I would like to have a chance to kill off with a weed killer before we start planting wheat. If we drill too early, these weed seeds will germinate at the same time as the crop and cause problems for the next season. If we wait too long and the weather breaks, we may struggle to get the crops into good soil conditions, or at all. The plan is to encourage the weeds to grow quickly by giving the soil a gentle rake, kill off the weeds before planting some fields whilst the conditions are favourable, then wait as long as I dare before planting the remainder. In other words, I’m hedging my bets in trying to make the right decision.
I read recently that Richard Branson has given up eating beef because of his concerns over greenhouse gas emissions produced by cattle. He is, of course, correct – cows produce methane (from flatulence), however, Mr. Branson’s concerns are more about intensively produced beef in South America where cattle are raised in feed lots consuming huge resources to produce beef for North America. It is a completely different story in Britain and other similar countries, where beef is reared less intensively. Whilst it is true cows do flatualte because they are ruminant animals, meaning they eat grass, something we humans are not able to do. If we all stopped eating beef, what would happen to our green and pleasant land? Perhaps we could plough it all up to grow more crops to feed a vegetarian world, but there again that would cause other environmental issues, including the emission of greenhouse gases.
Sometimes, out of good intensions and trying to make the right decision, people can get a little side tracked without seeing the bigger picture. Besides, did I mention that air travel is a huge cause of greenhouse gas emissions? What would Mr. Branson say about that?
Over the years I have had bird surveys carried out on the farm. Primarily because I find this sort of thing interesting and whilst I am no bird expert (although I have learned a lot in the last few years), I do like to know what we have and what we can do to improve the likely hood of getting more species on the farm. Local conservation expert, Dr. Mark Avery has been surveying the birds at Bottom Farm since 2003. Back then he got very excited when he found Turtle Doves on the farm, which came back each year to nest. Unfortunately, in recent years he thought they had disappeared, which is the case in much of the UK. However, I was delighted recently when I thought I had spotted them here again, the turtle doves return. An excited call to Mark, who came out and confirmed, even more excitedly, that I was right! They’re back. This is great news, especially so as it was waste seeds I scatter around the farm from Farrington Oils, that they were feeding on.
Mark has just launched a new book, ‘A Message from Martha’, which talks about the sad demise of the last carrier pigeon in America, 100 years ago and the social history around the subject. It also draws parallels with the plight of the Turtle Dove today in the UK, mentioning our farm as part of the message. I haven’t read the copy kindly given to me yet, due to harvest keeping me busy at the moment, but am looking forward to soon. Until then it looks great on the coffee table, with the cover designed by local artist, Carry Akroyd.
Harvest is in full swing, with the rapeseed nearly gathered in, giving very pleasing results following a near perfect growing season. Marvin is taking over from Father as the main combine driver this year, for which he has some big boots to fill. After over forty years experience driving combine harvesters, there is not much my Father doesn’t know and to let a new man lose on our beloved machine can’t be easy, however, Father seems reasonably relaxed, showing Marvin the finer points to help make him into an experienced operator in time.
Once we have finished the rapeseed, there will be a few days catching up on other jobs around the farm in readiness for the main wheat harvest to start in August. This is when the real fun starts and it all gets a bit hectic, so preparation is key.
Farming Diary
From LEAF Demonstration Farmer Duncan Farrington