Stallholder Interviews

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B Whiteley's

How did B Whiteley's Farm Shop and Nursery Start?

The Nursery originally began as a sideline to our landscaping business. We were growing shrubs and plants for landscaping jobs so it seemed a natural progression to sell the surplus stock to the public. Our original outlet was from one of the old rhubarb packing sheds and was rather rustic to say the least, the market garden is also situated there and as we were harvesting the produce to take to the wholesale market people who would comment at how lovely it looked and as we were packing the boxes they would be unpacking them, this was how the farmshop came into being.

What is the ethos of the Farmshop and Nursery?

Keep it natural, all our vegetables are grown non-intensively. They are all hand planted, and hand picked, weeds are controlled by push-hoeing, hoeing and in the case of carrots and parsley hand weeding. They are not intensively sprayed (protein often comes free!) and they are not irrigated, there is enough moisture in the soil in this country to provide for the plants. This also improves the flavour of the vegetables as they are not diluted by excess water. Our other main ethos is that fresh is best, vegetables are at their best when they have just been picked. All our home grown vegetables are picked on the day that they are sold in the shop and on a market days they are picked on that morning or the evening before, this means that our customers get the best flavour that is possible from them.

How do we decide what to grow?

My husband Bryn is the main key here, he was trained at Wisbech Horticultural College and chooses the varieties that he thinks will be best suited to the conditions of our land. We rotate the crops year on year and try use a balance between old favourites along with new varieties, which may extend the growing season. Each year we experiment with new varieties particularly with tomatoes and peppers/chillies and always like to have a couple guest lettuces each year. We also grow a wide selection to give our customers a good choice obviously there are certain times of the year when you cannot have such a diverse range as it is just not possible to do. The worst months are May and June, this is because the over-wintering veg begins to set seed and the summer crops have not had the time to fully mature.

How are we helping to create change?

We are working with a local school providing seasonal vegetables for their freshly cooked school meals in the wake of the Jamie Oliver school meals campaign. We have also hosted trips by other schools so that the children can see how the vegetables grow, harvest them then take them back to school and cook with them so that they can taste the difference! This is something that we intend to build upon so that the children can have healthier diets, which hopefully will lead onto healthier lives.

Naked Ape

REAP would like to introduce you to our latest stall holder, The Naked Ape. To make you familiar we have asked Samantha, one of the partners of the coffee stall, to answer a few questions about their business.

How did the Naked Ape start?
We started up our coffee van after being frustrated at the low quality coffee available on the high street. We choose to buy organic and fairtrade coffee for our home but found it hard to tick these boxes when we were out and about. We believe no one should have to lower their standards when purchasing their caffeine fix away from home.

What is the Nake Ape's ethos?
We want our business to be as sustainable as possible so we choose the green option when available. Disposable products are a huge cause for concern and with landfill filling up fast we didn't want to turn a blind eye to the problem. Our hot drink cups are made from a mix of recycled and sustainable forested paper with a 100% biodegradable plant based lining. They can be recycled as a paper product or composted. Our cold drink cups, lids and straws are made from bio-plastic which is a plant material which when composted with organic matter will compost in 6-8 weeks and nourish the soil. Normal plastics are made from oil, a finite resource and takes thousands of years to break down releasing toxins as it does. Bio-plastic is also fully recyclable but unfortunately only about 10% of recycling centres have the facilities to deal with it.

How does the Naked Ape select their suppliers?
We chose our suppliers with the same attention to sustainability. Our coffee, teas, hot chocolate and sugars are all supplied by Just Coffee People who roast the coffee and pack their products here in Leeds. As well as being completely fairtrade they are also a not for profit social enterprise, so local people are benefiting as well as the coffee farmers in Indonesia. This was a very appealing quality when choosing our products. Our milk is supplied by Organic Dales, a dairy in Otley in north Leeds. It was important to us for our milk to be organic, as this is what we drink at home and we believe the taste to be far superior, but also local, cutting down on those all important food miles as well as supporting local businesses.

How is the Naked Ape helping to create change?
We would like to think that our approach to disposables will inspire others to follow suit. We are also keen to educate people on coffee quality. Our espresso machine is a traditional Italian design and our approach to coffee extraction is of a similar ilk, where the end taste is without the unpleasant bitterness of chain shop coffee. Taste is very important to us and both partners have attended barista training courses. This I believe should be a requirement in all coffee shops but unfortunately this is not the case, to the detriment of the consumer.