MENU dorset issue 25 MENU25.dorset pdf issue 25.final | Page 26

Love Local
Jurassic Coast Meat
Fossil Farm, Dorchester DT2 8DB
01305 853937
www.jurassiccoastfarmshop.co.uk
S
ince 1985, Eric and Liz Sealey were getting by with a dairy
herd at Fossil Farm near Dorchester, but were forced to bring
milk production to a close in 2004. Always proactive, the family
then specialised in rearing grass-fed Aberdeen Angus beef and English
rose veal before son James returned from college in 2007. A year later,
Jurassic Coast Meats was launched, supplying Fossil Farm beef direct
to local hotels, pubs and restaurants across Hampshire, Dorset and
Wiltshire. Other locally sourced meats were added to the roster in 2010,
before the addition of a purpose-built cutting room and walk-in chiller in
2013 took the business to a new level.
“We’ve now got three strings to our bow,” says James, who is now
Director. “We’ve got the farm which is producing Aberdeen Angus beef,
dry-aged for 28 days and slowly grown on the farm with homegrown
feeds. From there it gets sold to Jurassic Coast Meats which is the
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catering division.
“We’ve also just started our retail sector which is Jurassic Coast Farm
Shop. We’re supplying meats, fresh fruit and veg, fish, and some local
cheeses, as well as condiments too. We don’t have a physical farm shop
but it’s all online. We’ve got three or four vans running on the catering
side, we can send parcels out locally with the vans. When it’s further
afield we can post it nationwide in boxes.”
Jurassic is still best known for its English rose veal but processes four
beef animals a week and one veal. “The key to doing this much beef
is to be able to balance the carcass so I’ve got nice aged loins of beef
going to somewhere like The Priory and I’ve got a burger company taking
2,000 burgers a week,” says James. “The farmer needs to be able to sell
the whole animal and by having the catering and the farm shop, we can
clear it at the best price.”
Political turmoil aside, James is positive about the future. “Because
we’re English farmers, there are plenty of other catering butchers out
there who are supplying mostly foreign products because their customers
want to buy on price. We’re trying to do local where possible. So our
pigs are from Wiltshire, lamb from West Country farms, and we also
get chickens from Piddle Valley and duck from Devon. It’s all traceable.
There have been some bad cases in the past of people selling Brazilian
striploin as English beef, but nowadays it’s all facts, not fudge.
“The demand for English produce has gone up hugely, which does
force prices up. But we haven’t been too hard hit because we’ve always
done English produce. We’re Brexit-proof because from our farming point
of view, we’re selling all our farming produce through our meat company.
We’ve got all our own businesses that we’re supplying and we have a
good spread.”
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