The Farmers Mart Apr/May 2015 - Issue 39 | Page 36

Farm Name

Telling the real farm
story – and introducing
the new farm shop
»»The name Lister has been
well-known in farming circles
all around Boroughbridge and
much further afield for many
years, but now there is a very
real public face for the family
name with the opening of
Lister’s Farm Shop on the road
into Boroughbridge from Kirby
Hill.
Chris Berry went to meet
Grace & David Lister and get
the full story.
Grace Lister has used
her expertise to revitalise
what started out as Newby
Hall Farm Shop some years
previously, but was in need

of a major revamp. Having
studied event management
at Sheffield Hallam as well as
having organised weddings and
private parties, Grace turned
her undeniable talents to the
family’s farm shop and identify
what was needed to get it back
on track. She did a great job:
today, it is a fabulous place
to visit with an excellent deli,
butcher’s counter, a fabulous
array of other produce plus
a pleasant place to enjoy a
coffee, tasty meal and meet
friends.
Grace explained: ‘”I just
felt it had lost its way a bit.

36 Apr/May 2015 www.farmers-mart.co.uk

We needed to get it back to
local fresh produce and to tell
our farm story. These days,
people like to know a little
more about where their food
comes from and they like the
history behind it, so we have
used photographs of the family,
too. When I first walked back
in I had felt that we were not
filling the space correctly and
it didn’t portray that we were
doing home-bred meat. We
have pork, beef and lamb on
sale here and the shop stocks
all of our own pork and beef.
That message wasn’t coming
across.”

Much has changed since
Grace started her research,
which led to developing the
interior, as well as carefully
planning what they stocked and
how they stock it.
“We now smoke our own
bacon and have two butchers.
Our café only had three tables
at the time. Now we have more
and also set outside when it
is sunny. The café didn’t even
have its own oven. Now we do
all our own baking and pretty
much everything out of the deli
is what we have made. We have
changed the flow of the shop
and separated the café and shop