The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2020 - Issue 67 | Page 15

HEADINGLEY FARMERS MARKET 15
• FEB/MAR 2020
CHURCH VIEW FARM EGGS
Another of the many producers at Headingley Farmers’ Market is Church View Farm Eggs, which is
owned and run by the ever-friendly and oh-so-knowledgeable Steve Shearman and his wife Julie.
STEVE has been at Church View
Farm for 51 years! He has always
had a passion for poultry from
an early age, helping his father
who also kept them. Leaving
school at 15, he came to Church
View Farm to work for Robert
Youde. Church View Farm was
a pig and poultry farm and at
one point they had 17,000 head
of poultry and 2,000 pigs and
employed five people. As time
went on, the market changed,
and numbers declined. In 1998,
Robert Youde was looking to
retire, and he received a very
good offer for part of the land to
be sold for housing.
So, Steven was looking at
redundancy and a possible
life change. However, after 30
years hard work, a wealth of
knowledge and a love of the
work he was doing, there had to
be another option. So, in talking
to Robert, it transpired that
Robert didn’t want to fully retire
and as they had always had a
very strong working relationship
Robert suggested they could be
partners and run the business
from the remaining land. Robert
finally retired five years ago,
but still pops in to do a bit and
help.
So, in 1999, Church View
Farm Eggs, in its present form,
began - or should I say carried
on. This time with no pigs and
150 hens. Steven knew that
150 hens would not sustain a
decent living, so after a little
head scratching, he approached
a farmer at Ledston that was
looking for an extra income
and hey presto, Church View
Farm had a site for another 600
chickens.
This meant that Steven could
focus on rearing his rare breed
hens along with ducks and geese
at Church View, which pleased
Steven no end as he missed
the day-to-day looking after
poultry when he was
fully involved in the
wholesale side.
Times Mourns,(?)
Black Leghorns and
Spangled Hamburgs
are just a few of
the rare breeds he
has. They even have
a tame one who comes
into the main shed, has its
own place and loves to stand
there watching everything.
Not only is Steven passionate
about the welfare of his rare
breeds and his purpose-built
wholesale unit at Ledston, he
knows what makes a good egg,
which is down to a safe, well-
kept environment, high quality
feed, light and shelter.
Whilst we were chatting, I
learnt a few things I didn’t know:
the colour and quality of a yolk
is purely down to the quality of
feed; geese only lay in the main
from February to May – thus the
high price of
goose eggs;
the reason
you don’t wash
chicken eggs is because
they are porous, whereas
ducks being water fowl their
eggs are waterproof; the right
way to store eggs is fat end up,
because it keeps the natural air
pocket in the egg away from
the yolk, which means the egg
stays fresher longer and also
when you crack it the yolk is
less likely to break. Never mind
sell-by dates etc, an egg stored
correctly will remain good for
at least 28 days. An amusing
example of this was when
Steven’s wife Julia was worried
about a regular customer who
she hadn’t seen for a few weeks
at the market, when she finally
came again they were relieved
and asked why they hadn’t seen
her – she had only just eaten her
final egg!
Steven doesn’t do as many
wholesale eggs these days,
however he still has some 130
outlets including restaurants,
cafes, bars, milkmen and hotels.
He also sells a huge amount
from the farm gate seven days a
week!
Early on they received a flyer
from Leeds Council about having
a stall at the new Leeds Farmers’
Market. Initially, not having
done them before, Steven was
a little hesitant, however he
decided to give it a go. Both
he and Julie agree it’s one of
the best things they ever did.
Julie looks after most of their
markets, whilst Steven runs the
farm. Steven does like to attend
some of the markets though as,
like Julie, he loves to talk to and
interact with their customers.
People love to know more
about what they are buying
and are prepared to pay that bit
more for much better quality.
They now have seven farmers’
markets including Headingley
and they have had customers
coming to their stalls for twenty
years or more, just like the lady I
mentioned earlier. In fact, what
Steven and Julie pride them-
selves on, is that they don’t have
customers they have “friends
who buy eggs”.
Church View Farm has an
impeccable pedigree; they have
been disease-free for more than
forty years and intend to keep
it that way. Steven is very strict
about the quality of his eggs,
they must be a nice shape and
have plenty of bloom.
I asked Steven about the
future and he replied, “Keep
ticking over till I’m 70, then we’ll
see”. Somehow, I don’t see this
committed passionate profes-
sional stopping at 70 somehow.
Not when it’s something that
both he and Julie positively
enjoy!