54 GRANGE FARM JUN / JUL 2024 • farmers-mart . co . uk
54 GRANGE FARM JUN / JUL 2024 • farmers-mart . co . uk
EGG SHED IS IN CRACKING FORM IN ATWICK
Chris Berry talks with James & Gemma Vickerton of Grange Farm
Grange Farm
THERE ’ S an infectious enthusiasm at the 250-acre Grange Farm near the East Coast at Atwick right now , where a farming family have found a new lease of life through reducing stocking numbers and supplying the public direct with their produce .
It all started in November 2021 when the Vickertons – James , Gemma and Peter – opened up The Egg Shed , initially just selling eggs , but now sees them selling beef , pork and lamb all from their own stock , turkeys , chicken and geese too , that they rear for Christmas – and produce from other local businesses .
“ It has made us change the way we farm ,” says James . “ We ’ re now running a suckler herd of just 20 cows to rear the beef we need for the shop ; we lambed 55 ewes to provide the lamb for it too this year ; and we have 4 Sandy & Black pigs producing two litters of ten piglets a year that all go into the pork , bacon and sausages we need , as well as all stock providing joints and other cuts .”
Gemma says it was just a simple idea that has brought about all of what they now do .
“ Our next door neighbour was selling eggs and I said we should do something like this , I thought it would go really well because we are an actual farm . Then the lady who was selling the eggs said she was going to stop doing it , so I went round and asked her if it would be okay if we did it and she said absolutely , so in November 2021 James and Peter put a shed up , we put the eggs in and that ’ s when The Egg Shed was born .
“ When we said we were going to do it that Friday , over the weekend me and Pete scraped an area of parking , found a garden shed and got on ,” says James . “ At the time I had thought we might have been wasting our time as it cost us about £ 1500 to get set up and I hoped we could recoup it , but I needn ’ t have been concerned as it has worked out .
“ People who started coming for eggs started asking whether we would do a boxed lamb or two . I used to do that with my dad , so I thought why not , let ’ s earmark a few lambs and have a go at springtime .
James ’ s next gambit came when he visited Selby livestock mart .
“ I get bored at Christmas , you spend too much time doing nothing , so I went to Selby around that time and saw some Oxford Sandy & Blacks . I thought they would be interesting and that our daughter Charlotte would enjoy them .
“ They are a wonderful pig , friendly , inquisitive and they don ’ t root , they keep their pens a lot cleaner and produce a beautiful dark coloured pork
“ We certainly enjoy them as we turn their progeny into sausages , pork and bacon and sell them . We bought five to begin with . We did our first lambs in the March and our first pigs not long after in 2022 . We were doing boxed lamb and boxed pork . It snowballed from there and by August / September that year we were trying to do everything in boxes – half a lamb , half a pig , quarter of a pig , delivering sausages or people picking packs of sausages up from the farm on a night , and it then became apparent that people wanted to buy a joint of pork or a joint of lamb .
“ We ’ ve since added our Hereford X beef , and Gemma then came up with turkeys , geese and chicken .
Gemma says James was a bit concerned when the turkeys arrived .
“ James ’ dad used to sell chickens at Christmas and I saw that people did turkeys on farm and I thought why not us ? So , without James not knowing , I bought some turkeys . He was very cross
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