The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2015 - Issue 42 | Page 36

Mainsgill Farm

as well as the helpful shop
staff. Everyone works as one
big happy team and as soon
as customers walk into the
impressive food hall they are
greeted by the friendly staff.
They now have a large number
of niche suppliers, all the meat
and meat products come from
their own farm and more than
1,000 products are made and
prepared daily on the premises
- ranging from sausages, pies,
bread, prepared cuts of meat,
pickles, sauces, preserves,
vegetables as well as around
75 different cheeses - and a
host of quality wines.
In their quest for quality,
Andrew and Maria even flew
to Venice to choose the right
design for their new freezer

units. This was the closest they
have got to a holiday in the past
few years!
With all this activity and
development of the farm shop,
you might think the farm has
just ticked over but not so: in
2011 they were approached and
approved by an estate to farm
another 125 acres in nearby
Hartforth; then in 2014 another
estate approached them to
farm 300 acres of arable and
grass plus buildings.
Today Mainsgill has 300350 head of cattle - heifers,
Limousins, Blues, Charolais and
Angus all for the shop, 240 pigs
in batches of 120 bought in as
strong stores to give a good
covering of fat to ensure good
flavour; and 340 ewes going
up to 400 all Texels. To top
that, they also buy in 500 day
old turkeys for the Christmas
season.
To add to its other attractions,
Mainsgill invites customers to
walk around the yard and view
the animals. At lambing time
they even have a 24/7 Lambing

36 Oct/Nov 2015 www.farmers-mart.co.uk

Live webcam which
recently had
30,000 views
averaging
eight minutes
in length
- far more
interesting than
‘big brother!’
When the
camera was initially
installed by his brother,
Christopher, Andrew was
pushing him to make it live, and
Christopher told him it already
was - and had been for two
days….so Andrew could have
been famous without knowing
– imagine if he had been
caught short!
CAMELS, LLAMAS
& ALPACAS TOO
Visitors coming in through
the main gate may well do a
double take when they see
camels in the field. They also
have alpacas and llamas. They
initially got a camel, strangely
enough from Austria – which
Maria named Kevin! Their
daughter found more camels
for sale on eBay and so they
went south on their one and
only family holiday to pick them
up. The farmer even threw in
accommodation for free. When
they brought them back they
were amazed to find one was
pregnant and the subsequent
video went viral across the
world!
In 2012 they were runners up
in the farmers weekly awards
getting to the final three.They
took their neighbours - who

have been
amazingly
supportive across
the years - and also some
of their favourite suppliers
along to the presentation.
When I asked what future
plans they have, I was
somehow not surprised to
hear that they are planning a
two storey restaurant - as well
as extending the shop again
and even the farm. They are
building a significant future
for their children: Jack (18)
who has just graduated from
Myerscough College, Matthew
(13) and 15 year old, Rachael.
I’ve no doubt they will following
in their incredibly hard working
parents footsteps.
Mainsgill Farmshop and
Farm is a hugely inspirational
testament to pure hard work,
vision and that “Can Do”
approach.
This is a great stop off
whether you are travelling
north or south: an excellent
day out for the family, a superb
restaurant with the best in
home-grown and produced
food – and somewhere to buy
quality meat and provisions.
We wish them continuing
success and look forward to
reporting on the new plans in
due course.