The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2016 - Issue 48 | Page 28

Manor Farm

From field to fish
and chip shop!
Chris Berry talks potatoes and other crops with
Andrew Smales at Burton Pidsea and Aldbrough
»»TWO MASSIVE GRIMME
Tectron potato harvesters
dominated the skyline when
I visited Andrew Smales
in Holderness during midOctober. And while he and
his father Jack’s overall
farming enterprise has grown
massively since Jack started
out at Waxholme on the
outskirts of Withernsea, it is
the potatoes that are currently
taking centre stage and are
well and truly in the shop
window.
Cereal crops still make up the
lion’s share of the arable land
with 1,100 acres of winter wheat
harvested this year, along with
100 acres of winter barley, 150

acres of vining peas, 500 acres
of oilseed rape and 30 acres
of spring barley. The father
and son business sees them
now own 2,500 acres with
plenty of additional land rented
where they grow even more
potatoes.
Only 180 acres of their overall
potato acreage, that now runs
to 750 acres and will extend
to 850 acres shortly, is on
their own land but potatoes
have become something of
a trademark crop for Andrew
and his team. They’re known
for the quality of their crop, for
whom they supply and also for
the care and attention to detail
that they put in. Andrew has

28 Oct/Nov 2016 www.farmers-mart.co.uk

also gone one step further with
potatoes this year by opening
up his own fish and chip shop/
restaurant The Frying Farmer
in Aldbrough that is already
earning a fine reputation!
“I’ve always fancied having
my own fish and chip shop. We
grow such a lot of spuds that
I’ve wanted to get closer to
the job, listening to customers
and finding out what they really
want. We bought the premises,
completely gutted them,
converted a house next door
into the restaurant area and
changed it all around. It took
eight months from starting on it
to getting it open in August and
trade is going really well.

“It’s nothing like the supply
we are on with McCain’s as we
forecast that we will only need
30 tonnes for the year he re and
another 30 for a fish and chip
shop we supply in Burstwick,
but it is a learning curve,” he
explained. “We’ve chosen the
variety Segeta for the shops
because it has a reputation for
being right for the trade and we
are marketing them under our
own brand name. The Segeta
keeps a nice golden colour when
frying and is great for chips. We
may also go into another variety
for the restaurant – a red-skinned
Manitou, which should be ideal
for those who want a baked
potato.
“We’re lifting the potatoes just
half a mile from the shop and
delivering them straight in - so if
that’s not fresh I don’t know what
is. We’ve put in a bagging plant
at Manor Farm in Burton Pidsea