News
Update to the statement below. There is a local community
group who wish to take on the farm and farm it in a regenerative way
which will include the current fruit and adding vegetables and animals
in time. They wish to re-open the farm shop and tearoom keeping
the current ethos. There is no timeline at present so please check back
in the new year for an update.
The
farm shop and Orchard Tearoom will permanently close on 30th
The
decision was taken three years ago as we have no descendants to pass the
business on to and the margins have been getting tighter meaning that the
various diversifications we have has kept the business going with enough to
live on but not to invest back into machinery and buildings, and there is only
so long this can go on for.
However a lot has happened in those three
years, climate change has become more noticeable with extremes of weather
making it very difficult (last year a lot of fruit was left on the trees as
unmarketable), getting workers to help with the harvesting has become
progressively more difficult (last year I brought in the entire harvest by
myself), footfall
has fallen dramatically since the pandemic and the change in working practice
during the pandemic has shown us that working for 6-7 days a week all year long
is no longer a lifestyle that we wish to pursue.
The cost of living crisis is the final straw
as the footfall has fallen further and the cost of electricity has tripled so
keeping the cold stores running has added thousands of pounds to the running
costs. This means that had the decision
not been made voluntarily three years ago it would have been forced upon us
this year anyway.
The entire English apple industry is currently
in the worst crisis seen for 50-60 years with many orchards being pulled out
all over the country, especially in
The
apples in the shop at the moment will be the last and we will finish with one
last season of PYO plums starting late July/early August.
The Ship Community Pub in the village have
plans to eventually open up a community shop and it is hoped that many popular
lines that we currently sell such as the bird food and Havensfield eggs etc. will
be sold there once we have closed.
The vast majority of customers that are still
with us are regulars – some being so for decades and we would like to extend
our heartfelt gratitude for your support over the years.