Eversfield Organic 2022 Round Up and New Years Resolutions
As we take those last few steps to the summit of 2022, here at Eversfield Organic, we’ve been reflecting on another year centred around family, community and nature.
It has been a hectic but rewarding year on the farm, in our farm shops and at our organic restaurants and we thought we’d pause and look back on some of the highlights.
January - March
The year began with our decision to part ways with Abel & Cole as we looked to focus exclusively on supplying our meat to our own customers through our online store, Southwest farm shops, and our butchery counter at Selfridges Food Hall, London. We marked the occasion by introducing our ready-to-cook collection, including herby stuffed lamb saddle and our divine chicken, bacon and cheese parcels.
Some new faces were introduced to our farm’s market garden, with a number of female quails entering the watchful stewardship of our head market gardener, Kelvin. After a rocky start, our little ladies adapted well to their new surroundings and began producing enough eggs to stock a few boxes in our farm shops. These speckled beauties became the first organic quail eggs in the UK, always blazing the trail!
Image: One of our Market Garden inhabitants.
April - June
Kelvin and the market garden team certainly kept themselves busy this year, installing another handmade greenhouse, thus boosting the productivity of a number of our heritage and heirloom vegetable varieties. We also introduced a host of organic salad bags which became available to purchase through our online store and in our farm shops.
May brought the launch of a food-to-go counter in our Marlborough farm shop, purveying a variety of freshly baked pasties, sausage rolls, pizza slices, sandwiches, paninis and sweet treats utilising seasonal organic produce from our farm. We’d clearly found our foodie side, with lots of unique new recipes being added to our online recipe hub thanks to our developmental chef, Dan.
Image: Our Marlborough Farm Shop's Food To Go Counter
July - September
Our website has been evolving consistently throughout the year and we’d like to extend our gratitude to our loyal customers for their patience after a few early teething errors! We now have a system that is operating more efficiently than ever, so shout out to our web developer, Ben.
Our ambitions of releasing a home farm kitchen range inspired by Eversfield’s authentic beginnings became a reality, with a chunky chilli con carne and a beef rendang curry the inaugural dishes in our ever-expanding range. Keep your eyes peeled as we look to add more in the coming year.
We celebrated organic September both on social media and in our farm shops. Raising awareness of the benefits that an organic diet can have on your health, the environment and the lives of local, artisan producers. Our organic September got even better as we were crowned ‘Best Online Retailer’ at the Food Drink Devon awards, as well as our Dartmoor Inn scooping a Gold Award in the Hospitality category and our Totnes Farm Shop getting the same in the Retailer category.
October - December
October saw the opening of our fish counter at the Selfridges Food Hall, London, as part of their Project Ocean initiative to provide access to ethically caught wild fish. This adds to our current residency at their butchery counter, which champions sustainable grass-fed organic meat in line with the goals of their Project Earth campaign.
Another new venture surfaced in the form of the Ring Of Bells restaurant, bar and rooms at North Bovey. The well-loved historic pub presents a wonderful opportunity to extend our organic message to another beautiful local community and we can’t wait for our customers to experience what we have to offer when we open our doors in January! Be sure to sign up now for updates.
Image: Our new organic restaurant! (Photography by Mike Rego).
We made a conscious effort to bring our suppliers and our customers closer together through our ‘Meet Our Suppliers’ blog series. Maintaining the transparency of our supply chain and celebrating the mastery of our producers has always been of utmost importance to us.
Mark was nominated for both ‘Sustainability Champion’ and ‘Beef Farmer of the Year’ at the South West Farmer Awards. For the second consecutive year, he collected the latter title!
In what was a hectic and unpredictable Christmas period, we faced some frustrating setbacks due to delivery issues. However, all staff clubbed together tirelessly and ensured each parcel was dispatched without a hitch on our end. We are currently reviewing our Christmas operation and are exploring options to collaborate with different couriers as we look to streamline the process completely. Last but certainly not least, a big thank you to all of our poultry suppliers who were committed to protecting our turkeys, geese, and ducks from bird flu, allowing us to fulfil each customer request.
New Years Resolutions
The New Year can be seen as an opportunity for a fresh start, or even just to develop a positive new lifestyle habit. Here are a few simple suggestions that we think will help make your 2023 the best year possible.
1. Regenuary
More of a short-term 'challenge' if you will, but the Regenuary movement proves that you can reduce your environmental impact and still eat your favourite meat-based products by supporting food production and farmers who practice regenerative techniques.
Find out more about Regenuary in our upcoming Newsbeet blog!
2. Support Local
Not only are you reducing your carbon footprint through zero air miles, you are also directly contributing to building a stronger local economy and thus a stronger local community. What's not to like?
3. Eat Organic
We know that we can sound like a broken record, but switching to an organic diet is better for all involved. You're benefiting the environment, nature, and most importantly your own health.