Seven students from Nigeria, South Sudan, Nepal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe spent a day in Northamptonshire earlier this month, as the Marshal Papworth Fund hosted its annual ‘Welcome Visit’ for its latest Masters scholars at Mee Blueberries and Willow Brook Farm Shop, Traditional Butchers & Tea Room.
The students have just embarked upon year-long MSc courses at Bangor University, Aberystwyth University, the Royal Agricultural University, the University of Reading, and Harper Adams University, where they are studying a range of horticultural and agricultural courses, funded by agricultural development charity, the Marshal Papworth Fund, which is managed by the East of England Agricultural Society.
Sandra Lauridsen, Marshal Papworth Fund coordinator, said: “This welcome visit for our Masters scholars is vital to help cement working relationships between our alumni, which will lead to the best possible outcomes once they return to their home countries. We are so grateful to the teams at Mee Blueberries and Willow Brook Farm for giving up their time and experience towards our vision of helping more communities in ‘growing out of hunger’.”
Mee Blueberries, at Nassington, near Oundle – a 700-acre farm run by Peter and Zoe Mee, with their children Charlie and Emily, and daughter-in-law Charlotte. A diversification business that was recognised as the 2022 British Farming Awards as Family Farming Business of the Year and has recently been named the Great Food Club Producer of the Year. In 2014, Peter and Zoe knew that for the business to be able to support the next generation, it had to diversify. The solution they came up with was blueberries, planting 15 hectares under polytunnels and later installing a brand-new blueberry processing facility in 2019, with the freshly picked fruit now found on the shelves of leading supermarkets. Recent adaptations have seen the family freeze any fruit which would not last the fresh fruit shelf life at the time of picking, to make a range of artisan products that they sell direct to customers online, including sparkling blueberry wine!
Emily Mee said: “This was the most impactful tour I have ever done, and I am incredibly inspired by your students. It is so refreshing to meet people with so much passion for the industry. We have never had people ask so many questions and understand the process as well as your group and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you very much for asking us to be a part of their time here as it has had an extremely positive impact for us as well as them!”
The group then headed to Willow Brook Farm Shop, a family business that has farmed here since 1938, where following a traditional Christmas lunch, Robin Morton, – guided the students through what it has taken to develop their successful business. The crops they grow are winter wheat, winter and spring barley, winter oil seed rape, winter oats, sugar beet and land rented out for potatoes. Their wheat goes to Weetabix, oats to Morning food which supplies Quaker. The cattle are beef cattle ranging from 8 months to 20 months, they have to leave the holding by 30 months, and this was brought into force after mad cow disease. The beef goes into the shop, they source local pork, turkeys for Christmas, and eggs from Stamford eggs within a few miles. Suppliers are locally sourced but usually within 50 miles. They have occasional evening classes but more so mini event days showing pork pie making, sausage making, the pork pies being hand created which is rare now.
Exploring opportunities to better market their communities’ produce is one of the ways that Marshal Papworth scholars will improve food security when they return to Africa, so the direct-to-customer approach of the Morton family was of great interest to the scholars. Second generation farmer, Robin, said: “For us opening a farm shop in 2003, selling direct to our customers, rather than to the supermarkets, not only was it practical, but it made a real connection between what was being produced and what was being sold. Provenance has always been extremely important to us and this was a way of showing it. We still use feed grown from the farm to feed our cattle – supplying top quality meat to this day, that vision has never changed giving huge choice to our customers and spreading the risk for us too.”
“We have taken risks over the years when there weren’t a lot of farmers doing what we have, adding a Tea room in 2009 to add that ‘destination experience’ opportunity for our customers. We have to work really hard to show people that we do actually farm ourselves – the farm is directly behind the shop and not immediately obvious in this small village outside Peterborough – but we are still really passionate about growing our own produce and doing what the supermarkets don’t do, and sharing that message with our loyal customers.”
Christopher Mlambo, studying an MSc Animal Science at Aberystwyth University, and from Zimbabwe, led the thanks for the day’s experience: “We are truly grateful to hear and see such inspiring stories at both businesses today, all facilitated by the Marshal Papworth Fund and East of England Agricultural Society. This has been a wonderful experience so far, and I know I speak for all of us when I say we are already looking forward to going home and implementing what we have learnt.”
The Marshal Papworth Fund, an agricultural development charity that provides life changing scholarships for students from developing counties at leading UK agricultural and horticultural universities and colleges, has this year celebrated the arrival of its 261st student – a landmark milestone for a charity that initially aspired to provide scholarships for just a handful of farmers 23 years ago.
To find out more about supporting the Marshal Papworth Fund, please contact Sandra Lauridsen on 01733 961024 or email slauridsen@eastofengland.org.uk for more information. You can also visit our new website at www.marshalpapworth.com
