Field to Fork
Each year we enjoy 255 million fish and chip shop meals, and over half a billion meals containing homemade chips*. So it is no surprise that nearly 3,000 growers are working hard throughout the year to provide all the potatoes needed for us all to enjoy chips.
Here are just a few of the growers who will be helping us all to ‘Love Chips’ this National Chip Week:
Robin Cropper
J Cropper and Sons, Ormskirk, Lancashire
Brothers John and Robin Cropper have been working in the potato industry since they joined their father on the farm at a young age. The Cropper family have grown and sold their produce, including potatoes, from Moss End Farm, Lancashire for the past seven generations and now mainly supply local chip shops in Liverpool.
A significant amount of their 520 hectares of farm land is used to grow Maris Piper potatoes, but wheat, barley and oats are also grown there. In total they grow around 6000 tonnes of potatoes a year, most of which are consumed within a 30 mile radius - something that they are extremely proud of.
Philip Burns
C. Rayner Ltd, Great Wakering, Essex
Philip Burns is the farm manager for C. Rayner Ltd at Oldbury Farm, where they grow and sell potatoes to chip shops and supermarkets around Essex.
The potato varieties Maris Piper, Desiree, Estima and Harmony are grown on 128 acres at Oldbury Farm. Philip finds great satisfaction in seeing a good quality crop being harvested. With a successful harvest the farm can supply 40 tonnes of chipping potatoes to chip shops each week, enough to produce 50,000 portions of chips!
George Lambert
Denholm Potato Growers, Musselburgh
George Lambert has been a farm manager for Denholm Potato Growers in Musselburgh for 27 years. The main variety of potato grown in their fields is Premier, which is then distributed to chip shops around Edinburgh. Estima potatoes are also grown and these are sold pre-packed to local supermarkets.
Planting, which runs through March and April, is the part of the job that George enjoys most. He’s the first to admit though that it can be a hard time of year to work, especially if there is a lot of rain. But as George says: “I feel my hard work has been paid off when I get a good harvest and see our produce in local Scottish chippies and shops.”
B Clarke and Sons
Froghall Farm, Huntingdon
Barry Clarke is unique in the fact that he not only grows potatoes but owns two chip shops too! Along with his two sons Darryl, 38, and Jared, 34, they work hard to run their family business B Clarke and Sons. Barry who has worked in the farming industry since he was 16, following in his father’s footsteps, has worked hard to secure a good future for his sons.
Froghall Farm in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire is set over 100 hectares and Barry, along with eldest son Darryl, grow not just potatoes but also sugar beat and wheat.
Barry and his wife Veronica decided to buy two small fish and chip shops, Birdeys in Stanford and the Little Friar in March, and give their youngest Jared the responsibility to run them.
The potato variety which is primarily grown on the farm is Maris Piper, which provides the two shops with enough chipping potatoes to last from Christmas to mid July. Nothing beats the knowledge that their potatoes are being sold and eaten in the community. As Barry says: "It's such a satisfying job seeing the whole process, from growing the potatoes to watching them being enjoyed as chip suppers in the shops."
To download more information on these growers, Click Here.
* TNS, July 2007
