Huge congratulations on winning the Food and Drink Retailer award at the Norfolk magazine Food and Drink Awards. How did it feel to hear your name read out on the night and what does the award mean to you?
To hear our name read out at the awards was a fantastic feeling and seemed to be a great reward for our teams efforts during the development of Algy's farm shop.
Your family has farmed at Manor Farm at Bintree for three generations - please tell us about the farm's history...
My grandfather took over the tenancy of Manor Farm in the 1930s, during the agricultural depression. During the Second World War he was in charge of the local Home Guard and farmed large areas of parkland for the war effort.
My father took over the farm when he was young - aged 19 - when his father died suddenly. My father has been a passionate farmer all of his life, developing the business through many changes, varying from growing arable crops, delivering vegetables to London markets on a daily basis, producing turkeys, running a dairy herd and a beef herd.
When and why did you decide to create a farm shop? What did you sell when you started it - and how has that range grown and diversified over the years?
My father was a pioneering sweetcorn grower, which resulted in the beginning of road side selling and a small farm shop. This closed when the supermarkets took over food supply to the masses.
I restarted the farm shop when I grew some sunflowers and created Bintree Bird Seeds in 2005.
We have developed into Algy's Farm Shop, growing our own Christmas trees, asparagus and pumpkins as well as stocking an amazing variety of fantastic locally grown and produced products.
We have developed a wonderful relationship with a small family business, Fresh Approach, from Aylsham who grow an amazing range of vegetables on our farm - from lettuce to leeks, sweetcorn to sprouts, cabbages to cauliflowers, ensuring zero food miles and amazing freshness.
And please tell us about how you created your own popcorn...
I started growing popcorn on our farm, however after six years of the classic trials and tribulations we realised we couldn’t grow popcorn on the farm successfully. We now cook our popcorn on Algy's Farm using British sugar and locally grown rapeseed oil and European popcorn grains.
Halloween pumpkin picking is now a major event at Algy's Farm. It's a wonderful opportunity to experience the pleasure of getting muddy and hunting for our wonderful home-grown pumpkins and squashes.
During lockdown we started cooking wood fired pizzas and have continued cooking pizzas on Friday nights. We now have a mobile pizza trailer and have started catering for local food festivals and weddings.
You stock an amazing array of Norfolk produce - please tell us about the range.
We love stocking local products for our valued customers. I always remember when I was trying to launch Bintree Bird Seeds how daunting it was to approach a potential stockist, so I’m particularly supportive to new suppliers. We were the first stockists of Candi s Chutney and Bray's Cottage Pork Pies.
We are now building a new farm shop with a cafe, which will open in spring 2025.
Christmas is a special - and busy - and busy time at Algy's. What will you have on offer this month?
Christmas time is a highlight of the year at Algy's Farm Shop. We have fantastic winter veg grown on our farm by Fresh Approach, turkeys from Godwick Hall, huge chickens from Martin's Farm and veg boxes to order and, of course, pick your own home-grown Christmas trees and locally fresh cut trees.
We even have Foulsham mistletoe, to make sure that your Christmas is special.
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