An island to saviour

Jun 13 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

On Monday the Made in Northumberland project will be hosting a culinary bus tour that will be, quite literally, bursting with flavour. Jane Hall reports.

IT is asparagus time on Holy Island and green spears, as fresh as the sea breeze that whips across the salt marshes, mudflats and sand dunes that mark the approach to this tiny strip of land just off the extreme north east corner of England, are on the menu at one of Northumberland’s newest and most favourably located restaurants.

At the Barn at Beal where owner Rod Smith uses only locally-sourced produce, the asparagus comes served as a soup or in a variety of seasonal summer quiches. Food doesn’t come much fresher.

In fact, diners at this newly opened eaterie and visitor centre facing Holy Island can, if they so wish, see where the asparagus they are consuming was grown.

Just a few minutes’ drive across the paved causeway that links the mainland with Holy Island lies St Coombs Farm. It is here on 400 acres of sandy soil that everything from spring barley to soon-to-be-in season strawberries, peas, potatoes, cauliflowers, parsnips, beetroot, beans, sprouts, pumpkins and courgettes are grown.

For the past three years asparagus has been added to the growing repertoire of fruit and vegetables produced by father and son Danny and Richard Hodgson and business partners Robert and Janice Brigham.

Home grown food has always been important on Holy Island, with its ancient monastery and 16th century castle, which is cut-off from the mainland by the sea twice in every 24 hours.

A peaceful and tranquil place with quiet beaches and a unique natural history, it is easy to see why first the early Christians chose this spot to live and pray and now the island’s permanent population of around 160 is swelled by 650,000 tourists a year seeking their own slice of heaven.

Much of the crops grown by the Hodgsons and Brighams are consumed locally in the island’s hotels, pubs, homes, and nearby eateries, like the Barn at Beal, all delivered by eco-friendly bicycle.

Visitors can savour the flavour of Holy Island courtesy of two St Coombs Farm market stalls. Asparagus, usually in season until the end of June, although this is likely to be extended into July this year on the back of the cold spring, is a current favourite with day trippers.

But plans are now afoot to bring St Coombs’ offerings to a wider audience than those dodging the tides to reach Holy Island.

The Made in Northumberland Project (MiN), set up to showcase the county’s home grown food and cultural projects and producers, has organised a Lindisfarne strawberry and asparagus evening next Monday. The aim is to show local chefs, restaurateurs, hoteliers and other food and drink industry professionals, why they should be including asparagus and strawberries from the North East’s only off-shore beds on their menus.

Starting at the Barn at Beal which guards the landward approach to the Holy Island causeway, an old red double decker London bus will take guests on a tour to St Coombs Farm before returning to the mainland where MiN’s consultant chef, Richard Sim, will round the evening off with a cookery demonstration using the two key seasonal ingredients.

Recent research from Northumberland Tourism – which set up MiN last year with financial backing from One NorthEast and Northumberland Strategic Partnership – found visitors are increasingly looking for local, fresh and seasonal offerings on menus. But many voiced their disappointment with the food and drink being offered in England’s Border county.

But as MiN project manager Adam Ellis Jones says: “Northumberland makes and produces a vast array of goods, and our aim is to encourage more and more businesses to be serving and selling truly local products from their shelves and menus. The aim of this particular evening is to present to professionals in the industry two of the most wonderful seasonal products available and to give ideas and recipes for serving them to customers.”

Richard Sim adds: “Both asparagus and strawberries are extremely versatile, easy to prepare, easy to cook and full of flavour. What can be better than asparagus teamed with new season strawberries? A simple and delicious dish can be created with very few other ingredients. It’s what visitors are increasingly looking for.”

None of this is news to farmer Rod Smith at Barn at Beal, however. The 37-year-old has always known the importance of supporting the local economy, and made this his top priority when he finally realised his five-year vision earlier this year to open an eco-friendly visitor centre and restaurant in a former cart shed at his 1,000 acre farm overlooking Holy Island.

Piperfield pork from Lowick near Berwick, local beef, Holy Island fish and shellfish, sausages and homemade burgers from Carters of Bamburgh, honey from Chain Bridge Farm at nearby Horncliffe, and, of course, fruit and vegetables from St Coombs, are all on the menu. Other ingredients come from Rod’s own farm.

“There are so many places around about that don’t serve particularly good meals. I have three children, and I do complain that food is adequate but not great. I’m concerned with producing good food on the farm, and I want good food on the menu.

“As far as possible we are trying to keep everything seasonal and to stick to what is available at any given time of year. At the moment asparagus is in-season and we are serving it in soups and quiches.

“Our menu tells diners where all our food is from, and it sounds great to be able to say the asparagus is from Holy Island. Once you say where the food is from people can relate to it straightaway.”

Rod, who is married to Victoria, 36, and has three children William, six, Jessica, five, and Sophie, two, grows peas and broad beans which he sends to Eyemouth for freezing. “It is amazing how much support we have from locals,” Rod says. “We are slightly more expensive, but everything we are serving is fresh. Nothing comes from out of a packet. At 10am the scones we serve are still warm.

“People are prepared to pay a bit of a premium if they know it is quality, and we are now getting Richard Hodgson to grow more for us. We can certainly use them.”

This is music to Richard’s ears – as St Coombs Farm with its panoramic views north to Berwick and south over Bamburgh and the Farne Islands, is capable of producing much more fruit and vegetables than it currently does.

Former fisherman Robert Brigham inherited St Coombs – one of two farms on Holy Island – from his father in the 1980s. Danny Hodgson is a long-time friend and with son Richard runs the 350 acre Red Steads Farm near Alnwick.

The Brighams and Hodgsons decided to go into partnership, and over the years have built up the pesticide free fruit and vegetable side of the business. They tend 40,000 strawberry plants alone, and five years ago decided to become one of the few asparagus growers in the North East.

It takes two years after the initial planting for asparagus to crop. Sales after just three years are going well, but there is always room for improvement.

Richard, wife Suzanne, both 42, and daughter Olivia, seven, are all keen advocates of local produce, eating their own home reared lamb, beef from Rugley Meats near Alnwick, and, of course, plenty of St Coombs grown vegetables and fruit.

“We are trying to support local producers, and it is nice to think local people are supporting us. While we have been supplying and selling what we grow without any problems, it would be good to meet new people who want us to supply them.

“We have plenty of land to extend into at St Coombs Farm. Robert grew strawberries in the late 1980s but didn’t push it. It is good land on Holy Island, however, and there is much more we can be doing.

“Asparagus gives us an early start to the season with a premium product that nobody else is growing around here. We want to target more pubs and restaurants, and thankfully they seem to be coming around to the view that vegetables are now an important part of a meal and shouldn’t just be treated as an afterthought.

“I know Rod at the Barn at Beal through rugby and he is very much into sourcing local produce, which we are thrilled about. But we can supply everybody. Our message is use us, we are here.“

Anyone from the trade interested in attending Monday’s Lindisfarne asparagus and strawberry evening which starts at 5pm at Barn at Beal, should contact helen.spark@northumberland tourism.co.uk or call (01670) 794520.