Future looks bright for Fodder

A FLAGSHIP food shop and café championed by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society is celebrating its first year of trading, having injected more than £1.9m into the region’s economy.

Harrogate-based Fodder has become the shop window for Yorkshire’s farmers and producers, giving a crucial local market for their produce.

The shop is Britain’s first charitable food hall with all profits re-invested to benefit the rural community.

Fodder’s local sourcing policy has supported more than 185 local farmers, producers and emerging businesses.

Managing director Heather Parry said: “Fodder has quickly established itself as a mecca of local produce, 85% of what we sell is reared, grown or made in Yorkshire. The economic upside of supporting local producers is the benefit to the rural economy.

“Money spent locally works a lot harder for the community and the profit from money spent at Fodder is directly re-invested in the charitable activities of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.”

Charlotte Shaw runs a business that has blossomed since Fodder’s opening.

Shaw turned her great-great grandmother’s century-old recipe for Yorkshire Parkin into a thriving small enterprise, selling her oat and treacle cake at Fodder.

She said: “Fodder has been a brilliant support to us by arranging store tastings, and using our parkin in their café. Parkin is such an iconic Yorkshire speciality but lots of people aren’t familiar with it beyond bonfire night.

“It’s great to have a shop window to showcase, educate, celebrate and retail local produce. Fodder certainly has really helped to put us on the map.”

Ruth Russell farms a herd of 90 longhorn cattle near Duggleby, East Yorkshire and is one of the farmers who supplies Fodder with meat.

Longhorn cattle are a native English breed that fell from favour, as supermarkets demanded larger animals, quickly fattened for a swift return.

There has been a renaissance in the Longhorn cattle breed, with a resurgence of retailers like Fodder looking to provide high quality produce with a difference.

Ms Russell said: “Supplying Fodder is a great fit to what we’re trying to achieve on the farm; sustainable agricultural practices are at the core of our enterprise. Fodder genuinely cares about how the food they sell is reared.”

Miss Parry added: “Sustainable and local retailing can be a powerful economic force in supporting the rural economy. Yorkshire is said to be the pantry of England, people just don’t know what’s on their doorstep. Fodder wants to change how we shop, cook and eat.”