Lucky Jim (Jimmy's Farm (Wherestead))

Member Name: snowbunni

Product:	Jimmy's Farm (Wherestead)
Date:	28/03/06 (12861 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cute Pigs, Fresh Produce, Attractive Setting... and Jimmy Himself!

Disadvantages: A Little Over - Crowded On Weekends

It may have been a demoralising, grey-skied Sunday afternoon, but in one small corner of rural Suffolk, the day-trippers were out in force. A laneway, fringed with hedgerow, meandered down through a couple of wintry fields, and passed a small pocket of untidy forest. A few small pigs foraged amidst the bracken. Finally, the lane concluded on a large field, which served as a sort of impromptu car park. There are dozens of Farm Shops in Suffolk, but few of them have car parks on this scale. This, however, is no ordinary Farm Shop. It may be a smallholding, but it's becoming big business.


THE PIG FARMER: The fortunes of the 'Essex Pig Company' have grown exponentially since 2004, when Jimmy Doherty, its photogenic proprietor, began to feature in his own series on BBC2. It will perhaps come as little surprise to learn that Jimmy is an old chum of Jamie Oliver, and he certainly appears to share many of Oliver's interests. (He has even published his own cookery book recently.) In the BBC production, Jimmy is affectionately presented as a sort of bumbling, over-grown schoolboy, darting confusedly from one hair-brained little scheme to the next. He is seen rescuing featherless battery-hens, and re-housing them on his farm in modified caravans. He acquires a rare Essex pig from a Kent prison and rehabilitates it to the point of glory, with the pig earning himself a garland at a country show. He plants vegetables without defending them against a sizeable rabbit population, and adds an array of unsuitable poultry to a menagerie that, thanks to the local foxes, steadily diminishes. As to the Farm itself, it is presented as a sort of romantically isolated, rural idyll, set in the wilds of Suffolk…

In truth, Jimmy's Farm is located right at the fringes of Ipswich, near a small village called Wherstead, just a short distance from the A14. When you reach the farm, it is the sound of the motorway that can first be heard humming gently in the distance, rather than the twittering of forest birds, and the tiled roofs of a distant housing estate can be spotted on the horizon. As to the Farm itself, one can only conclude that the picturesque, storybook quality evident in the BBC programme owes more than a little to the cinematographic skills of those involved in its production.



FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Upon arrival, there is a slightly desolate sense about the farm, with its untidy fields and dilapidated outbuildings. I've visited the farm on several occasions over the past couple of years, both in summer and in winter, and with respect to the buildings, little appears to have changed. The old farmhouse is a promising shape, but is clearly uninhabited, with windows merely for effect, clumsily painted onto wooden boards. There are a couple of disused sheds, and some small but unsightly mounds of scattered refuse and timber line the edge of the car park. Errant chickens dart amongst the cars. Whilst much of this is undoubtedly par for the course for a working farm, and issues with council planning permission have clearly stymied some of Jimmy's proposed improvements, a little more could probably be done to tidy this area up, and improve upon first impressions.


THE FARM SHOP: Housed in an old, converted shed, the Farm Shop represents Jimmy's main business on site, and is the first thing you encounter upon leaving the car park. Outside, there is a large stand displaying fresh vegetables, some of which are produced on the farm. On our visit last weekend, a rather charming collection of birdfeeders and birdhouses were assembled for sale across the outside wall. These, a hand-written sign announced, were built by 'Dolly' the Farm's very own Doolittle-esque bird expert and mascot, and a genuine star in the television series. They cost £15 each and proceeds go towards feeding the wild birds in Jimmy's forest.

Inside, the Farm Shop houses both a butcher and a sort of deli area, selling local and regional produce. On the weekends, there is a good deal of polite jostling, as locals secure their eggs and bacon, whilst confused tourists scrutinise the merchandise, hunting for souvenirs. The produce on sale is mostly excellent, but somewhat expensive, and they are clearly constrained by the size of their premises. The on-site butcher has a very good selection of freshly prepared pork products. The more popular items sell out quickly on the weekends, however. There are several types of bacon sold, including the 'Old Colchester Forest Bacon', cured with forest herbs, and inspired by an ancient Roman recipe. The scarcity and delectability of this is reflected in its price, at £4.44 for a packet containing 6 neat and lean rashers. The butcher also creates about a dozen varieties of sausage, such as the 'Suffolk Beer Pork', the 'Suffolk Farmhouse Pork', the 'Norwich Red Pork', and the perennially popular chipolatas, as well as a variety of other meat products, mainly pork-based.

There are some attractively speckled, free-range eggs arranged in cardboard cartons, although the majority of these certainly weren't laid by any of Jimmy's cheerfully underproductive hens. The remainder of the merchandise consists primarily of Farm Shop staples, such as pickles, cheeses, hand-cooked crisps, smoked fish and quiches.



THE BARN: Immediately behind the farm shop, there is a tall and attractive old wooden barn, with a couple of stalls to the side. On the weekends in winter, they barbeque sausages inside the barn, which can be bought in a fresh roll for £2.50. When we visited on the weekend, there was also a stall set up with a woodturning display, and a local was selling his hand-turned wooden bowls and implements. In the stall, a great fat sow malingered on a bed of hay, encircled by a delightful litter of pink and black striped, Essex piglets.


THE NATURE WALK: Jimmy's 'Animal Paddock and Woodland Trail' is located directly opposite the Barn. The Animal Paddock is much as its name suggests, being a fairly essentially a large field with animals, concluding in a small pond. Various birds, include a peacock, are housed in a fenced-off pen to the one side, and a number of other animals, mainly rabbits and specialty hens, are displayed in small hutches, dispersed across the field. Small bags of feed can be purchased for 20p, so that children can feed the various animals as they walk around. My little boy adores the animal paddock, especially the sheep and Free Range chickens, and it has arguably become the Farm's most popular attraction. Formerly, the animals were displayed in small pens outside the barn in an untidy and rather chaotic fashion, with geese, ducks and chickens frequently escaping, nipping at fingers, attempting to steal unguarded sausages, and generally making a nuisance of themselves, so the completion of the Animal Paddock is a great improvement. At the bottom of the meadow are three large ponds fed by a stream, one for the ducks, one for fish and another set up for pond dipping. A number of plump and rather satisfied looking ducks swim about on the largest of these ponds. The trail continues over a small bridge and leads up into the woodland, passing beside the areas inhabited by Jimmy's pigs. In the spring, the forest floor is blanketed with a sea of bluebells, and in summer, the sunlight is dappled through the overhanging trees. Handwritten signs along the trail point out features of the wood and information about the native wildlife that inhabits it.


THE FARMER'S MARKET: Held on the first Saturday of the month, the Farmer's Market is always enormously popular, attracting visitors from far and wide. It is, in many respects, simply an extension of the Farm Shop, with many of the producers whose goods are sold within the farm shop throughout the year hosting their own stalls. These include the Two Fish Wives from London, who sell specialty, homemade products such as fish cakes, producers of Organic and English wines, locally grown fruit, homemade cakes, and an array other products. Were it not for the exhausting crowds, I would recommend this Farmer's Market very highly.


FINALLY: There's a rather touching idealism about Jimmy's farm and the associated projects, his desire to re-invigorate endangered pig populations, and his undoubted enthusiasm for the Countryside. We live just a few minutes drive from the Farm, and when my friends visit from London, their ears invariably prick up at the mention of it. Furthermore, they are rarely disappointed when we visit, although I suspect this is largely because Jimmy himself is generally to be sighted, looking handsome, and marching about with a sheepdog in tow. Whilst there is still a lot to be done if those hordes of visitors are to be satisfactorily accommodated, Jimmy has made great progress over the past couple of years, and his small farm for rare pigs really is beginning to come together.


GETTING THERE: If travelling from London, exit the M25 at Junction 28, then proceed towards Colchester/Ipswich. Continue along the A12 until the Copdock Exchange with the A14. Exit the A14 at the first exit (Junction 56). At top of slip road turn right at the roundabout towards Brantham/Manningtree. Proceed straight across the next roundabout. After approx 1/3 mile the turning to the farm shop is on the right (signposted).

The Nature Trail costs £2.50 for adults and £1.00 for children.

It's worth mentioning that if you can't make it to Jimmy's Farm shop, his full range of meat products are also available online, via his website. Orders are dispatched once a week, on Wednesday, arriving throughout the UK the following day. The meat is 'securely packed and delivered inside reusable insulated ice packed boxes to ensure maximum freshness'.

Jimmy Doherty's Books,'A Taste Of The Country' (published by Penguin) and 'On The Farm' (published by Ebury Press) are available from approximately £10.00 on Amazon marketplace.

http://www.essexpigcompany.com

Summary: A Famous Little Farm Shop In The Suffolk Countryside