RAPESEED farmer Sam Fairs had been growing his crop for many years before he eyed a golden opportunity to maximise his return.
Eight years ago, the farmer, based at Heveningham, near Halesworth, decided there was more to this brash, yellow-flowered plant than as the hidden ingredient in one of our cooking mainstays - vegetable oil.
He took in the first of what has become a regular intake of gap-year students to look at the health properties of his crop and bought his first press to turn the small black seeds into a more refined product than mass-made cooking oils. By cold-pressing them, much more of the distinctive qualities of the oil, lost through other forms of processing, are preserved, he found. And he liked what he tasted - a subtle and versatile oil which could hold its own in anything from a salad dressing to a muffin. His wife, Clare, a talented cook, liked to experiment in the kitchen, substituting their rapeseed oil for butter as well as olive oil, so she found a long list of culinary uses for it which is ever-expanding.
Sam created Hillfarm Oils - now a very useful sideline to his 3,000 acre farm enterprise - bringing in an impressive 25% of overall turnover - eight years ago. He owns 100 acres of the 3,000 acres he farms, and the rest he either rents or contract farms.
The company makes and bottles rapeseed oil on the farm and more recently, has added mayonnaise products to its product range.
The enterprise employs six full and part-time staff, compared to just three for the entire agricultural side, so in a small village, it is already making an impact.
Other farmers began to realise they could be sitting on their own little goldmines and set up similar diversifications. And slowly, but surely, cold-pressed rapeseed oil oozed into the public consciousness.
But Sam and Clare felt more should be done to shout about this home-grown alternative to foreign imports such as olive oil.
They noted that even UK celebrity chefs were failing to take note that there was a tasty alternate at hand as they reached mechanically for their Mediterranean olive oil dispenser to garnish British dishes.
“We were the first in the UK nearly eight years ago now and we brought the Hillfarm Oils brand to the market and we just felt we just needed to do more,” explains Sam.
They decided they needed a national campaign - something which would feed into the debate about locally-sourced foods and would promote the health benefits of their oil versus the alternatives and persuade top chefs to think about using it.
With the help of Andrew Cook, a PR adviser, they managed to persuade five other producers to come and support the initiative so that they could promote it as a generic product. They wanted to show how, like olive oil, consumers could choose different ‘grades’ of the oil and that these had their own properties. With this in mind, they held an event at the top London restaurant the Ivy with top chefs, food writers and rapeseed oil producers to show off its many qualities.
The event included a panel chaired by BBC Masterchef’s Gregg Wallace, and including Sam, along with Dr Sarah Jarvis of The One Show and Daybreak, chef Adam Gray from Rhodes Twenty Four and Love British Food founder Alexia Robinson.
It was a great success, say the Fairs, who brought their children, Lottie 10, and Harry. The couple hope that it will be the start of a movement which will bring premium cold-pressed rapeseed oil into the mainstream consciousness.
“We want to get to the recipe makers and get to the chefs,” says Sam.
Rapeseed oil is already starting to make an appearance. Sam and Clare were thrilled when they noticed celebrity chef Jamie Oliver wielding a bottle they recognised as their own over a lamb dish recently, and they also know Raymond Blanc has used it.
But it has a bit of catching up to do: twenty-five years ago in the UK, they point out, olive oil was seen as a medicinal product to clean ears, and was a long way from being the universal product it is today.
“We have only had eight years. It’s introducing it to the chefs,” says Clare.
“This is what we are trying to get through to people. The whole point of going to the Ivy is to say this is an amazing product.”
She adds: “I don’t believe we could have done the Ivy event three years ago. I think slowly, slowly, and it’s happening now, people are looking out for cold pressed rapeseed oil. At the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival, the difference now: ‘Oh yes, I have got that in the cupboard.’
“It’s slowly changing but with the Ivy, and having a go at the chefs, it’s all hopefully working around different areas getting everyone to recognise cold pressed rapeseed oil.”
The British rapeseed oil industry is worth an estimated £5.9million and is said to the fastest growing sector in the culinary oil market. Buying British is one of the key messages producers want to get across, along with its value as a farm diversification.
There are also its properties as an oil. Premium British rapeseed oil contains 6% saturated fat, producers say, compared to 10% in sunflower oil and 14% in olive oil. It contains omega oils and vitamin A.
It is now a cooking oil of choice in a number of leading kitchens, including Rhodes Twenty Four, The Ivy, Morston Hall and Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons.
A Hillfarm Oils, which does all its own bottling and sells it by the catering container as well as in consumer-friendly bottles, Sam crushes nearly 300 tonnes of seeds a year to make his product. From these, he produces around 300 litres a tonne.
The business has not been immune from the effects of the economic downturn, however, and its margins are constantly under pressure.
“Our sales are growing,” says Sam, but adds: “Our turnover is moving slower than it used to.”
But the Fairs hope to change all that by leading the way nationally in putting their product on the culinary map.
“We have never been to the bank and borrowed any money. It’s always been: ‘Let’s take the next stage’ and it’s taken us eight years to be where we are now,” says Sam.
From one press, they now have four, and along with that, the ability to increase production to meet demand.
“We have got a good set-up now where we could turn the presses up and probably do twice as much. We are looking to do that,” he says.
“By being the first to do some was to put yourself out on a limb. We did it because we didn’t understand why the premium rapeseed oil was not being offered.”
Source www.eadt.co.uk/
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