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Carol Trewin finds a delivery service with old-fashioned values17/10/2007 13:30
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ON WEDNESDAY and Friday afternoons a small green van can be found in business parks in Plymouth or Exeter, selling meat to enthusiastic customers who know exactly what they are getting. They have been e-mailed beforehand and have placed their orders for succulent Saddleback pork, tender Devon beef or wonderfully flavoured, heather-fed lamb raised on Dartmoor.
This is Tor to Tor, delivering “the very best selection of meat from Dartmoor to your door”. In someways this is nothing new or revolutionary, simply a reversion to 40 or so years ago when a weekly delivery from the butcher, baker and fishman was nothing out of the ordinary. In those days, deliverieswere to private homes. In 2007, this unique delivery service also includes the workplace.
As we become cash rich, time poor, often working in the barren wastes of urban business parks, with no facilities or shops to provide essential services, businesses like Tor to Tor are the answer to an urban foodie’s prayer.
The original idea came from Sebastian Hughes after he and his wife Philippa had taken over and restored Holwell Farm in the heart of Dartmoor. Their free-range Saddleback pigs had produced a glut of young pigs and there was a pressing question of what to do with them.
“There was no point having animals just as ornaments, or tomake a loss on them,” he explained. “It was clear to me that unless we help ourselves no one else is going to help us. By working in a joint venturewith other local farmers we could achieve much more than just by doing it on our own.”
He added that it was really down to Philippa’s hard work that the business took off.
“We wanted to restrict the round to just Dartmoor and thought all the weekenders would buy from us,” she said. “We found that small drops to small dispersed hamlets weren’t enough so we looked then at areas with concentrations of people, and came up with Plymouth and Exeter.”
Some of the places Tor to Tor can be found include the Tamar Science Park in Plymouth and near Devon County Council’s headquarters in Exeter, or the monthly village market at Widecombe-in-the-Moor. It will be seen at local point-to-points, shows and countryside events. Local deliveries continue on a couple of days each week. The delivery service started in November 2005, working with three other Dartmoor farmers to provide a range of meat products.
Russell Ashford at Scorriton farms organic lamb, Lloyd Mortimore at Widecombe produces South Devon or Aberdeen Angus cross beef, while turkeys, in season, come from Frenchbeer Farm, a typical Dartmoor hill farm in the north east of the moor. Eggs are from Holwell, chickens from Tiverton.
“There’s no one doing chicken on the moor, it’s a real gap in themarket,” Philippa added. “But we have to sell chicken because that’s what people expect.”
All the cattle, pigs and sheep are sent to the nearest slaughterhouse, just a few miles away in Ashburton. In mid 2006, a purpose-built butchery was installed on the farm providing Tor to Tor with its own cutting room and chillers – for hanging and maturing the meat. Tor to Tor’s butcher, Derek Fowler, is constantly looking for new ways of adding a different dimension to the product range. He cures bacon and gammons, silverside and brisket, and makes sausages, burgers and faggots.
“Having our own butcher means that we can compete with the catering butchers,” Philippa said. “A year ago, hotels and pubs were not interested, claiming that local meat would be too expensive. Now they can see the benefit from themarketing perspective.”
Not surprisingly, the Hughes’ Holne Chase Hotel is one of growing number of local pubs and hotels supplied by Tor to Tor.
Customers are attracted by the fact that the meat comes from old-fashioned native breeds, is raised slowly in a traditionalway, is properly hung for between seven and 28 days, and can be butchered to their exact requirements.
“People are willing to buy because of where it’s from, how it has been reared, but it has to be priced right and taste right,” Philippa explained. “They often mention the marbling in the meat and the depth of flavour.
“One of our aims is to see a higher percentage of produce reared, grown or made on Dartmoor, consumed within the locality,” Philippa said. “Currently, under 20 per cent of the meat reared on Dartmoor is consumed within a 50km radius.”
Contact Point
FOR more information about the nearest delivery call 07976 535078. Unlike many mail order meat businesses all the meat is sold fresh, not frozen, allowing customers the option of freezing it themselves. Tor to Tor also offers a mail order service – for example aMixed Dartmoor meat box would contain 10kg of beef, lamb, pork, sausages, bacon, chicken and game when in season. Customers can call at the farm on selected days of the week, but it is advisable to telephone beforehand.
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