Yorkshire
Did you know?
In Yorkshire and Humberside, 462 farmers supply us with meat, poultry and eggs, including 345 pig farmers.
Hedon Salads
Revolutionary new lighting is enabling Hedon Salads to produce British cucumbers for 10 months of the year - and generate electricity for neighbours near Hull.
Natural gas is piped into the nursery to power engines which make electricity to light the glasshouses, so cucumbers can be grown in Yorkshire from February to November.
Any surplus electricity is sold to the National Grid - while waste carbon dioxide is absorbed by the crop, which needs it to grow.
Says Hedon Salads' founder Tom Salmon, "Not only are we extending UK seasons, reducing the need for food imports, but we are achieving this with no detriment to the environment. Quite the opposite in fact."
Hedon's nursery at Burstwick last year supplied us with 15.5 million cucumbers. The company also supplies us with peppers and all of our aubergine (three million last year). Aubergine are grown in Yorkshire from March to November, hand picked and placed directly in our crates so they are touched just that once - until you pick one up to buy.
Pollybell Farms
We now sell organic produce, meat, bakery and dairy goods alongside conventional. Not only can we offer an even wider range, but also, we want to make shopping as easy as possible for you. We want all of the organic meat and milk we sell to be British and are working with suppliers to try to increase availability of British organic food.
Pollybell Farms supplies us with organic broccoli, cauliflower, and pointed cabbage.
Pollybell attributes its achievements to its farming methods which include leaving areas unmanaged. One particular section of land is allowed to flood at least six times each winter to attract wading birds. There is a permanent wet area for wildfowl and the farm's population includes fallow deer, hares, foxes and water voles.
Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs
Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs is a family business, established over 25 years ago that has pioneered the supply of locally produced Yorkshire free range eggs from its farm in the Vale of York. Family member, James Potter says: "Tesco was our first substantial customer. Their long term commitment has provided us with the volume and incentive to invest in bringing our farm to the very highest standards in terms of welfare, quality control and traceability. Every one of our eggs produced is traceable back to the exact flock and date it was laid on."
In addition, to their own high standards, their whole business is run under the strict guidance of the BEIC Lion Code, RSPCA Freedom Foods and BRC standards.
Despite this growth, their business still holds true to its original policy of only ever handling eggs that have come from genuine free range hens. This is what they mean when they say their whole operation is "dedicated" free range. There are not many others in Britain who can claim to be in the same league as them in this respect.