Local Heroes - Goldy's Farm Shop

Above: Jenny Goldsack

Above: Pat Welham (l) and Rachel Jones busy in the kitchen

Bread has long been an essential of life. These days some supermarket bread travels vast distances, the wheat often having originated in Canada!

At Bere Farm, organic wheat and rye are grown in the fields, the grain is milled on site and wholemeal flour goes directly to the bakery on the other side of the yard. Another 30 yards and the loaves are on the shelves of Goldy’s Farm Shop – within sight of the wheat fields. Zero food miles – what an achievement – and amazing fresh bread like it used to taste. They even have their own strain of yeast, and the bread ferments overnight.

Food enthusiast Jenny Goldsack runs one of Dorset’s top farm shops, near Lytchett Matravers, just off the A35, five miles west of Poole. A bright and airy temple to natural and organic food, Goldy’s has already won four awards. Chief among them is the national accolade of Environmental Farm Retailer of 2008, marked by a neat wooden owl from the National Farmers’ Retail & Markets Association. The in-house bakery reached the final in its own class. For the second year running, Goldy’s won the Countryside Alliance title of Wessex Best Rural Retailer. In 2007, they were highly commended in the UK finals, in the top two of 2,500 rural retailers, presented at the House of Lords.

Born at Edgbaston, a Birmingham suburb, Jenny Goldsack read agriculture and agricultural botany at Bangor University in North Wales, before working with a number of farming co-operatives and the Milk Marketing Board. She came to Dorset in January 1984 and ran East Holme Farm, near Wareham, with ex-husband Stephen.

‘By the late 1990s, dairy farming was becoming unsustainable,’ Jenny explains, ‘and we needed to do something else, so started bed and breakfast.’ Guests much enjoyed Jenny’s super evening meals, with vegetables direct from the farm. This led to her making a range of ready meals, sold at the gate. ‘I needed more selling space, so in March 2000 I opened my first farm shop at West Holme.’ That became so successful that even more space was required, so Jenny bought the disused Bere Farm, converting it into a modern retail outlet.

Jenny called in refrigeration expert Harry Banham from Bournemouth to install some highly innovative machinery. Heat from running the fridges is turned into hot water, which is pumped underground into the polytunnels outside. Wind turbines above the shop drive the sulphur plasma-growing lights, and Harry is about to install solar panels to heat the soil. Even the orange shopping trolleys are made from recycled plastic bottles.

Opening in June 2007, the high chapel-like glass roof and bright displays are popular with shoppers. Rarely have I seen so much organic produce concentrated in one place. Will and Pam Best’s creamy Manor Farm milk from Godmanstone is much favoured, as are the flavoursome Purbeck ice creams, from nearby Kingston, include interesting flavours like champagne and strawberry, and real chocolate and luscious clotted cream. Goldy’s sells lamb from Mary and John Pengelly at Abbotsbury, and pork from Clive Bower at Sturminster Newton. English longhorn beef grazes on the meadows around the shop! Fresh fish comes from Samways at Bridport, and potatoes and sweet corn are grown on the farm.

In their smart, yellow tops, Goldy’s friendly staff are enthusiastic about their products. Riz Gibbs-Atkins looks after the cheeses, which are traditionally laid on straw, selling treats like Cheddar smoked at Hurn, super Godminster Vintage and Windswept Cow from lonely Worth Matravers – one of the best new cheeses made in Dorset today. And an unusual find is French Bettine Blanc goat’s cheese. For the thirsty, one wall of the shop is lined with bottles including Badgers Tanglefoot from Blandford, and Ringwood Old Thumper.

In the busy kitchen, talented chefs Pat Welham and Rachel Jones make a growing range of pies and ready meals. I enjoyed their tasty hand-raised pork pie with its spicy meat core, while the succulent beef and Dorset Blue Vinny pie made a good lunch the next day. I noticed Pat Welham – who famously ran the acclaimed Wessex Belle dining trains on the Swanage Railway – with some bottles of Palmers 200, ready for the steak-and-ale pies. Steak-and-kidney, and homity-and-game pies are made and baked on the premises, as are Cornish pasties – all made with natural pastry with no additives. As the chefs go home, the bakers come on duty to make the wide range of bread and cakes.

Jenny wants to encourage apprenticeships – training future bakers, butchers and retail managers. ‘I want to educate young people into the habit of buying good food, too,’ she says. ‘I’ve almost given up on my generation!’ To this end, local schoolchildren are encouraged to tour the shop and take an interest. Some have made the scarecrows which can be seen dotted round the shop.

‘Unless they’re very big, most farmers can’t supply supermarkets. But, on an individual basis, they can supply a busy shop like ours – a true community project,’ says Jenny. ‘More than half of what we sell is from Dorset producers, much from our own farm and kitchen.’ This means that a lot of the money spent in the shop stays in the community, paying local staff and suppliers.

You’ll find Goldy’s half a mile north of the Bakers Arms roundabout, on the road towards Lytchett Matravers. 

Goldy’s, Bere Farm, at Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers BH16 6ER, is open from 8am to 7pm every day. Tel. 01202 625777 or visit www.goldysfarmshop.com