In the second of our new series called Behind the Scene,
we took a trip to Grayingham, near
Gainsborough to Uncle Henry’s Farm Shop, Butchery and Café.
The award winning Farm Shop, Butchery and Café based in the
Lincolnshire countryside, and showcases the best in local and regional
food and drink.
Winners of over 100 industry awards, the family run business continues
to go from strength to strength every year.
We caught up with Emma Ward, General Manager (and the next
generation of the family learning the ropes), to find out where her passion for
local food and drink comes from – and to find out why the business was called
Uncle Henry’s?
Tell us about your
background and how you came to the role you are in?
My passion is great tasting local food! Growing up on a pork
and potato farm, I have always had an interest in food. I’ve spent the last few
years exploring various aspects of food industry, from manufacturing to large
scale retailing before returning home to run Uncle Henry’s Farm Shop, Butchery
& Café, our family business. Our mission is to be the heart of good food; we
aim to provide an exceptional customer food shopping and eating experience,
making us the destination of choice for local people.
What does
Lincolnshire mean to you?
Lincolnshire to me means wide open spaces, the rolling hills
of the Lincolnshire Wolds, glorious sunsets and of course prime agricultural
land producing much of our countries cereals, vegetables, ornamental crops,
pigs, eggs & poultry, prime Lincoln Red Cattle & Lincolnshire , sheep.
How did you get
started?
We are a family run farm shop, butchery and café, just off
the A15 near Kirton-in-Lindsey. Uncle Henry’s was started by my parents in 2006
although we’ve been producing and butchering top quality food in our family for
five generations. The business takes its name from our family friend Henry
Wright who used to live in the house behind the farm shop which is still
visible from our outside dining courtyard. The name of the business was taken
from my brothers & I asking our Mum if we could ‘go and visit Uncle
Henry’s?’ as we used to love playing in the then derelict barns when we were
younger! The former agricultural barns have now been converted into the farm
shop, butchery and café, retaining and enhancing many of their existing
features.
Team – Tell us about
your team.
All of our efforts would not be possible without our dedicated team of
24 full and part time staff members. All of our team are local people
themselves, and they are essential to our business success. We are Investors in
People and we invest in our team’s training and development but above all else,
we make Uncle Henry’s an enjoyable place to work.
Tell us which local producers do you use
Uncle Henry’s majors on sourcing fresh, local and seasonal products. We
produce and make many of the products that we sell ourselves including our
award winning sausages and bacon and we’re always developing new lines to add
to our range. We use as many local ingredients in our home produced added value
products as we can – for example our Argy Bargy Sausage is made using Mr Huda’s
Curry Paste from Scunthorpe.
We are proud to
support over 40 Lincolnshire producers; our local food heroes! We see ourselves
as a hub for Lincolnshire food and an outlet for local food businesses to
showcase their product. We have some fantastic local producers from Primrose
Free Range Eggs from Goltho, to Pollybell Organic Vegetables from Epworth,
Myers Plumbread in Horncastle and local Croft Apiaries Honey from Bishop Norton
whose bee’s hive on our farm.
Do you engage with local
community groups or put on events?
We strive to make a positive difference to our community, whether that
be through our support of other local food businesses, educating children
through over 40 school visits per year, our work with local charities and
groups or just being a fun destination for local people to meet, greet, relax
and enjoy!
Our calendar of events is action packed and ever expanding. Some of our
events have been so popular that they are now annual calendar fixture. Our
annual Open Farm Sunday attracts both young and old with over 3,000 attending
this year. It is a free event and a fantastic opportunity for us to bring
together both the farm shop and farming side of the business and for our
customers to learn more about how their food is produced. We run the event in
conjunction with our local Rotary Club and all proceeds go to their chosen
charities – this year, we raised £2,576.86.
In July, we ran a curry night to raise funds for Lindsey Lodge Hospice
where one of our expert Lincolnshire producers ‘Green Saffron’ were chefs for
the evening and we raised over £150. We also support charity events held
outside of Uncle Henry’s through donations of raffle prizes for example. This
year to date, we have donated over twenty high tea’s for two for events such as
Hibaldstow’s Scarecrow and Open Garden Day which raised £2,546.00 and Wise Owls
Nursery in Kirton-in-Lindsey who raised £224.00.
On an international
platform, where does Lincolnshire sit?
One of Lincolnshire’s primary industries is Agriculture,
providing export products of all agricultural commodities.
Lincolnshire is becoming a great tourist destination and
through our rail and air travel links, the county is highly accessible. Uncle
Henry’s caters for this growing tourist market through our position as a one
stop shopping destination.
What’s your favourite
food fantasy/recipe and why?
It will
probably come as no surprise (being pig farmers!) that we have chosen a pork
recipe as our favourite. Coming into the autumn and winter months, this is
a firm favourite for Sunday lunch.
What would you say to
other Select Lincolnshire members?
If you’re a grower or producer, come and speak to us – we
are always looking for new products & ideas!!
How do you channel your food passion within your business and personally.
We consider
our USP to be our farm to fork experience, providing the very best in locally
sourced produce whether that’s grown, made or butchered here at Uncle Henry’s
or sourced from our Lincolnshire suppliers. We do however need to keep our
shopping experience interesting and exciting for our customers and I channel my
food passion through Uncle Henry’s by always looking ahead to the next new idea
to ensure that we continue to delight our customers through our fantastic food
offer which is great quality and affordable.
I channel my passion for food personally through cooking and
I am an avid collector of recipe
books! I will happily sit down in an evening and read a good recipe book and my
favourite at the moment is Rosie Ramsden’s The Recipe Wheel. I love the concept
of this cookbook which turns the style of a traditional recipe book completely
around. Her book is based around a range of simple core recipes such as a
risotto. From this core recipe, a bit like a mind map, leads different recipe
options to suit your time, the occasion and your budget.
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