![\"Riverford\"](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/02\/riverford-1-930x607.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The shadows of sparse white clouds raced across the patchwork fields to my left as I made my way to Riverford, a few miles north-west of Totnes. The farm is situated in, and indeed contributes to, some of the most beautiful countryside in Devon.<\/p>\n
I was surprised by the scale of the operation as I parked and found my way to where I was scheduled to meet Ed Scott, the site\u2019s Assistant Harvest Manager.<\/p>\n
![\"Ed](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/02\/riverford-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Ed greeted me with a big smile and we took our seats in the glorious outdoors, to make the most of the summer sun. Even before we\u2019d exchanged greetings, I could see how much he enjoys his work.<\/p>\n
First of all, I asked him about his role at Riverford and how his involvement began.<\/p>\n
\u2018I started here about 15 years ago now,\u2019 he began, \u2018initially just for 3 months and it sucked me in a bit. My official title is Assistant Harvest Manager, which basically at this time of year means I\u2019m in charge of the polytunnels \u2013 we grow mostly basil, mini cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, some salad onions and some chillies as well. It\u2019s pretty full on down there at the moment, so I organise which varieties we\u2019re going to grow, I get the staff in, do the rota, and do some picking as well. We have about 20 people down there in the summer.\u2019<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll hear similar stories from other enterprising individuals in the area who\u2019ve come to call South Devon home. It\u2019s always nice to hear these tales of people almost stumbling into a career they grew to love. And it seems there\u2019s something about the region, given our high proportion of startups and small businesses, that generates these stories in abundance.<\/p>\n
Ed had been working in a bookshop in London for 10 years before making the career change \u2013 and an ongoing tendency to horde an absurd number of books turns out to be something we have in common. Still I don\u2019t get the feeling he\u2019d rather be back indoors working in a shop or office.<\/p>\n
We moved on to discuss Riverford and how it all works.<\/p>\n
\u2018Riverford is a sort-of top-to-tail business,\u2019 he explained. \u2018We\u2019re involved in everything from the very start. We\u2019ll sow our vegetables, plant our seedlings, take them all the way through the weeding, harvesting and growing\u2026 and here we\u2019ve got a pack house, so the guys in the barns will pack them up, it all goes into the boxes and then we distribute them around the country. We handle some of the deliveries centrally, and others are done by franchisees so they\u2019re effectively their own bosses.\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear this is a substantial operation, hence the large number of people employed by the company \u2013 it reaches around 300 in the peak picking season.<\/p>\n
\u2018An awful lot of planning goes into it because things have to be sorted so far ahead of time. Right now, we\u2019re already planting leeks and purple sprouting broccoli; the leeks we\u2019ll start picking in December and we\u2019ll go right through to April or May next year, the purple sprouting broccoli we\u2019ll pick in March next year.<\/p>\n
So our guys who do the planning are thinking \u2018In May next year, we\u2019ll have 30,000 customers. And of those, 10,000 will be a large box. What are we going to put in it? And then, let\u2019s say there\u2019s a cold winter and everything is two weeks late so they have to reconsider! They have to work around the availability.\u2019<\/p>\n
That must be tough, given how modern consumers are so used to getting whatever they want, whenever they want it.<\/p>\n
\u2018Yes, it can be,\u2019 he said, \u2018and we\u2019ve learnt over the years that we need to import sometimes, otherwise it would be so difficult in the \u2018hungry gap\u2019 (between February to April). At that time of year all you\u2019ve got is potatoes, carrots, onions, maybe some swede. If we gave that to our customers week after week, we\u2019d lose thousands of them! But we don\u2019t air freight anything at all because the carbon footprint is ridiculous.\u2019<\/p>\n
The previous topic brought us neatly onto the environmental policy that attracts many consumers to Riverford. I wondered how that ties in with the economic need to import foodstuffs.<\/p>\n
\u2018We worked with Exeter University for several years at reducing our carbon footprint and environmental impact,\u2019 he said, \u2018and one of the things we learned is that it\u2019s much better to import tomatoes from an unheated greenhouse in southern Spain than to grow them in a heated greenhouse here.\u2019<\/p>\n
The other reason for working with other organic producers is that it\u2019s necessary to specialise in order to get the best results. Fruit growing is a fairly specialised area, so Riverford tends not to grow much fruit on their own farms.<\/p>\n
Back to the environment, if you spend much time on Riverford\u2019s website and you\u2019ll be struck by how transparent the company is about its practices \u2013 discussing all the complexities openly rather than resorting to any vague platitudes.<\/p>\n
Ed agrees, \u2018Guy [Watson, the founder of Riverford] is very open and he couldn\u2019t fudge anything. He\u2019s more likely to overinform rather than under-inform, which is brilliant actually. He\u2019s not afraid to put his foot in it and say what he thinks. And I think in the long term, if you do try to hide something, people are going to find out and be disappointed. It\u2019s much better to say, \u2018Look, this thing we\u2019re doing isn\u2019t very good at the moment. We\u2019d rather do it differently. For example, sometimes it turns out you\u2019ve got to use plastic sometimes because some things can\u2019t be stored in cardboard, like salad leaves which just won\u2019t keep in a paper bag.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018You\u2019ll have supermarkets saying things like, \u2018These eggs come from Merrydown Farm\u2019 even though there is no such thing as Merrydown Farm. Because of this, it takes a lot of effort from our marketing team to make us stand out, without being twee.\u2019<\/p>\n
I was interested to know whether experimentation, taking chances and a bit of trial and error have played a similar role in Riverford\u2019s rise as they have for the other South Devon producers I\u2019ve visited.<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019re always learning and there are always things to find out. But I like to think at this stage we\u2019re tweaking \u2013 we know what we\u2019re doing pretty much each year, but, for example, we might try sowing the spinach a little closer together to see what happens \u2013 maybe that will improve the yield or reduce the impact of mildew, etc. We\u2019ll still try to grow crops we haven\u2019t tried before, but we usually have a pretty good idea of what will happen.\u2019<\/p>\n
I asked if Riverford\u2019s plans are ever affected by climate change.<\/p>\n
\u2018Not majorly in terms of what we grow, because most of what we grow will grow anywhere in the UK. But we do find the season can start earlier or finish later. But there are some things \u2013 like onions which don\u2019t grow so well here \u2013 and that\u2019s partly down to the soil \u2013 unlike in our farm in Sacrewell up near Peterborough, where it\u2019s great for growing them.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018But then down here along the coast, cauliflower grows very well. That\u2019s because, when the leaves start to open and you see the white head of the cauliflower, if you get a frost at that point it just closes up and dies. Our warmer microclimate\u2019s a big help there. But, broadly speaking, at Sacrewell and here we\u2019ll grow similar things.\u2019<\/p>\n
Before long it was time to let Ed get back to his tunnels and for me to start the scenic drive home. I could have chatted all day, making the most of the sunshine and scenery, and learning more about this fantastic South Devon success story.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/10\/cookbook-square.jpg\")
Our