This week’s veg news spotlights some wonderful Lancashire-grown produce — and one farm in particular: Brook House Farm in Preston, run by Libby and Paul Flintoff. Over the years, they’ve turned indoor polytunnel growing into something of an artform. Their produce is without a doubt one of the jewels in the crown of our summer range, and we feel incredibly lucky to work so closely with them. The provenance, quality and care that go into their crops really shine on the veg stands at this time of year. We’re currently receiving two deliveries a week of their freshly picked French and flat beans, cherry tomatoes, cavolo nero, spinach beet, rocket, aubergines, courgettes and cucumbers.
Libby graduated and worked as a soil scientist early in her early career, spending some time working in South Africa after graduating. Upon returning to the UK, she and Paul moved to Hull, where she began growing cucumbers and tomatoes commercially at Bishop Burton Agricultural College. While there, a friend with glasshouses introduced and inspired her into small-scale growing, with a suggestion to explore organic growing.
She then joined ECOP (Eastern Counties Organic Producers) — a network of about 7 growers, of which Pam Bowers of Strawberry Fields (another organic pioneer, and long-standing supplier), was also a founding member. Libby began growing tomatoes and lettuce organically and commercially for supermarkets, with the intention of eventually starting her own small-scale organic growing operation.
After Paul took a job at a museum in Preston in 1992, they began searching for a site where Libby could start her own growing business. They secured Brook House Farm in 1993 — a 4.5-acre piece of flat land on the Fylde near Garstang. After lots of work converting it to organic, along with conservation efforts such as planting trees and hedgerows, laying existing hedges and digging out a pond, their first organic crops went to a local veg box scheme.
They initially erected three tunnels while their daughter was a baby. Libby gratefully recalls that she was a very sound sleeper, allowing her to slip off with a baby monitor in hand to tend to the crops in the tunnels. Once her daughter started playgroup, they added another three tunnels, and when she began school, another three, until today, where they have 18 tunnels in operation growing all of their wonderful produce (and her now adult son and daughter get drafted into helping out on their visits back home!).
Back in 2000, after hearing about Libby and Paul’s crops, former veg buyer and long-time Unicorn member, Viv called Libby — and the rest, as they say, is history.
Local, pioneering and highly skilled growers like Libby and Paul, along with the many others we work with, are truly the heart and soul of Unicorn. We are forever indebted to the care, graft, skill and passion they pour into their produce every season.
