YEW TREE Farm’s prominence and reputation has earned it a nomination for our Trader of the Week.
Ran by Jon Watson, the business is adapting to the new market in lockdown and has noticed many changes in its customer’s wants and needs since early 2000s.
Yew Tree was owned by Beatrix Potter in the 1930s and is still home to many of her furnishings. It was also featured in the movie ‘Miss Potter’ starring Rene Zellweger.
Jon said: “I’ve been here since 2002. We moved here from North Yorkshire where I used to work but when the foot and mouth happened, I become very disheartened after working on empty farmland.
“It was time for a change, so my wife and I came to Yew Tree Farm.
“At first it was horrendous, and the workload took some getting used to. I’m from a small village near Skipton in Yorkshire which only had about 20 houses in it.
“It was a small farming community.
“We weren’t used to the sheer numbers of people. The Yew Tree is very prominent, so it took some getting used to. After about a year of doing it we got into the swing of things. It seems to be very popular and we have a lot of visitors.
“The lockdown has hit us hard. We have a holiday cottage that is now empty, so that’s not good. We have a café in Coniston called the Herdwicks Cafe, but that is also empty at the moment. As a meat business we supply some of the best restaurants which are also closed. It’s tricky times for us all.
“But my mail order meat is going through the roof. We send our produce all over the UK and orders are coming in five-fold at least, maybe even increased by tenfold.
“After lockdown, the industry won’t be as it was for a long time, I think. Confidence in people is taking a hit which will be a heck of a hit to businesses. For many sitting in a restaurant or a pub would be unthinkable at the moment.
“We are thinking about Christmas at the moment. We are thinking about different sizes for turkeys since people will need smaller birds if they can’t have big groups round for Christmas dinner. We have a variety of sizes to pick from our website.
“It’s all about adapting.
“The industry has changed over the years.
“My customers have got more refined taste buds today. When we started, we were selling Herdwick hogget and a cheaper version of generic lamb, which was popular in the early days. Over the last five or six years, I haven’t sold any generic lamb. It’s mostly been the Hogget.
“People eat less meat, but those who still do want better meat.
“The customer base is changing, and they are far more curious on what they are eating.
“Some people want to know the age, the sex and when it was killed before buying.
“I think it’s due to the publicity around the industry and the popularity of celebrity chefs who identity what to look for to get high quality meat.
“People have more money know and they want to spend it on the finer things. We are happy to provide that service.
“I want to say thank you to everyone who supports us and thank you to the mystery shopper who gave us this nomination. Thank you.”
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