I meet Gary Atkins in the kitchen of his Essex farmhouse in the heart of Constable Country. Ten years ago he was living in town and commuting into London every day; with a young family to support, Gary made a choice to turn his love of farming into a full time career, with the added bonus of moving the family to the country and being able to spend more time with his three children.

‘Although I have always grown vegetables for my family, I actually started by producing high-quality free-range sausages and selling them at markets,’ Gary explains. ‘Farmers Markets had just started to become popular, and it was a while before I felt ready to take the leap and move into specialising purely in locally grown vegetables.’ The growing conditions in Essex are among some of the best in the country, and as well as what is grown at White Horse Farm, Gary sources seasonal produce from a range of specially selected Essex growers. ‘We only buy from trusted local growers who work with the same philosophy as we do,’ he says. ‘Our produce is traditionally grown by season, and always with flavour in mind. Consumers have got so conditioned to seeing everything on the shelves all year round they have lost touch with the seasons and often have forgotten how amazing the individual flavours of vegetables should be.’  

So how do supermarkets manage to meet the consumer demand for cheap vegetables all year round? Gary explains: ‘Imported fruit and vegetables are subjected to cold storage in an unnatural environment that halts natural decomposition, often nitrogen is used, which explains why you can keep a pack of lettuce looking perfectly fresh in a bag but as soon as it is exposed to air it goes off. Produce is packaged for appearance, not flavour and even loose produce like sweetcorn produces starch as soon as it is harvested. In most cases it takes at least a week from harvest to a supermarket shelf; we aim for less than 24 hours. Most of our produce still has dew on it at point of sale, and tastes as fantastic as it looks.’

White Horse Farm aims to work with nature and the seasons to bring traditional veggies into central locations through Farmers Markets, and are always striving to improve on perfection as Gary tells me: ‘As we started to do more Farmers Markets we listened to our customers and started to offer things you can’t find anywhere else. We often sell old-fashioned favourites, alongside European varieties like Bolotti Beans, which are native to France but are delicious and grow very well over here. One of the other great things about Farmers Markets is that they put the customer back in touch with the producer, and we love to give away recipes, discuss cooking methods and talk to people about what’s coming into season.’

So is Essex responding the food revolution? Gary seems to think so; ‘It’s true that people are starting to wake up their taste buds, but they are also making more ethical food choices and thinking more about preparing meals from scratch with quality ingredients. That’s why the markets have become so popular, it may be a few pennies more but our customers come back week after week and are converted – that speaks for itself.’

Find White Horse Farm at Mile End, Queens Crescent, Brentwood, Epping and Southend Farmers Markets.

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