Local Food Heroes - Stephen Wheeler speaks to farmer Leonie McIntosh
Free range, barn reared, farm assured, red tractor, organic, battery, local? Does anyone know what exactly any of this means? Is it based in actual regulation or are they just labels – misunderstood by many in the food industry, from producers to shops and restaurants?
At Great Farm near Fairford, the chickens are very definitely Free Range. I pulled on my wellies and walked with farmer Leonie McIntosh to chicken houses in the middle of large green fields, with the chickens, ducks and guinea fowl running helter skelter around us. Whilst Leonie’s husband Jonathan looks after their cattle and arable crops, she is busy rearing and selling around 500 chickens and 50 guinea fowl a week to Gloucestershire shops, farm-shops, schools and restaurants. A past gold-medal winner, Great Farm chickens have been used by master-chef Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons in Oxford. “I always take a sample of our chicken to chefs”, said Leonie, “once they’ve tried it, I usually hope to get an order, even though it’s not the cheapest they could buy”.
Leonie is passionate about her birds being genuinely free range. “Whilst battery and barn-reared chickens are eaten after 4-6 weeks, we sell poultry that’s been properly fed and aged to 12-16 weeks,” said Leonie. “The mature birds have fully developed muscle tissue, which comes out in a superior flavour and texture in the meat – chicken like it should taste. We feed them milled grain, from the farm, and they peck around the fields for anything else that takes their fancy.” True free-range chicken accounts for only 3% of all the chicken consumed in the UK – a surprisingly low amount given all the publicity in recent years.
Leonie takes delivery of her chicks from specialist hatcheries, and nurtures them in warmed sheds, deep in clean straw, until they’re strong enough to withstand the outdoor life in an English winter. “We do lose a few birds to predators”, said Leonie, “foxes sometimes get in, but we’ve had buzzards and rooks helping themselves in the past”.
“My family tends to live on chicken” admitted Leonie, “One of our larger birds will do a roast on Sunday, sandwiches on Monday and soup on Tuesday”. One thing’s for sure, if chicken’s on the menu then Great Farm is bound to be high up the pecking order.
To see the actual article, click here
6th February 2010
Leonie McIntosh
Follow us