Supplier story: Barfoots

We wouldn’t be able to make the delicious pies, quiches, rolls and frittatas that we do without top-notch ingredients to make them with. So, creating strong bonds with our suppliers is something that we really cherish here at Higgidy.

Since 2015, we have been working with a local supplier in Sussex called Barfoots. They grow all sorts of vegetables, from courgettes, to corn, to asparagus and they just so happen to supply us with our butternut squash and sweet potatoes which we use in recipes such as our Roasted Sweet Potato & Feta Pie and our Butternut Squash & Feta Pie.

Barfoots began when founder Peter Barfoot started growing courgettes in a small town in Hampshire in 1976. In 1994 he bought Sefter Farm in West Sussex which has now become Barfoot’s main site (30 miles down the road from the Higgidy Kitchen). They farm over 8,000 acres across this site in Sussex, in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight.

Barfoot’s philosophy as a business hasn’t changed from its origins: ‘look after the land like you are going to farm forever’, which is a value that we respect as we strive to leave the world a little better than when we found it.

Barfoot’s uphold this value by consistently nurturing the land they farm on and the local communities that they are a part of. Lee Herring their Commercial Manager says, ‘this commitment is at the heart of who we are and what we do’.

An example of this comes from Barfoot’s ongoing sustainability projects as a business. They hate seeing anything go to waste and so devised a method of making sure that this didn’t happen. Since 2010, they have been a carbon neutral business by turning every single bit of waste into green energy using their anaerobic digesters. The power this generates is twice the amount of energy needed to run Barfoot’s and so the surplus goes back to the National Grid. What an outstanding achievement this is!

In addition to this, their anaerobic digesters have also helped them to create an organic fertiliser, cutting their use of conventional fertilisers by 60%.

These are just some of the reasons why we love working with Barfoot’s and are proud to call them a trusted Higgidy supplier. Not to mention the fact that they’ve got such a strong passion for all things veg and grow their produce using a mix of traditional and old farming techniques. They now grow at least 13 individual types of veg all year round – pretty impressive!

We often take the time to visit our suppliers and their sites in person and later this year, we’ll be visiting Sefter Farm in Sussex to get a real taste of how our ingredients are grown and nurtured. Watch this space for even more insights!

In the meantime, if you’d like to read a bit more about Barfoot’s and the delicious vegetables that they grow then do check out their website here: https://www.barfoots.com/