DELI OF THE MONTH NORTH OF ENGLAND SPECIAL
When Marjorie and John Park launched a pick-your-own operation on their farm, branching out into retail was not on their minds. Now, thirty years on and under the guidance of their daughter Alison, the business may be largely unrecognisable, but it still retains the same principles: local food with low miles. Interview by Tom Dale
Field to fork THE SUMMER TOURIST season is palpably underway when FFD visits Low Sizergh Barn Farm Shop at the foot of the Lake District National Park. Holidaymakers pack the farm shop’s courtyard sipping cups of take-away tea, licking ice creams, and gathering to watch the daily milking of the cows that produce the same milk that graces the frozen treats and hot drinks the punters are enjoying. This hyper-local approach – bringing the connection between farm and food to the fore – is something characteristic of the Cumbrian farm shop, and director Alison Park’s approach to farm and food retail. Low Sizergh Barn – nestled in the heart
VITAL STATISTICS
Location: Low Sizergh Barn Farm, Sizergh, Kendal, LA8 8AE Number of lines: 2000 Sales split (retail/café): 65%/35% Café covers (including outdoor seating): 110 Average volume of raw milk sold per day: 50 litres 70
September-October 2021 | Vol.22 Issue 8
of the farm which shares its name – owes its origins to Park’s enterprising parents who, she says, rarely failed to capitalise on an opportunity. After launching pick-your-own strawberries in response to 1980s restrictions on milk production – taking advantage of the farm’s fortuitous position just off the main arterial road into the south Lakes (A591) – John and Marjorie Park found that many of their customers were asking for refreshments and a toilet, and in 1991 Low Sizergh Barn Farm Shop was established in response. Housed in a characterful converted 17th-century barn, the shop still owes a
lot to the passing trade that provided the impetus to launch the retail arm of the operation. “When we first started, my mum and dad had it in mind that we’d be a seasonal business and it would be about tourists coming to the Lake District,” she says. But over the years, the season has been extended by loyal locals, visitors to the Farm Trail, and a new younger, more healthconscious customer that has been drawn in by Low Sizergh Barn’s vending machine selling its award-winning raw milk. Currently, though, the tourist trade is roaring – exacerbated by the pingdemicinduced closure of the nearby Sizergh
