16 minute read
INTERIORS Ideas for creating a
KEEN AS MUSTARD
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Warm and rich, if you’re planning to wait out the cooler months in sumptuous comfort, these warm yellow country-inspired fabrics and wallpapers will help to ensure you remain as keen as keen as mustard on the results of your interior design projects...
This Spread: Seasons By May Bedding and Pillowcase By Morris & Co in Saffron, £125/king; £22/pillowcase, £150/throw.
Each of our featured fabrics are stocked by the area’s leading independent interior designers...
Top: Kooltown two seater sofa. Chairs in William Yeoward fabric, lamp in peacock by William Yeoward. Above/Right: Elina fabric collection by Zoffany, curtains in linen/yellow. Right: Clarke & Clarke Botanist collection.
Clarke & Clarke Oasis, Monika and Leighton fabrics in mustard.
Above: Harlequin Callista collection, curtains in Meadowgrass fabric. Cushions in Kalamia and Harmonia. Right: Pineapple wallpaper, Clarke & Clarke Colony, Tobago colourway. Little Greene Paint Company’s Sakura wallpaper. Above/Right: Harlequin Hortelano voile curtains, zest/silver ombre colourway. Local Suppliers... Anelise Home: 01522 530400, www.anelisehome.co.uk. Delcor: 01780 762579, www.delcor.co.uk. Lees Furnishers: 01472 353251 www.leesfurnishers.co.uk. Richard Sutton Interiors: 01472 268377, richardsuttondesign interiors.com. Sack Store: 01205 310101, www.sackstore.co.uk. Stevensons: 01472 233111, www.stevensonsgroup.co.uk. n
Above: Anelise Home has a range of winter accessories for your home. Below: New to the retailer is The Finest Linen Company’s bedding, 400tc Carnaby design with contrast edges £140/king duvet cover; £75/king flat sheet; £23/standard Oxford pillowcase... superb quality! Grey Boheme Throw £35/130cm.
Cream Metal Posey Indoor or outdoor, approx 40cm, £25.
Wooden Tealight Holders Sold as a pair, concrete-effect matte wood finish £5. Three Nesting Star Pots Set of three nesting pots with warm grey ceramic glaze, £9.50
Wooden Carving Available as square or heart, approx 80cm, £85.
WINTER STYLE with ANELISE HOME
At Anelise Home of Lincoln you’ll find a wonderful selection of items for the home or to give as thoughtful gifts. Visit the company’s studios or buy our featured products online... Bespoke Cushions Sold complete with choice of fillings, 40cm x 40cm £54.50, Fabric B.
Velvet Photo Frame 5x7 inch shown £10.50; also available in 10x8 and 6x4 sizes.
Heart Tealight Holder With spaces for nine tealights,
metal and wood, £22.50.
Heart & Star Vases Two sizes available, medium £9.95; large (approx 30cm x 10cm) £16.95.
Anelise Home brings interiors to life with interior design for kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms & reception rooms as well as giftware and accessories for your home. Visit the boutique at 140 Burton Road, Lincoln, LN1 3LW, call 01522 530400 or see www.anelisehome.co.uk.
ENJOY A HAPPY NEW KITCHEN
If preparing your festive turkey stuffed your kitchen and the most important room in your home is nothing to celebrate, make a new year’s resolution that’s easy to keep: invest in quality by treating yourself and your home to a brand new kitchen from The Fitted Furniture Company, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year...
30 years old this year, the Fitted Furniture Company enjoys plenty of repeat business from satisfied customers. But unfortunately (for the company) only when clients move home or need quality freestanding or built-in furniture for another room. If they stay put, the team has to wait a long time for a Fitted Furniture Company kitchen to look tired. Nobody ever regrets buying quality, and when it comes to choosing a kitchen, opting for solid, well-made, bespoke cabinetry will always prove to be the best option. The Fitted Furniture Company’s team includes a workshop team of three people. There are no sales people, so a customer is never paying for somebody’s commission. Nor is there a showroom – there’s no point since everything the company produces is bespoke – so customers aren’t paying for those overheads, either. Instead, the company works with budgets typically around £25,000 VAT (but more or less, according to the kitchen’s specification), and you can not only see, but also feel where that budget has gone. “You can purchase hinges for pennies,” says Jason. “But we don’t. We spend a bit more on them. And that’s why they do their job for years and why our clients don’t end up with rickety cupboards.” “It’s an example of the fact that you can do a job well if you don’t compromise on quality. Our kitchens are good value given their solidity and quality because we minimise our overheads instead of cutting corners.” “Much of our work is in creating kitchens but often the client wants us to return and create studies and home offices, libraries, freestanding furniture or bathroom storage too. There has been a huge upturn in home offices as more people are working from home, especially following Covid.” >>
Left: The Fitted Furniture Company was recently commissioned to create this solid hardwood handpainted kitchen in a barn conversion near Stamford.
>> “And much of our work is in older homes because our modern interpretation of the traditional shaker kitchen tends to be commensurate with the style of local properties and our clients’ need for a kitchen that will withstand kids, pets and entertaining.” “It’s also because the nature of our bespoke cabinetry means there are no set sizes, so we can make sub-millimetre adjustments to the dimensions of a cabinet to compensate for wonky walls or floors that aren’t even.” “Kitchens are a pleasure to work with because there’s both a technical challenge to making something that’s well constructed, but also an art to creating a room that’s essentially practical, but looks great, too.” “We work in a whole host of solid wood materials from oak to maple to beech. Sometimes these are lacquered to show the look and character of the wood but more often they’re hand-painted, typically in a Little Greene shade or with any other brand a client wants to use.” “The fact that our work is often painted is another reason that their life span is so long. Often clients want a mid-life facelift for their room in which case they can be painted to cover up scuffs and marks inflicted on a kitchens from the rigours of daily family life.” “We source appliances for clients, and again, we know which brands will yield quality. Often spending a little more on a brand like Siemens, Bosch or Miele will mean a longerlasting appliance.” “Another important element of our work is that we project manage each installation and coordinate trades like plumbing, electrical and gas work, which is advisable for any installation as there’s usually a preferred order for each part of the work to be completed... and it’s a hassle for a customer!” “We began the business in 1991, just before the recession, and we’ve thrived amid another recession since, and during 2020’s Covid outbreak, too. It’s not down to chance that we’ve enjoyed a steady stream of work and a reputation for quality.” “We’re good at what we do, we make sure our customers are happy and we always have our eye on quality and value... and we believe that’s the reason that we’ll be celebrating our 30 years in business and many happy customers in 2021!” n
Find Out More: The Fitted Furniture Company creates handmade bespoke kitchens, studies and freestanding or built-in storage for your home. Call 01780 480080 or see www.thefittedfurniturecompany.com.
THE FARM of the FUTURE
This is a farming operation like no other. Clean boots, no mud. No pests, no weeds. Consistent crops, no variation in yields. And best of all, it’s farming the weather can’t spoil…
Words: Rob Davis.
THIS IS THE FARM OF THE FUTURE, and it looks very different indeed to a traditional operation. James Lloyd-Jones is the farmer – although he’s unrecognisable as such, given the radically clinical appearance of the operation and his premises. He grew up in London, with no experience of farming or agriculture, making him an even more unlikely candidate for pioneering the future of food production. Instead, his background is in the creation and installation of wind turbines, solar panels and the development of sustainable properties, interests which he has held for over 17 years.
Tomorrow’s World James remembers with affection – as do I – the 1980s BBC series Tomorrow’s World which, each week, would reveal faintly absurd inventions, or occasionally those which would eventually come to market such as the home computer terminal, mobile telephone or bagless vacuum cleaner. One of the innovations that James was most struck by was a segment on vertical farming, in which crops were grown indoors under light.
“The advantages seemed very clear and I kept expecting someone to take the concept mainstream, but it didn’t happen,” he says. “Often people talk about making their business or their industry carbon neutral by 2030 or adopting new technology within ten or 20 years. But for the sake of food security and the environment, it’s time to stop talking about farming this way and to start doing it.”
The operation at James’ Jones Food Company is hydroponic in nature, but is termed ‘vertical farming’ due to crops being stacked vertically within the farm. The products grow on racks that slowly and gradually move from one end of the operation to the other, from germination, to harvest… so at harvest time, the crop comes to you!
Investing in Scunthorpe “My parents moved from Bristol to North Yorkshire about the same time I was looking to create a vertical farming operation,” says James. “So I looked for a site and discovered that Scunthorpe was an ideal location. Property is well-priced, there’s an established skill set in the area for construction and engineering, and good transport connections. It was a great place to set up the operation. I had no prior experience but that meant no preconceptions or bias. I could create the operation with a fresh perspective.” >>
>> How does it work? In 2016, James created the facility, which now has five growing racks, 17 levels high totalling 12 metres. The total growing area is 5,000m2; the size of 26 tennis courts.
As the facility is indoors and subject to controlled environmental factors, production is consistent all year round.
The growing medium used is rockwool, a stone-based product which originates from igneous rock and is superheated before being spun into a fleece-like form.
The material is commonly used for natural insulation in homes. It provides many benefits for the farm; not only is it cheap to buy, but it can also support the development of plants from seedling to harvest. It doesn’t rot and remains lightweight, even when wet.
Trays for growth are prepared, the seeds are then placed in the growing medium before being sterilised using UV light. The operation is free of contamination and no chemicals are required to avoid pests or diseases typical in traditional farming.
No Growing Pains The seeds germinate in two days and then the trays are placed on racks. Slowly they move from one side of the growing environment to the other; seedlings go in, and crop comes out at the other end.
The business employs 16 people with seven of those working in production. They wear lab coats, face masks and hair nets, rather than overalls and muddy boots, in an area that, by James’s own admission, looks a bit like the TV studio in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with its odd pink glow, where Mike Teavee met his fate.
12km of lights are used emitting the correct colour temperature to ensure growth, and because light levels and moisture levels are precisely calibrated, the entire crop is completely consistent.
Environmental Control The secret of the operation is how the environment is controlled, and so for obvious reasons the details are a trade secret. James and the team are constantly innovating in this respect – but the environment is a balmy 25°c, humidity controlled and quiet, with only a slight hum from the fans controlling the environment’s CO2 infused air flow.
The operation is sustainable too, with the exothermic heat released by the plants recovered and used to create sustainable energy for the site, and water recovered, filtered and reused. In fact, despite the critical role that the nutrient-infused water plays in the plants’ growth, the site only consumes the equivalent water of a twobedroom flat – 95% less water than a conventional farming operation.
Energy at the site is courtesy of solar panels. The site covers 1.25 acres and is mostly carbon neutral, but a few changes early in 2021 will make the entire operation carbon neutral by May. >>
>> A Viable Operation “At the moment we’re enjoying great success with a variety of crops and innovating with others,” says James. “We can grow around 1,000 tonnes of dill a year and 400 tonnes annually of pak choi, plus spinach, parsley, kale and radishes. We grow fresh herbs and leafy salads and are now farming root vegetables and soft fruits too.”
It’s possible to produce cereals using the same method, planting varieties of wheat known for having less stature, for example.
However the economics, for now, make conventional production methods with large combines and vast fields more financially viable. It is, perhaps, the future of the cereals industry in Lincolnshire too.
The Future of Farming Speaking of the future, James has bold plans to expand the operation. He’s currently investigating the licensing of his technology to around 20 joint ventures and plans to create 10 similar sites by 2026, including one in the West Country in the next year.
When complete the operation will be able to sustain two major supermarket retailers with their salads as well as their existing wholesale salad customers… already, though, Ocado has invested £17m in the operation.
More importantly though, it will provide a blueprint as to how farming can be a more secure operation in the future.
International Adoption Currently Japan and the US are keener to move to vertical farming operations. Japan now has 200 vertical farms, incentivised in part by greater population density and an inability to farm on irradiated ground around the Fukushima plant.
The US is a less likely candidate with large land masses. However, as James points out, the soil is less rich and because your farming operation can be many miles from your supply chain, sometimes that vastness and its associated remoteness can be a hindrance, rather than a help.
As for the UK, there are currently around 20 vertical farms in operation, and if you’ve purchased basil from one of the major supermarkets, there’s a one in three chance the basil you’ve consumed is a product of the Jones Food Company’s vertical farm.
Plans to Grow Because James’ farming method is so unique and innovative, it’s hard to state whether his operation is the largest vertical farm in the UK, but it’s certainly one of the largest and his plans for expansion will, we reckon, comfortably make the company one of the earliest and greatest pioneers of vertical farming in the next five or ten years.
It feels odd to talk about a farming operation in the context of clinical growing conditions, all year round production and flawless consistency... instead of fresh air, state of the art New Holland machinery yomping across furrowed fields, and hungry birds hovering impatiently over newly ploughed fields.
But there’s no arguing with the fact that to protect our planet, to secure our food supply and to ensure we grow and eat more food produced here in the UK, a move towards vertical farming at least as a supplement to conventional farming, is necessary. It’s innovative and free from the disadvantages of conventional farming; climate problems, variable yields, pests and soil problems.
Instead, this is farming utilising a truly innovative, more efficient and absolutely revolutionary approach… meaning vertical farming will inevitably have a greater presence in Lincolnshire in the next few years. n
