OF&G :: The Blog

There’s only one farm in the country that can boast having hosted the nation’s favourite radio breakfast show.

OF&G licensee, John Hutchings, and his family had the surreal experience of providing the venue for Chris Evans’ BBC Radio 2 show on Friday last week having been edged into the situation by their neighbour – none other than TV presenter, Richard Madeley.

"Farmer John" Hutchings, in the spotlight with Chris Evans and Richard Madeley during the webcast of Friday's show

Around 13 million people tuned in to hear (and watch online) Chris and his team present their first ever “Show in a Field” from the Hutchings’ home at Talland Bay, near Looe.

Judging by the comments on the Radio 2 website, the somewhat impromptu event went down a storm with listeners, with even breakfast time legend, Sir Terry Wogan, adding his support in the online comments.

We were fascinated to know how the whole thing came about and what it was like for John and his family. John explained: “It started with Richard Madeley being on Chris’s show and he got into an amusing competition with one of Chris’s team, Jonny Saunders about who had the nicest field near their home, as Richard regularly crosses our field on his walks. Richard won because our field is in a beautiful spot and he suggested they should do the show from there.

“It was a foul day in the middle of June and was lashing with rain. I came in at about three o’clock for a change of clothes and listened to it on the Listen Again feature. It was all good fun, so I sent an email saying I’m “Farmer John”, as they were calling me, that I was the owner of Richard Madeley’s favourite field and to give us a bell if they fancied coming here. They called back and asked me to go on the radio, so I did and spoke to them about the field, the cafés, the beach, the view and how big the farm was. I asked them to come and do a show but said they had to bring all of the crew and Moira to read the news!”

Not necessarily expecting them to follow-up on the offer, John later got a call from the producers who wanted to come and visit. So he and his wife, Vanessa, put on a good show for their visitors with locally-made pasties and Cornish clotted cream teas and showed them around the land. The BBC team went away impressed, but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks before it actually happened that the plans were firmed-up.

John explained: “When it clear it was going to happen I went back on the radio last Tuesday and told them how the field was getting on, ready for their arrival. We kept the sheep off it and cut it for silage as late as we could, so it was nice and short and all clean and tidy.”

The farm is geared around a HLS agreement and focuses on spring and autumn lambs, with about 30 acres of cereals for home consumption – all organic. It’s not equipped for camping!

Fortunately, the infrastructure for the three to four hundred campers who would turn up was dealt with efficiently by the production company brought in by the BBC, Andrew Cheeseman Productions, and included putting a standpipe into the centre of the field to keep the temporary camp provided with water.

The campers were all ticket-only invitees of the Chris Evans Show, meaning that lots of work had to be done to make sure the facilities and safety complied with the BBC’s demands. A security team got to work ensuring only those who were meant to be there were on the farm, guiding the visitors to where they needed to be and keeping tabs on the broadcast equipment. A generator lorry provided a main and backup generator for the whole affair.

Chris Evans and his team turned up on the Thursday, in a helicopter Chris had hired to get them straight into a field on the Hutchings’ farm. They were picked up from the field by Vanessa in the family people carrier (Moira in the front, Chris in the small seats at the very back), while John collected two producers and the helicopter pilot using his quad and trailer. The contrast of going from a very expensive chopper to a farm quad was, apparently, not lost on them.

The campers were fed and entertained that night by the nearby Smugglers Rest, a taverna-style eatery, which put on a barbecue and live music from a local band.

John said: “It was a really good evening. Everyone came down to listen to the music and Jonny Saunders did a quiz for all the guests. Chris, Moira Stuart, the band, Scouting for Girls, and the whole team were there in the field just chatting to the public and all the guests for the show. It was a really laid back, nice evening.

“There was a competition for the best tent, so people had really made an effort. Someone had brought fairy lights, there was one tent with a glitter ball and others had those solar powered lamps stuck in the ground. There were a lot of really nice tents. At 6.15 the next morning they walked through the field playing a special jingle they’d recorded to wake everyone up ready for the show!”

As well as having Richard and Judy on the show, which was live-streamed on the internet, former world-class athlete Kriss Akabusi was on hand to lead some sporting challenges, though a highlight of the morning was newsreading legend, Moira Stuart, doing her bulletins from a horsebox!

“When we were planning the day they asked if I had a shed in the field or somewhere the news bulletin could be done from without interruption. We said the closest thing to that was the horsebox, which they thought was brilliant, so that’s how it came about. It’s funny but when the bulletin came on, everyone in the field just went quiet because Moira was doing the news.”

Even the local vicar got roped-in for the daily reflection spot on the show. John explained: “They were thinking of having the Archbishop of York but I said why not have the local vicar? She was terrified. She’d only been in the parish for a couple of weeks and knew that her bishop was listening, but she did really well.”

The Hutchings got swept up in the fun of the event and had a brilliant time. Contrary to what some less charitable souls might think, it wasn’t a money-spinner for the farm. They didn’t charge the BBC a penny and only took small recompense for their metered water and John’s very busy day on the JCB helping to set up the infrastructure.

So, in the final analysis, was it all worth it?

John is quite clear: “It was brilliant. There was a real buzz about it and everyone was really nice. It was great for the kids to see and they had their photos taken with the band. I had an access all areas pass which let me go anywhere in the setup. It was absolutely priceless. I tried to stay in the background during the broadcast, just watching it all happen, but they did pull me out at the end and I chatted to Chris before they finished the show.”

While on the air on Friday John wasn’t slow in inviting them back to do the same thing again next year. Will they?

“They might. You never know…”

• Catch up with the Show in a Field while you still can on the BBC website (watch and listen)

We’re very pleased to have been able to announce today that BBC Countryfile presenter and high-profile farmer, Adam Henson, will be attending our National Organic Cereals 2010 event.

To be held on July 8, in Andover, Hampshire, this year’s National Organic Cereals will be building on an excellent 2009 event and has the backing of key people in the organic arable, seed, feed and milling sectors.

Adam Henson will be chairing an afternoon Q&A panel for us. Adam is not an organic farmer, which suits us perfectly because with National Organic Cereals we don’t want to talk only to the existing organic community. Anyone who is inquisitive about organics and open-minded enough to find out more is someone we would love to see at the event. It’s all about highlighting the opportunities in organic cereals while also examining the challenges and realities.

You can read more about the event in our news release here and book your place here if you’d like to attend. It should be a great day and places tend to fill up fast, so please do book early.

If you aren’t at the Soil Association conference in Birmingham, you can get a taste of what’s been going on by checking out the stream of relevant messages on Twitter.

And it’s well worth a look right now. There’s been a cracking debate going on involving the notorious Oliver Walston and SA director, Patrick Holden.

Click on this link to catch up now.

The Guardian today carries a very interesting take on the sale of Cadbury to American firm, Kraft, by Green & Black’s president and founder, Craig Sams.

Having been sold to Cadbury, Green & Black’s is now, of course, going to be part of the Kraft porfolio and that raises questions about what it will do with the organic and ethical brand.

Here’s what Craig thinks…

To say there have been ‘reservations’ regarding the EU competition to design a new Europe-wide, compulsory organic logo might be an understatement.

We’ve expressed our own disappointment with the candidates we’re being asked to vote on*, but now there’s even some criticism from one of the judges who were asked to pick the final contenders; none other than the widely respected Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black’s (among many other successful organic brands), in fact.

Natural Products magazine reports on a letter Mr Sams has written to a German magazine outlining his concerns over the process, which he describes as “aspirational in the extreme” for its approach of only opening the competition to design students.

Craig Sams know a thing or three about branding and spoke on the subject at our Selling Organics: What’s the Story? conference in London, in October. It really is a shame that this process has to be mired in controversy when the sector has enough challenges to face without yet more bureaucratic mishandling to contend with.

And on the subject of voting for a logo, we have some other misgivings about how it’s being done. But more on that soon…

* Reference to our ‘disappointment’ is made with due respect to the so far anonymous designers whose entries made it to the shortlist of three. They’ve done very well to make it this far and have demonstrated great creativity, but it’s not their fault that what was really needed was a researched, tested and professional identifier that has to sit alongside some very expensive and carefully considered branding.

Sometimes you’re just left scratching your head.

Here’s a simple scenario: BBC One’s Countryfile does a piece looking at the state of the market for organic food. Fair enough.

In it they talk to people involved in organic food and get a rather perceptive take from a marketer on how the sector could be pushing itself (putting aside, for a moment, the fierce and constant opposition from the ASA and FSA to even the most innocuous claim made by organics).

You wouldn’t think there was anything more controversial than normal in any of that. But no. Wait a moment. Who’s this galloping over the horizon waving a red biro and a flag saying “I’m a licence payer too!”? Aha, tis the Crop Protection Association, which, according to Farmers Guardian, has complained to the BBC Trust because the programme didn’t include any representatives of non-organic food and farming…………………………………….

Can you hear that? It’s the sound of a gentle wind blowing tumble weed down the street as everyone stands still and tries to figure out what on earth the CPA people can have been thinking.

It seems the best they can come up with is that Countryfile was ‘favourable’ to organic farming while portraying non-organic farming ‘neutrally’. Yes, well, that would be neutral as in not part of the report in the first place.

Honestly, that fact that word had gone around the organic community that a piece was going to be on Countryfile should be an indicator  that it’s still rare enough to be noteworthy, so why the CPA’s Dominic Dyer is so rattled about non-organic farming not being part of the report is baffling.

At OF&G we have every respect for all UK farmers, which is probably why we WON’T be writing to the chairman of the BBC Trust demanding that organic farming is mentioned every time there is a report on non-organic farming on the BBC. Can’t say fairer than that.