Meet the growers
The Oldershaw family
Oldershaws is a family business in the true sense of the word. The late Gilbert Oldershaw MBE began farming in South Lincolnshire in 1946 with his brother, Henry. The jointly owned company of H. & G. Oldershaw Ltd. was split up in 1983 and Oldershaws of Moulton Ltd. was created by Gilbert with his son Robert, and nephew John Grimwood. Robert is now the Chairman of the company.
In 2001, Gilbert’s grandson, Robert Jnr, joined the business after leaving university, so the Company’s family status looks set to continue; Robert’s sister Sara is the assistant Farm Manager and her husband Chris is the Quality Manager.
Robert Jnr, 30 is a director of both Moulton Bulb Co. Ltd, the onion, garlic and shallot packing operation and Oldershaws of Moulton Ltd, the growing side of the business. He currently manages the company’s retail customers such as Waitrose, Asda and the Co-op and has spent many a summer holiday from School or University on the farm helping harvest the onions and shallots among many other jobs!
Sara, 26, started out working for the family business in the HR department. She jumped at the chance to leave office life behind when her father’s search for an assistant manager was unsuccessful. A colleague put her name forward for the job and she hasn’t looked back since.
Sara now spends her days driving tractors and working on the land – a far cry from her days of sitting at a desk all day. Her role is very hands-on and she will eventually take over the running of the farm when her father retires. As well as working full time on the farm, Sara is studying for a foundation degree in Primary Food Production.
Among the vegetables grown on the farm, shallots, garlic and onions are a speciality, benefiting from the area’s fantastically fertile soil and perfect climate. Sara grows traditional round shallots which have always been favoured by chefs, and are becoming increasingly popular with cooks at home due to their versatility and fine flavour.
Robert Jnr likes to roast shallots with the skin in a little oil as an accompaniment to hot or cold meats, and also loves to pickle them in vinegar with a couple of bird eye chilli and some pickling spice.
The Kitchen Family
Chris Kitchen and his wife Ann set up Kitchen Garden Produce in 1979 when they purchased 22 acres in Lincolnshire. Chris and Ann had extensive agricultural experience in farm management in Lincolnshire, and so decided to set up their own business. Initially the farm reared calves and grew soft fruit for ‘pick your own’. A casual conversation with a supermarket buyer who mentioned that asparagus and shallots would be good vegetables to grow commercially – which no-one was already doing – inspired Chris to change direction. So in the early 1980s asparagus was added to the crops, and in 1986 the first shallots were planted and a pack house was built in 1989. The farm now uses state of the art equipment to streamline production during the busy harvest season.
The farm employs 23 full time staff, as well as seasonal temporary staff each year. Chris finds a number of workers return year on year, helping to achieve a real team spirit, which he thrives on. The couple have two children Joe (born in 1985) and Rachel (pictured above, born in 1989), both currently studying at university, who also help on the farm when they are at home. Rachel is currently studying Russian at Durham University so she is able to communicate easily with the Eastern European workers who come to work on the farm each year.
Rachel can regularly be found driving tractors and forklifts around the farm and spends her summers dealing with the temporary workers – sorting out everything from travel and visa problems to love triangles among the staff!
