The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Accolade for top growers of soft fruit
A father and son farming combination from the Mearns can today be revealed as the winners of the Royal Northern Agricultural Society and Aberdeenshire Council-sponsored good farming practice award.
Mu r r a y and Ross Mi t c h e l l are among Britain’s top soft fruitgrowers and were last night featured on the BBC’sHarvest programme with presenter Gregg Wallace examining their strawberry operation.
The pair farm 700 acres and grow barley, wheat and oilseed rape alongside their soft fruit enterprise, which also produces raspberries, blueberries and cherries from what is believed to be the UK’s most northerly commercial orchard
The award is the latest accolade for them. They were in 2009 named Britain’s top soft- fruit
“We were three weeks later in starting picking”
growers. Ross also won the RNAS and the Scottish Agricultural College prize for under 35s in 2010.
The bulk of the fruit they grow annually is sold throughTescoandMarks& Spencer, although they also keep a proportion for sale through outlets in the north-east.
Judge Tony Simpson, a retired sales manager with Trident Feeds, said the Mitchells’ business at Castleton, Fordoun, had impressed him as they had since quitting dairying in 1999 developed one of the largest soft fruit growing businesses in Scotland – and invested considerably in it.
They had been innovative in travelling to see how other similar businesses operated and in using the best ideas from these in their own operation. They had ploughed more than a £1million into a packhouse and in refrigeration equipment which takes the berries and fruit down to 2C within an hour of them being picked to preserve their freshness.
They had also diversified through a farm shop and cafe, which is about to be expanded.
And they were environmentally friendly through recycling plastic waste, planting three miles of hedges and seven acres of mixed woodland and in creating ponds which were usedto provide thewaterto irrigate the soft fruit.
Ross said both he and his father were delighted to win the award, especially when the other finalists were also at the forefront of their own sectors.
He said the growing season this year had been easier, albeit with several distinct challenges, not least the early season weather which meant the first Scottish and English crops clashing at peak season periods.
“We were three weeks later in starting picking, but the hot weather then meant we were two weeks earlier finishing. We’ve picked the same amount of fruit over a season which has been five weeks shorter,” he added.
Aberdeenshire Provost Jill Webster congratulated the Mitchells, whom she said were an inspiration to everyone.
She added: “They have transformed Castleton Farm into one of Scotland’s leading soft-fruit producers, growing and packing a remarkable 1,500 tonnes of the highest quality strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cherries for the country’s leading retailers.”
The runners-up in the contest were dairy farmers Ronald and Laura Barron and their son, Ian, of Darrahill, Udny, andarableand livestock farmer Stuart Stephen, of Netherthird, Auchterless.