A chance meeting as young farm workers led to a lifelong friendship – this month, Tim Gelfs, chair of Dorset NFU, shares his French Connection from a Dordogne kitchen table
In July 1987, a 19-year-old turned up at our digs at Stoneleigh Park where I worked on the National Agricultural Centre dairy demonstration unit. Pat was there to do the middle year of his National Diploma in Agriculture from Reaseheath College on the sheep unit. Within an hour I was giving him a lift into town to buy some shopping for his cupboard … on the way home stopping at the local for a quick refreshment, of course.
This set the theme for the year – as I am sure we all have discovered, some friendships just click together from the start. In our digs (‘The Hostel’) we had ten young lads, aged between 18 and 22, and one girl, Yvonne, working on the calf unit. We were paying £3.50 a week for a room and all bills. Life was like being at college … but being paid. We worked hard in the day, but definitely played hard at night, with the local pub the main beneficiary! Great days, and many of us became lifelong friends.
Fast forward to 1994: we had all left Stoneleigh, gone our separate ways to study and were settling down to our first jobs and normality. A letter dropped through my letterbox, handwritten and quite thick: ‘Dear Tim, Pat here, we have bought a small farm in France, deep down in the Dordogne just outside a little town called St Alvere…’
The letter was full of what they were up to, with the farm and pictures of the farmhouse and also a photo of Pat’s wedding to Maggie. The farm was an old pig farm, with 50 acres of grazing and woodland. The buildings were a little neglected, along with the house, and the whole lot cost £90,000, paid for with a ‘new entrants’ loan from Credit Agricol set at 2% interest rate for the whole term of the loan.
A further £60,000 grant from the French government helped set up the business – they were eligible as both held qualifications in agriculture. Don’t you wish our own government was as supportive to our new entrants and young entrepreneurs?
It took a further eight years before I eventually made it down to see them both, taking the eight hour drive from St Malo to a small farm perched on a rise on a road into the town. There was a sign for the farm shop, selling the produce from their main enterprise of foie gras. They were producing 800 ducks and 200 geese, all processed on the farm, with their own abattoir and cooking facilities, for canning or confit in kilner jars.
Farm shop transactions are a little different in the Dordogne. If the customer is a tourist, it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to get a full briefing on the full process. If you’re a local, it’s a very different experience – some global trade deals don’t take this long. The transaction starts in the shop, then moves to the kitchen for coffee – or an aperitif, if it’s the right time of day – then moves back to the farm shop to seal the deal.
Pat and Maggie also sell a lot of their produce at local markets – again, these are a social occasion in the region, ranging from a few stalls to the whole high street loaded with local fresh produce, sold by the producers themselves. The couple’s business has grown organically over the years and they have built a reputation for high quality products, demonstrating how a small family farm can work by selling direct to customers, with whom they build trusting relationships.
Life there is lived at a different pace. The area is full of small family farms, many supported by other jobs. I know that I may be looking through rose-coloured spectacles, but I can’t help thinking they have got something right!
I am writing this from their kitchen table – they have been at the farm now for 34 years and it is Pat’s 58th birthday today.I would like to end by saying the farm is fully established and thriving after all that hard work. Unfortunately, life is rarely so straightforward. Instead, it has shown just how much lies beyond our control, and how fragile every farming business can be. Bird flu has hit the area over the last few years, and Pat and Maggie are currently in a protected zone. Although they have not had the disease itself, it has affected their business: most of the parent stock has been culled and they can’t get replacement youngstock. The risk is high, with poor compensation and a tangle of red tape, making life difficult for the business to operate.
Pat and Maggie, with their daughter Amy, have immersed themselves in French life and are well respected in the area, a great example of a young couple who grabbed an opportunity with both hands. I am sure they will get through this, and the business will thrive once again. Vive la France!
