Sowing the seeds of success for a homegrown oil business

Eden Yard Rapeseed Oil is the county’s only homegrown cooking oil and in its first year won two stars in the Great Taste Awards and was commended for its ‘rich golden colour and clean nutty aroma’. It is one of those products which seems to have been around for years, but the first bottles were only produced in December 2021. Since that moment it’s been all systems ago. The day after they got their first bottle they were in a meeting with chefs at L’Enclume, the county’s only three Michelin establishment, who immediately bought all of their catering stock.

The whirlwind hasn’t stopped since. In fact, the past four years have been filled with change for the Taylors and their three young children – they’ve moved house, rented 500 acres of land in Plumpton in the Eden Valley and also launched the oil business.

“I am really passionate about British food and produce and we were growing rapeseed anyway to sell to merchants and I wondered if we could make some oil for ourselves to use at home really. It would be great to consume what we grow,” says Jannike. “After a bit of research we realised there wasn’t any other Cumbrian oil, which surprised me….to get the seeds pressed there has to be a minimum amount so we started talking to people and designing the labels and so on and then we picked up our first completed bottles on Monday the sixth of December and had a meeting with the L’Enclume chefs on the Tuesday. We had five litre catering tubs and we thought it would take us ages to get rid of them and they bought all of them on the first day!

“We had to get more pressed. We got into most of the Michelin restaurants in the first few months. They wanted to know where it came from and the taste is different because of the soil it’s grown in and the climate. We are fortunate our oil tastes good.”

In the first year they pressed about 20 tons (each ton makes about 340 litres), using a factory in Yorkshire to coldpress the seeds, filter and bottle the oil. Each tiny black seed yields about 45 per cent oil and only the first pressing is used; the byproduct is sold for livestock feed. Last year they increased the amount they planted from 40 acres to 61 acres, which will be harvested at the end of next month. They had hoped that this harvest would be pressed and bottled in a new 100ft by 50ft ‘shed’ they are building on site, but it’s likely construction won’t be finished until the winter.

The entrepreneurial couple met at school. Ben is the third generation of agricultural contractors. His grandfather set up LW Taylor Ltd and then 18 years ago Ben and his father Alan set up A & B Taylor Contracting, which is still trading. He says his family has worked with every farm within a 30-mile radius of Plumpton. Four years ago they had the opportunity to rent prime land in the Eden Valley and had a change of direction. Now they own 140 acres of grassland at Greystoke (through Ben’s family) with 400 breeding ewes and a range of arable crops on the rented 500 acres (from the Bowscar estate on a 15-year business tenancy and with three other farmers). They grow barley, rape, oats, beans, fodder beet and grass for haylage. In another change they moved into their farmhouse at Plumpton in February, adjacent to their rented land. They are part of Countryside Stewardship Schemes and farm as environmentally friendly as possible, planting 3,500m of hedges with another 1,500m planned over the next few winters. “It was 80 per cent contracting and 20 per cent farming but we have switched that now really over the last four years. We are at least working all hours on our own farm. It’s a better life for the kids,” says Jannike, who grew up in the area and returned after university to work for politician Rory Stewart. The couple still farm with Ben’s parents but the Eden Yard oil business is their own. As part of their sustainability aims, they have invested in a minimum tilling drill to help improve the soil health. All the rapeseed is planted using that.

All self-funded, the couple who are in their thirties, have lots of plans for the future. Last September they added two flavoured oils; launched gift boxes before Christmas, have recently taken on their first employee and this summer plan to launch a mayonnaise and salad dressing. Year on year they are on track to double the amount of oil they are creating and also also working with Embleton-based Caterite to get it into more catering establishments.

“We are in food production but we weren’t making the end product. That was exciting for us, that traceability and it is also a fantastic product. It’s healthy, tastes good and is great to cook with. If you can produce that here without having to import where we have some of the best farming practices and standards in the world, why not?” says Jannike.

Ben says that the majority of what they grow still goes into animal feed, but they have lots of ideas and plans. “We really enjoy what we do and it’s interesting for us to grow things and see the final end product,” he says.

*If you’d like to try the oil and meet the Taylors they will be at Cumberland Show on June 10th and Westmorland Show in September.

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE OIL

This year all of their wheat this year has gone to Carr’s in Silloth to be made into custard creams. They are also looking into growing more heritage grains and are in discussion with an artisan baker who wants particular types of rye. They are also talking to brewers about future possibilities as they grow malted barley.