A college set in rural Suffolk has opened its own home-grown farm shop - featuring goods ranging from meat and eggs to plants and calendars.
Suffolk Rural college campus at Otley - the land-based studies arm of Suffolk New College - soft-launched the new venture earlier this month after an investment of £30k.
Otley College was originally created in 1970 to train new generations of people in the agricultural industry and the new shop is based in a former workshop.
Everything sold in the store has been created or produced by the college community.
Products include calendars, bird boxes, eggs, gift cards drawn by art students, plants grown by the horticultural team, poppies created by welders and a big selection of meats.
The college also plans to open a floristry shop in time for Mother's Day on March 10.
The shop will sell fresh vegetables and as the temperature improves, teas, fresh cakes and coffees will be sold in an outside area.
Campus director Lynsey Wilson played a leading role in helping set up the operation. Lynsey explains the reasoning behind the opening of the new facility. She said:
“We converted an old workshop that was a redundant space to keep the costs down to a minimum and we have invested around £30k of a capital bid fund into setting the farm shop up," she said.
“The idea behind this is to give the learners an opportunity to create their own enterprises and also see the journey of food production – from the farm to the fork.
"I think in recent years, people want to buy local and understand where their food comes from and this is partly why we created the business. Everything we sell has been created in-house.”
There was already "lots" of excitement in and around the college and the local community, she said.
“I’m very excited. We did a soft launch that was very successful and we will be employing a shop assistant in the coming weeks," she said.
“My message to everyone is, come in, ask as many questions as you like, we have lots of offers on all of the time so come in and pick up a bargain, buy local and maybe when you do pop in, ask about information on one of our leisure, full or part time courses.”
Animal care course students Daniella Hobbs, 16, from Ipswich, and Lily Wright, 16, Sudbury, are already big fans of the shop.
“I bought some meat for my dog and he loved it. The service has been great, prices are good and it’s nicely decorated," said Daniella.
Lily said it had "a nice vibe". "This is a rural college associated with farming so I think it’s a good idea to have this shop.”
Opening hours are Mondays and Fridays from 12 to 5pm and there is free parking in the main car park of the college.
Suffolk Rural is also launching a children's birthday party venture this year. It is offering weekend and non-term time birthday parties for youngsters who have an interest in farming.
The event costs £150 for up to 10 children and include egg collecting, tractor rides, animal petting and hands-on farming activities.
For more information about the shop or farm parties contact 01473 382909 or email farm@suffolk.ac.uk
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here