We were excited to welcome Charlotte Smith of BBC’s Countryfile to Fairfields Farm last week to talk about how we have adapted in the wake of coronavirus.

Charlotte spoke to co-founder Robert Strathern to find out about how we reacted to the challenges we faced as a result of the coronavirus and the creative, novel solutions we put in place to evolve our way of doing business.

A very large part of our business was hit harder than most. Our potatoes and crisps had been sold extensively through pubs, restaurants and cafes but all that changed when Covid-19 hit the UK and those venues closed for lockdown. The farm rapidly evolved to start increasing online sales of fresh potatoes and hand-cooked crisps direct to consumers with home delivery.  The team went further and created a fruit & veg box product to get essential foods through too those that wanted home delivery. Everyone at the farm is proud to be an independent brand for independent businesses   and so throughout the lockdown we continued to communicate with pubs, cafes and farm shops to help them prepare for the easing of lockdown measures and their re-opening.

Robert said “It was a pleasure to host the Countryfile team, the pandemic has been a stressful time for many but the beliefs that we hold at our core of being customer focused and proudly independent came into their own at this time. By visiting our customers and delivering their potatoes and crisps in person we have grown our sense of community and it is fantastic to see how we can pull together in times of uncertainty.”

Watch the episode for yourself here (we are on at 9:40 minutes in)