Over the years we have built up a productive working relationships with a number of suppliers whose products we are happy and pleased to sell. Although many are not organic, in general they share similar ethics to us, and above all are pleasant people to deal with.

Essential Trading Cooperative

Essential is our main supplier of dried and bought in goods. Based in Bristol, Essential is a workers' cooperative. They have evolved out of the classic beans and brown rice whole food business into the all encompassing wholesaler and processor they are today. They do their own range of tinned tomatoes, pulses, beans etc. We have been dealing with them for over 10 years.

Luscombe Cider

Luscombe Farm is about 1.5 miles away from Riverford on the other side of the River Dart. They started making cider there about twenty years ago but it wasn’t until Gabriel David took over the business ten years ago and they started making ‘adult soft drinks’ that the business took off. The range is getting bigger all the time and the latest additions, raspberry and vanilla and strawberry lemonades are selling well.

Heron Valley

Steve Bradley, who used to run Luscombe Cider before Gabriel David, makes his own apple juice at Loddiswell. His Naturally Sweet (with eating apples) and ‘with bramley’ are deliciously clean and fresh tasting. They also make cider and a number of other juices.

Wiltshire Tracklements

Wiltshire Tracklements has been making mustards for 35 years. William Tullberg started up from a restaurant in Calne making Urchfont Mustard, inspired by a mention in John Evelyn's diaries of the English equivalent of ‘Moutarde à l’Ancienne’. Now run by his son, Guy, Tracklements are an incredibly nice company to deal with and sell exclusively through the independent sector. Their range is second to none, including mustards, chutneys, pickles and condiments, both organic and conventional.They are always trying something new - they were the first with Onion Marmalade and now everyone is at it. Their Lemon Pickle is fantastic with roast pork. Horseradish packs a real kick.

Burts Chips

Ess Foods make a range of preserves, mayonnaise and dressings. All their products are made in their factory in Essex from top quality ingredients including organic extra virgin olive oil and free range eggs. They use Ascorbic Acid, a natural mould inhibitor as a preservative. It has no known health implications. We stock the Stokes and Suffolk Mud ranges because they are good, innovative, well packaged products at an extremely competitive price.

Shipton Mill

Shipton Mill are a specialist flour mill in Gloucestershire. They produce specialist flours for traditional artisan bakers throughout the country. Our bread is made exclusively from their flour and we sell a range Shipton Mill flour in the shops. Clive Mellum, their bakery consultant has helped us sort out a number of problems and we are still using the basic ‘sponge’ method he suggested five years ago.

We have been baking bread at Riverford since the business began in 1983 so a good source of flour is important. Since local Crowdy Mill, at Harbertonford, closed, we have been getting our flour from Shipton Mill, in Gloucestershire. There has been a mill at Shipton, on a tributary of the Avon, for hundreds of years - since the Domesday Book, in fact. Over the last few years it has been restored to it’s former glory and now produces premium, old-fashioned stone-ground flour from a water-powered mill. Shipton Mill produce 60 varieties of mainly organic flour, which complement traditional breads - the grist is matured for longer for a more rounded flavour.

Shipton Mill says, 'Most large millers grind their flour to match the demands of the Chorley Wood process of baking. They mill wheat very hard to crack open the starch molecules so it absorbs and keeps a lot of water and lowers its ability to ferment'. Apparently that is what is required for the quick turn-around, mass -produced and fully automated process of making sliced bread. As you can imagine it does do much for the bread's flavour and texture.

John mills his flour according to very different principles. Talk to him and he will keep you for hours explaining about the nature of protein in wheat and how strong flours need to be worked to develop (soften) the gluten otherwise they will not rise. He is also adamant that for really good bread, you first need to ferment the dough to make the gluten digestible and to allow subtler more complex tastes to develop. Sadly this process of an overnight sponge that bubbles and buzzes away with the enzymes working on the carbohydrates digesting the sugars is all but dying out in most small bakeries, 'It takes anything from 8 to 24 hours, in a couple of hours nothing happens. Some bakers always used to keep back some of the day's dough for the following day's batch. Few work like that now'. Interestingly he told me that if a dough has been properly fermented, proving (rising) has more to do with appearance than developing its texture.

In the quest to match the right flour for the right bread, Shipton mills an enormous range of wholemeal, sunflower, maize, malthouse, country brown, oat, soda bread, and white flours - many come from organic grains. For a 'proper' sour-dough with a long fermentation, there is his fifty/fifty, 100% Wholemeal made up of half strong Canadian and half English wheat; this gives the best of both worlds with the strength of the Canadian to withstand a long fermentation with the weaker English stopping the fermentation from roaring away resulting in a 'spent' dough long before it is ready for baking. Try his ciabatta flour; here the problem was to develop a mixture of flours that would be strong enough to develop a mildly sour flavour, be active enough to develop holes to give the 'right' texture and at the same time absorb quantities of olive oil. Rye flours are a subject near to his heart; now rye is notoriously difficult to work as it contains little or no gluten 'There's a knack to making a rye. You have to work quickly. Most British bakers don't understand. They add far too high a level of yeast , bake in far too hot an oven that instantly fires everything. And out comes a pillar of salt'. In Europe bakers buy their rye flour (and indeed all their flours) according to its Ash content, a reflection of the amount of fibre in the flour. Without wanting to be too technical ours is far higher and suffers a different starch damage that ultimately affects the quality of the bread.

Any keen baker - domestic or commercial - should visit Shipton Mill.

Shipton Mill, Long Newnton, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, GL8 8RP. Tel: 01666 505050. e – mail: jlister@shipton-mill.com. website: http://www.shipton-mill.com

Loch Fyne

Loch Fyne is best known for its chain of sea food restaurants but it started off as an oyster farm. We get all our smoked and fresh salmon, smoked mussels, and pickled herrings from Loch Fyne.
Loch Fyne source their fish from the Sustainable Salmon Co (www.lochduart.com) who were the first producer of Freedom Foods standard salmon. Loch Fyne also supply us with our organic salmon.

We started dealing with Loch Fyne because the brother of the former owner of Kitley Farm Shop was one of the owners.
There have been a number of remarks made about Riverford being hypocritical about supporting local food but getting smoked salmon from Scotland, but it is a recognized principal of ‘local food’ that processing should be as close to source as possible.

Westcountry Smokehouse

Formed by a merger of Dartmouth and Cornish Smokers, Westcountry Smokehouse supplies us with a range of smoked fish, meat and vegetables.

Brindisa

Brindisa is a London based company which, virtually single handed, have developed a market for top quality Spanish products. This has coincided with a healthy interest in Mediterranean food. Brindisa sell some organic lines, Nunez de Prado olive oil, Paella rice, and Biobardale Charcuterie, but the majority of their products are top quality artisan produced and additive free. They are continually monitoring their existing suppliers and looking for new lines.
www.brindisa.com is an excellent and informative website.