2007 BALE Award Winner - Hollow Trees Farm Shop,

Hollow Trees Farm Shop, based on a working farm in Semer near Ipswich, has been chosen as the winner of the 2007 Best Alternative Land Enterprise (BALE) Award Competition. The annual BALE Award is organised by the Suffolk Agricultural Association in partnership with sponsors Ashton Graham Solicitors and aims to find the best farm diversification business in the region. The competition was fiercely contested this year with 11 entries entered from across the region - Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

This year's judges were the Countess of Euston, a Council member of the SAA and Chair of the Strategic Partnership for Suffolk, Jonathan Long, Agricultural Partner at Ashton Graham Solicitors, and Jonathan Simper the 2006 BALE Award winner. The competition was judged on 1 and 2 October and in making their decisions the judges considered the history of the business and its relationship with the farming business; how the business contributed to the local economy; the skills used in setting up the business, and how the income and profitability of the business has grown since its inception.

Hollow Trees Farm Shop is located on a 140 acre working farm. Its main enterprise is the recently re-built farm shop which sells home grown vegetables, plants and meat. The enterprise also includes a freezer centre where the farm sells its own produced pork, beef and lamb, a pet food centre, a coffee shop and a picturesque 'farm trail' walk. The enterprise is owned and run by Robert and Sally Bendall and they have grown the business from employing one worker in 1986 to 45 employees today. The Winners will received the Ashton Graham Challenge Cup and a cash prize of £1000 to spend on the business.

Second place and £250 prize money was awarded to Martin Ritchie, a previous winner of the competition, for the Reid Rooms. The Reid Rooms offer a unique venue for weddings, parties, business meetings and conferences. It is located in the heart of the Essex Countryside in Margaret Roding and is licensed for civil weddings. The Ritchie's have expanded the business since they won the BALE Award in 2002 and now offer luxury accommodation in their 15th Century Farmhouse for wedding guests, including a bridal suite.
The Best Newcomer Award and £250 prize money was awarded to Roger and Fiona Clark for their East Anglian Bloodhounds enterprise at Weylands Farm. The farm has diversified to kennel a pack of bloodhounds who 'hunt the clean boot' across East Anglia. The bloodhounds have a large group of followers both mounted and un-mounted.

A new Award and £100 prize money was presented this year for the best 'Green' enterprise and the winner was Peakhill Organic Farm Shop, located in the High Street, Saxmundham. The White family have been farming in Suffolk for many years and the aim of the shop is to provide the local community with fresh, organic, seasonal produce direct from the farm, including their own meat, fruit and vegetables.

Certificates of Merit were awarded to John Sanderson for South Elmham Hall in Harleston, Barry and Pauline Papworth for High Gate Country Store in Willingham, Lorraine Melton for Herbal Haven in Rickling and Chris Philpott for Barleylands Farm, located in Billericay.

Commenting on this year's competition, head judge Jonathan Long said, 'it was a great pleasure for me to be involved in the judging this year and to see some previous entries again, going from strength to strength, plus a whole range of new ones. The last part of the judging is always the hardest as we consider what are always very different enterprises, because of their size and type, but they are all judged on the same criteria. We were most impressed by what Robert and Sally Bendall are doing. They 'ticked' so many of the 'boxes' , looking at how their business had come on, what it is offering to the rural community both in terms of what it is selling and keeping employment local, and the quality of everything we saw. They demonstrated that excellent results can be achieved over a period of years through hard work, skill and determination. We especially liked the fact that so much of what is produced on the farm is sold there and the diversity of what is produced, plus the public access to the farm in particular for children. All inspirational to other farmers and landowners'