The Weston Park Food Partnership is a brand new venture operated by the business arm of the Weston Park Estate at Weston-under-Lizard, near Shifnal in Shropshire.

Weston Park plays a significant and respected role in both local and the wider community. It's hosted everything from weddings and conferences to a G8 Summit, so it's fair to say that we know a thing or two about quality catering and pleasing discerning tastes.

The local food challenge

Over the years we've met and worked with many small farms and independent producers throughout Shropshire and Staffordshire: people who grow really great fruit and veg, rear magnificent meats, bake brilliant breads, craft fine cheeses and do many more equally excellent things besides.

The challenge for small growers and producers is not about creating demand, but simply finding a route to market in order to meet the demand. Conversely, chefs and caterers (including those at Weston Park) who want to use more local, seasonal and organic produce can find it difficult to source such products in a convenient, cost-effective and reliable fashion.

Joining both ends of the local food chain

We established The Weston Park Food Partnership to solve both problems and link both ends of the food chain in our part of the world. Working in partnership with BoxFresh Organics and producers such as Whitegate Farm and Buttercross, we're providing a simple, single source of local, seasonal and organic produce for caterers in our area.

We're starting fairly small with weekly deliveries of organic vegetables and one or two Farm Assured meat products, but we plan to expand our offering over the coming months.

Your custom will help to feed the growing appetite for great-tasting local, seasonal and organic food – and help to sustain the livelihoods of small producers in our part of the world. So, we encourage you to try the new service – and please do let us know what you think.

The organic vegetables in our new wholesale delivery service are supplied by a founding partner of our venture, Des Walker and his company BoxFresh Organics.

BoxFresh was established by Des and his partner Debra back in 2002. They had quit the rat race in London in search of a better way of life for themselves and their family here in rural Shropshire.

Des decided to marry his entrepreneurial flair with his love of both food and the environment by setting up an organic home-delivery service.  

"We started BoxFresh with an ethos to provide the very best local and seasonal organic produce by working in partnership with the best local farmers, growers and producers," says Des.

After delivering to just 13 customers in its first week of business, BoxFresh has grown rapidly to become one of Britain’s leading organic box shemes. In July 2007, BoxFresh joined forces with Herefordshire-based Flights Orchard Organics. The combined business delivers to around 6,000 regular customers and has recently purchased its own 70-acre orchard .

Now, through The Weston Park Food Parnthership, BoxFresh has become one of the first businesses in the country to offer a wholesale equivalent of the home-delivery organic box. We really value Des's expert knowledge of our region's food, his many contacts within the organic industry and, of course, BoxFresh's fantastic local and seasonal organic produce.

Just two miles from Weston Park, Whitegate Farm is owned and run by Derek Swift and his family. They have farmed at Whitegate for over 20 years, and produce an impressive range of meat and poultry.

The farm produces prime Aberdeen Angus and Hereford beef, reared on the farm to the British Farm Assured Standard, fed on non-GM food and free from antibiotics.

Whitegate's Staffordshire lamb is grazed on land here at Weston Park, and its pigs are rare breeds, comprising Gloucester Old Spot, Saddleback and Berkshire.

The farm butchers its own meat, cures its own bacon and gammon – and even makes its own sausages, burgers, faggots, pies and pasties. If that wasn't enough, Whitegate Farm also raises free-range geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens, and produces free-range hen and duck eggs.

"Our dedication to maintaining an extremely high standard of welfare for our animals ensures a premium product for our customers," says Derek.

As both a partner and a customer of Whitegate Farm, we couldn't agree more.