PREVIEW

WORDS BYLINE: Victoria Fear
Our fertile soils are well known for producing high quality food but it is now also home to the world’s most northerly commercial olive farm.
Olive trees are thriving on a plot of land the size of 14 football pitches in Lutton after being planted by farmer David Hoyles who was looking for a new crop which could cope with our hotter summers.
For hundreds of years, his family worked the land around Lutton and now David has added ten varieties of olives to the G H Hoyles portfolio which includes peas, sugar beet, wheat and mustard.
David has embarked on this exciting new venture by launching The English Olive Company and is hoping to soon be selling its first bottles of oil after harvesting his first crop.
He said: “Ornamental trees have been here for some time but we believe we are the most northerly commercial grower in the world and the largest in the UK.
“I think there’s a novelty or niche factor as it’s olive oil grown in England.
“I think there is a lot of interest in olive oil, it’s a superfood it’s healthy and nothing is done to it.
“It is exciting and challenge and a massive opportunity.”
David has been working on the project to bring olives to South Holland since 2019 after being inspired during his holidays and working for a fresh produce company abroad.
He said: “We are seeing in the last ten years that the weather pattern is changing and we are getting longer periods of dry weather and warmer weather.
“Some of our crops were starting to struggle so I thought about what other crops would work in a changing climate. English vineyards are starting to be profitable but we have the wrong soil type for that.
“While I was in Italy I saw olives being grown along side vegetables and our soil types are similar.”
David’s plans for diversification into olives started in 2019 and when the pandemic hit, it provided more time to undertake online research.
These plans became reality in 2024 when the young olive trees finally arrived in Lutton after being ordered by David the previous spring.
A total of 18,000 olive trees were planted over the 25-acre plot. David had carefully selected ten different varieties of oil producing olives which would work well in this area.
Weather conditions in the fens can be a little different to Spain and Italy so David has had to employ a couple of tweaks to help his new trees thrive.
This has included planting the trees on raised beds to help with drainage along with using stakes to help protect them from the strong winds.
The trees have also been planted in a way which would allow mechanical harvesting rather than hand picking in the days - especially as the agricultural sector is facing issues with finding labour.
He said: “We are using a little bit of local knowledge and experience and techniques that overseas growers use.
“It was really capitalising on crops that might withstand the weather period we are experiencing. But if global warming is a thing and we are getting more of these conditions then I thought it would be a good idea to take a risk and invest early and see how the crops performs.”
While the weather is a driver for branching out into olives, it can also pose a threat with poor summers could stop the fruit ripening before the winter weather arrives.
David said: “We can mitigate that a little bit by picking the olives earlier but that can make a difference with the taste. We could have a more peppery olive oil.”
With the harvest coming, David said there were a lot of unknowns such as how much fruit and olive oil would be produced.
David is planning to hand pick the olives for the first couple of years but is hoping to move into mechanisation. The traditional method involves the tree being shaken with the fruit being caught by sheeting.
He said: “We don’t know how this harvest is going to go as it’s not been done in the UK before. This year has been very warm and dry summer.
“There are a lot of unknowns but it is very exciting but we must learn from it.”
The farm is also creating its own plant to mill and bottle the English Olive Oil.
However, the process of producing oil from the olives could not be easier - as the fruit is mashed up to release the oil.
David said; “This is the first year and we are learning a lot as we go along and we are getting more right than wrong. But a lot of growers in Spain have generations of knowledge and we need to learn that quickly.
“I am really enjoying working with the olives. I am spending a lot of time there as I find it fascinating.”
While olive farming might be a new thing for David but his family have been growing vegetables in the Lutton area for 250 years.
The farm produces 2,500 tonnes of wheat, the equivalent of 2.25m loaves of bread, 4,000 tones of potatoes (11million portions of fish shop chips) along 4,000 tonnes of sugar beet along with 500tonnes of peas (350,000 1kg bags of frozen peas) and 150 tonnes of mustard.
The farm has also invested in water management by investing in rainwater roof harvesting along with three reservoirs. It also has invested in sustainability with a wind turbine and a 200k solar farm.
It has further diversified by creating Fenland Dog Park, which provides a secure exercise area where pet owners can book 50 minute slots.
He said: “This isn’t the biggest change on the farm compared to what previous generations have undergone. The introduction of tractors and mechanisation was bigger. This is a crop change us. We used to grow red beet,red cabbage but if it doesn’t do well, not profitable, we change.
“Farming is always evolving but we are always investing in and look at new opportunities and challenges.”