Page 37 of Summer At Willow Tree Farm

‘Brilliant ideas are always welcome here,’ her husband Mike chimed in, his enthusiasm in marked contrast to Art’s antipathy.

At least someone was willing to listen without prejudice.

Ellie glanced back at her hit sheet, memorising the bullet points until her fingers had stopped trembling and her stomach didn’t feel as if it were about to plummet to the stone floor.

‘OK,’ Ellie began again. ‘Before I outline Pam’s idea, I want to give you an overview of why it could work.’ She kept her voice steady. Sounding confident was as important as being confident. ‘Basically, by far your most profitable venture is the products and produce you sell at the community markets in the region. I worked with Tess on the stall the Sunday before last and it was obvious you have a lot of regular customers in Salisbury alone. In contrast, revenue from orders for the dairy products and organic produce straight from the farm are much harder to come by because of the competition from the big supermarkets.’

‘That’s been a problem since we started the business,’ Rob said, with Mike nodding in agreement. ‘There aren’t enough independent outlets nearby to sell to, our yield is too small to attract the supermarkets and it’s against the farm’s ethics to transport our goods long distance. When we get a new contract, the feedback’s always really good, but we’re struggling to find enough stockists at a wholesale price that can sustain our profit margins – which is why we started selling the surplus at the local farmers’ markets.’

‘All of which is exactly my point and where Pam’s idea comes in,’ Ellie said, beginning to warm to her cause. ‘Five years ago, Pam submitted a planning application for a change of use for the back barn.’ Ellie glanced at her mum. ‘She didn’t tell anyone, because we think she may have wanted it to be a surprise. And then she was diagnosed and well…’ She paused, not sure how to continue.

‘The thing is, Ellie found the application approval in Pam’s files,’ Dee kicked in. ‘So we could go ahead with Pam’s idea now, without having to wade through too much red tape, because Pam has already done all that for us.’ The emotion in Dee’s voice had Ellie swallowing the block of emotion in her own throat.

How come she had never realised exactly how much her mother had loved Pam that long ago summer?

‘A change of use to what?’ Rob asked.

‘A shop and café,’ Ellie said, then paused, remembering to breathe. No one said anything, so she continued, desperate to fill the silence. ‘Pam wanted to turn the back barn into a shop and café for Dee. You’re in an even stronger position now to launch such a venture after your success locally. Rather than being at the whim of other local stockists or having to transport your surplus to a whole network of community markets around the region – and be at the mercy of their timetables – you could sell everything you produce on the farm, and all the products you make for the markets right here. You’ve got a great range of stuff, which local people obviously love, and it would effectively cut out the middleman.’

The silence continued for a moment, but then suddenly everyone started talking at once.

‘Damn, that is a brilliant idea, why the hell didn’t we think of that ourselves?’ Mike said.

‘There’s sure as hell a gap in the market locally,’ Rob spoke over him, while trying to fend off Freddie, who was happily combing his dad’s hair with sticky fingers.

‘And the real brilliance of it,’ Annie cut in, ‘is that we have all the labour and talent we need right here to make it happen. The four of us have already worked out a possible timetable.’ She flung her arm out to indicate Ellie as well as Dee and Tess. ‘To renovate the barn and then open by the beginning of August so we can launch during the summer. It’s tight and it’s going to be hard work, but we think it’s doable.’

‘Who’s going to run the place once it’s open?’ Rob asked.

Tess grinned. ‘That’s the best part. The plan would be for me and Annie to jack in our jobs. We could share the childcare, and we were already baking like insane people in our spare time to supply the community market stalls we attend so it wouldn’t be that much more work.’

‘I’d be happy to help out with childcare or baking chores when I get home from work in the evenings,’ Maddy said, the enthusiastic smile she sent Ellie full of gratitude. ‘Maybe me and Jay could give up our jobs too, eventually? Our dream was to work on the farm and it might actually become a reality if this works.’

‘Anything I bake would probably poison the customers,’ Jacob said, his enthusiasm almost as pronounced as Maddy’s. ‘But I spent some time in foster care as a teenager, so I know how to ride herd on younger kids.’ Little Jamie Jackson chortled on his knee in confirmation. ‘And I would ace the customer service given my astonishing charm.’

‘Yeah right, Mr Lover Man.’ Maddy laughed.

‘How would we publicise the place?’ Mike asked. ‘We certainly don’t have the funds to advertise?’

‘And how are we going to fund the renovation?’ Rob said.

Ellie held up her hands to halt the flow of questions. ‘If you want to take a look at the business plan I’ve printed out, it includes suggestions for marketing and PR, as well as some costings for the original set up and running costs.’ She’d done her homework on this in the past four days. ‘But in answer to your specific questions,’ she smiled at Mike and Rob. ‘I agree, paid advertising is too expensive and won’t necessarily pay off. To start with we need to keep costs as low as possible. But you’ve already got a great customer base. While we’re setting up the shop, I’d suggest giving out flyers at all those markets, to get the word to your customers that they can get your great products any time of the week if they’re willing to travel to the shop. From the enthusiasm of people in Salisbury, I don’t think that’s going to be too big an ask.’ She carried on talking as everyone began reading their printouts. All except Art, who she noticed was the only one who hadn’t made a comment yet about the idea. ‘The truth is, there’s no better advertisement for what you do than the products themselves,’ she continued. ‘That said, there’s also tons of stuff we can do especially with social media and I’d be happy to set up a website while I’m here. I designed one for my own business and it’s not hard. When it comes to the regulations, I’ve checked with the council and the planning approval still stands, plus Dee already has all the necessary health and safety documentation for the stuff she sells at farmers’ markets, all the other red tape will be to do with the building conversion for the shop itself.’

‘Isn’t that going to need a lot of work?’ Jacob said, lifting his head from studying the business plan. ‘It’s almost derelict.’

Ellie cleared her throat. She was on shakier ground here, knowing absolutely nothing about construction. But she’d braved a walking tour of the facility with Dee and Tess even under threat of rat sightings, and read through Pam’s original specs for the conversion, so she wasn’t going to be deterred. ‘The back barn is actually a beautiful old Victorian building. The high ceiling and exposed beams will look magnificent once they’ve been cleaned up. It also shouldn’t be too expensive to get the running water and electricity connected from the dairy barn.’

‘What about the rat problem?’

At last, he speaks.

The nerves in Ellie’s stomach spiked. Art’s caustic comment was accompanied by his trademark scowl. Apparently there was one member of the co-op who had not been won over. Yet.

This time she was ready for him, encouraged by the positive response from everyone else. Pasting a helpful smile on her face, she prepared to schmooze the unschmoozable.

‘We’ll call in an exterminator,’ Ellie said. ‘Obviously you haven’t felt the need to invest in one up till now, because you’re only using that barn as a dumping ground for defective equipment. But I had a quick chat with Bill Greenman in Gratesbury who runs the hardware store and does pest control on the side.’

‘We know who Bill is,’ Art interrupted. ‘Because the rest of us actually live here.’ The observation struck right at the heart of Ellie’s insecurities, and she was sure Art knew it.

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