Ep. 1882 George Dart | Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon

The Italian wine podcast is the community driven platform for Italian winegeeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italian wine podcast dot com. Donate five or more Euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book. My Italian Great Geek journal. Absolutely free. To get your free copy of my Italian GreatGeek journal, click support us at Italianpodcast dot com, or wherever you get your pods. Welcome to wine food and travel. With me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Listen in as we journey to some of Italy's most beautiful places in the company of those who know them best. The families who grow grapes and make fabulous wines. Through their stories, we'll learn not just about their wines, but also about their ways of life. The local and regional foods and specialities that pair naturally with their wines. And the most beautiful places to visit. We have a wonderful journey of discovery ahead of us, and I hope you will join me. Welcome to wine, food, and travel with me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Today, I'm going just down the road from my home in Toption Devon to somewhere that is very special to me, DART's Farm, to meet my guest, George dart. DART's Farm is a farm shop that consistently wins National Awards for being the best large farm shop in the UK. It's been described in the Guardian as like finding Selfridge's food hall in the middle of a field. George, thanks so much for being my guest today. I'm thrilled to be able to share the Darts Farm story with our global Italian wine podcast listeners. How are you today? Hi, Mark. Yeah. I would say it's a real pleasure to be with you. Thank you very much for for inviting me out. Oh, no. It's it's it's gonna be nice to have a chat today. Our listeners, Georgia, located all over the world. And I really want them to, gain a vivid idea in the minds of of this special place that I live in and where you are as well. So can you describe, where DART's farm is, you know, the countryside and the beauty of this special place? Yeah. Of course. So, so we are located just on the outskirts topspin, which is a historic port in Southwest of England, and Devon. We're in this lovely beautiful Clist Valley, which is one of the tributaries of of the river X. Which is a gorgeous fertile green luscious valley. And, yeah, we're we're very lucky to be to be in one of the greatest kind of food producing parts of the UK. Two coastlines with gorgeous rolling hails, surrounded by the most amazing food producers and growers and farmers and fishermen and and a customer base that that are really confused and engaged in what we do. Yeah. That's that's true, George. And we'll discuss that in a little more detail. And I think DART's Farm really is is a reflection of of the way food has evolved both here in Devon, but also across the UK. And your family's been very much a part of that story. Now I've been living in Toption for more than forty five years. So I can recall when DART's Farm was a pick your own business, a roadside stall, actually. So why don't you just explain a little bit about the origins of DART's Farm and and and how, how it began and how it's evolved to what it is today. Yeah. Of course. So so my family have been farmers for for generations. And it was my, my grandfather, who who first started farming farm here. Originally, it was it was a dairy farm. And then granddad, he was I never knew him, but by all accounts, he was a huge character in a a real innovator. So he was he was known as one of the best group her vegetable grows around. He invented this, machine called a collector crop, which helped to kind of automate harvesting cabbages and cauliflowers. And, yeah, so so he started growing vegetables, for the wholesale market, and the emerging supermarkets of time. Quickly realized that that was a bit of a road to ruin. Just the same old story that if you're selling anything to a supermarket, you're not gonna make enough money to to live. So, yeah, he he went out to California and saw this concept of pick your own where people would come out to a farm pick their own produce, kind of engage with growing and farming. And then let just pay a few pence at the at the farm gate and and off the gate. So he he started one of the first, but We we it may have been the first pick your own, concept in the UK. And from there, we we grew and, he started selling kind of milk and cream from, Mary Quick who we now sell her cheese. And I'm sure some of your listeners were familiar with quick cheese. And then some local eggs. And and it kind of snowballed from there. Unfortunately, he he then died in the nineteen seventies, when my dad and uncles were were still fairly young and and they came back from agriculture college. And kind of continued what he started. And this was at the time before kind of local food was trendy and and cool and and fashionable. They just had these these beliefs that you should be eating food for produced around you and and there shouldn't be these big supply chains and disconnect between farming that had started to emerge in in the decades before that. So, so, yeah, Dan and and brothers have this vision of of somewhere that combined kind of local food with warm hospitality and the great outdoors and home and lifestyle. And in the past thirty odd years, we've just grown slowly in the same kind of agricultural bonds. And now we have just shy of two hundred and fifty people employed within the business, another hundred and fifty jobs on-site, butchery, fishmongers, cheese monger, all all the things you'd expect from a farm shop. But then also, outdoor clothing, home ware, a wellness are. So a a full kind of holistic lifestyle experience, but still very much rooted in in agriculture and farming. And, we're now farming more than either. We have a a gorgeous herd of native ruby red Devin Castle kind of for a mixed rotational farm, seasonal vegetables, little bit of arable in oats and wheat. So, yeah, that's that's that's kind of where we we got to today. Yeah. It's, it is quite an inspiring story, George, and it's one that I followed because I've known you your dad and your uncle from for many, many years. And I've seen the business grow from that roadside pick your own to first a small farm shop and then a small farm shop with a butcher and a deli. And gradually, it's grown and grown. Into, already amazing and wonderful food hall, but as you say, with a lot of other businesses that are on-site as well. So it's been, long evolution, but, evolution that's also been following the story of how food is evolved, and our engagement with food here in the UK. So I'm very, I feel very fortunate that, you know, darts is on the doorstep. I can walk to it. But I think our listeners can also understand how the UK has changed over the last thirty years, and we are much more aware perhaps in an Italian way of the importance of eating local of sustainable foods, supporting local producers, and enjoying the bounty that's literally on our doorstep. Now George, you mentioned, Devon as as having this great larder. And I think that's very important because Darts farm is very much about local and about local producers. And so, you know, let's just discuss that in a little more detail. What makes Devon such a special place, especially such a special place for food produce and and good things to eat and drink. Yeah. Absolutely. It's it's kinda probably a combination of of culture and and climate, really. We're meeting you maybe a little bit biased now, but we've probably filled it. We've got some of the best cheese makers, cider makers. That that's probably due to the amount of rainfall we have. The mild kind of temperate climate. We grow a lot of amazing grass. We do get a lot of rain. Yeah. No. It's, yeah, we're we're known as a summertime kind of tourist destination, but we get a lot of rain as well. But, yeah, we've got amazing, grass growing conditions, which translates to beautiful, diverse rich milk, and then, hence, to choose, probably got the most land under orchard, and and I know some set likes to lay claims about, but if you speak to Barney from from sample orchard, so tell you that the Devon is the historic home of cider. And and then more recently wine as well, we've got a a growing, amount of vineyards producing gorgeous English wine. And then the two coastlines, and I think those kind of climatic conditions have bread. These people that they've got a long kind of history of producing food. There's a great kind of history and heritage of food production, whether it's salmon fishing on the ax, anything really. And, yeah, then we're just really kind of lucky to be surrounded by all of these amazing people. Lots of small artists and producers, many of whom are producing foods that can be found in the food hall. Yes. Yeah. I mean, we we stock hundreds and hundreds of small suppliers that based within kind of twenty five to fifty miles, it regularly come in for for tastings, and we get together, at food festivals. And it's a really, really great, kind of culture and community seem to be a part of. Ed Hart's farm still remains, although it's grown and grown over the years, and I've seen it grow. It's very much a family business with your father and your uncles, Mike Jim, and Paul. And now you you're in the business. George. How old are you? And when did you decide that you wanted to, you know, carry on in the family business? Was that a difficult decision? Yeah. So I I'm twenty six years old now. Me and my sisters and my cousins grew up around the business. Of all of my earliest memories are, and I'm making dens in the stock room, and causing carnage probably looking back now at us and then a nightmare for all the stuff. And then as soon as we could be put to use, we were made to work and kind of, Deb was very keen on making us do every job in the business and learning, I think, for from the ground up, which is, which was great. And then at the same time surrounded by all these passionate and energetic people. All these food producers and stuff was an amazing part of my upbringing. And then kind of went off to study at at Reading University. What did you study, George? I did a food marketing and business economics. Okay. Which on on paper sounds very relevant. But it was a it was a slightly different school of thought to what I was used to down here. It was very much geared towards getting a a kind of grad job at Diageo or Aldi. So I learned a lot of interesting things, but it was kind of a little bit alien to to what I've kinda grown up with. So so I came back after UNi. I still was too sure whether I was gonna stay home. And there's a kind of a lot of pressure at that age, a lot of friends go to London and get away from home. But I was kind of drawn back to to the business and this part of the world and not necessarily a city city boy. So, been lucky enough to grow up in Devon. I think it's such a gorgeous place. So I I came home in two thousand and nineteen. Works a little bit at home. And then I got an opportunity to to go up to London and do some work, spend a bit of time with Neil Derry, who are kind of the that probably UK or the world's, most iconic, a half an hour and cheese wholesaler. So at that point, it became kind of immersed and fascinated in the world of farmhouse cheese. And anyone who kind of spends time around, Nilsianca is a little bit indoctrinated and their kind of way of thinking. So I came back from that, really inspired. And then suddenly, COVID just hit bang like that. And, this kind of world I've been introduced to is suddenly under frack with with no route to market. A lot of the cheese makers around here, so sharp and Brega Sharpen who's just in top mess who makes amazing sharp and brie soft cheese. He had a a cheese bridge full of cheese with suddenly, no restaurants to buy it and a kind of a ticking time bomb. And that was the same for all of the small artisan cheese producers across the country. So we we set up this campaign called thirty days to save British cheese where we kind of featured different cheese makers each week and did an online box And and, yeah, that the reaction was just amazing from customers. We moved more cheese in that time, even with a, like, pretty much half empty shop. We moved more cheese than we would at Christmas time. COVID, I mean, it for all the the negative implications it had for for me coming back into the business, it was probably the most dynamic and kind of innovative we've ever been because we had to think on our feet to the start new initiatives and, yeah, be really dynamic. So, that was probably I never looked back from the that was a great, great time time in my life. Yeah. Yeah. It was a really challenging time for everybody to live through, but as well for for businesses, it was really, really challenging as well. And I know that some of the initiatives that you were involved in during that time of, you know, really grown since then, and we'll talk about the farm table a little bit later in our chat. George DART's Farm really champions the local and the artisan. You know, it's a great champion of of food and produce from from Devon and from the whole of the southwest. But there's also always been a strong Italian connection at DART Farm. And I'd like to just touch on that because I think that the relation with Italy has been an important one. I've traveled to Italy on a number of occasions with your dad and your uncle, uncle Jim. We've been to the salonee del Guusto, and I know some of the thoughts and ideas that we've discussed over the years have come to the fore in darts farm. But, you know, you do have a large range of artisan products from Italy. You you've traveled to Italy yourself. So what do you think is so special about Italian foods and, of course, Italian wines and why, it's important to represent them in DART's farm. Yeah. I mean, we've we've got a huge admiration for Italian culture and cuisine. And I know a lot of the early inspiration for the DART Farm was was from traveling in Italy, down in gym. Trip view to to Terun and to eat any stores and just kind of immerse themselves in that Italian culture. I think it's it's the regionality and the the identity that they've preserved that I feel we've lost a little bit here in the UK and you could travel around Italy and and have different cuisines and different way of preparing food, and they're very proud of that that culture, and the diversity, rich diversity we've got across the country. And and also the value that they put on food as something that should be shared with family and with the community. Food isn't a commodity. It's it's a way of life. And that's something that we we we truly believe in here. And we although we place a big emphasis on on local here, it's not necessarily just confined to to the geological sense. So, I mean, we can't produce olive oil over here. We we don't grow lemons. So, one, so we we try and partner with with people and and source products like that from from small scale producers that are proud of their provenance and have a a rich story behind them. Just like if we were sourcing a a chutney from down the road or something something that's local here. And as a as a food retailer, we're we're kind of expected to sell oranges and tomatoes. So we kind of thought why don't we just sell the best kind of terrify blood oranges or if it's you can't go tomatoes in season here, then that's fine. Some gorgeous winter tomatoes from Italy or traumatic courgettes. So, yeah, we we've got a, yeah, a deep kind of relationship with us, Lynn. And, yeah, every time I I go on a summer holiday, I'll take you, Mark, and ask where the best place to go is, and and that's great for me to to explore. Yeah. So I think that I think that's right. And I think you're right. The ethos, I think that we all appreciate and enjoy in Italy is is very much in tune with that ethos at DART's Farm of enjoying seasonality, artisan foods, at craftsmanship that Italy is so good at in in in so many ways in the world of food and drink. And just the goodness and freshness of foods. So I think that it's very much a a shared philosophy. Italian wine podcast. If you think you love wine as much as we do, then give us a like and a follow. Anywhere you get your pods. Of course Italian wine is, you as you know, Georgia's Yeah. Is, my main passion, and we've shared some good Italian wines together. And I've drunk probably far too much with with your dad at times as well. But you're now, actually, and your family are also a vineyard owner, and it's a vineyard that's part of my life and community because it was founded by a mutual friend, Jeff Bowen, who's no longer with us. But I was just with you a couple of days ago, and we are tasting some of the new vintages of pebble bed, which are drinking very well. Tell us a little bit about the pebble bed story. Yes, Mark. I mean, you'll be more familiar with the early days of pebble bed that than I will, that the first vines were planted by us just two years old. So so Jeff who who founded the vineyard was was way ahead of his time with, Viticulture in the UK and organic farming. So so, yeah, the the vineyard was planted in nineteen ninety nine as a, you know, community project between ten families. And and Jeff was this kind of larger than life, full of energy, but it's just, yeah, infectious and could convince anyone to do anything. So he had friends with a a south facing field, convinced them that they should all plant some vines and made some some great wine. So Over the next couple decades, Jeff planted a few more fields and was was able to buy a farm just over the hedge from here in Crescent George where he grew it to to eight he had to divines. By trade, before he went into to the wine trade, he was a an environmental consultant. So he had a a great understanding of geology and underlying, sort of rock formations. In that sense, the the name the Vineyard Pebel bed, Vineyard owes itself to bubbly Sultan Pebel bed, which is a geological formation that's is robustly, which has got a lot about three, three or four miles from here, across Woodberry common, and fruit to the farm here with these great big puddings stones, the size of dinner plates, which, aid the drainage of the farm, to give pebble that kind of unique minerality. The wines. Always had a great close relationship with Jeff, between Dart's farm and and pebble bed. Both our businesses were very aligned with with values and philosophy and with the weather we found. And also the the emphasis that we put on on food in the community. But then, unfortunately, in in two thousand eighteen, Jeff, yeah, sadly died of a a brain tumor fairly suddenly. And, yeah, we he was always his his belief that Hubble Bedge should kind of stay in the local food scene. A future of public should be with someone understood that the values, that he had and the vision that he had. So so, yeah, Jeff's wife Anna offered us to buy, buy the business and and the farm. So we, yeah, we've taken now in the last couple of years. Still with the same winemaker that that worked with Jeff for for ten years. And you have to continue to to to make the wines, two sparkling wines, three still wines made from from varieties that suit this this part of the world. So cool climate varieties, Saeba Blanc, Rondeau, Phoenix, Madeline, Njovy, all grown in a very sustainable way. We're very low intervention. And, Mark, I mean, you would have drunk the wines for the last twenty years and and probably more familiar than anyone with the purple bed story and the purple bed wines. Yeah. It's it's, an inspiring story. It's a sad story. Jeff was a dear, dear friend, I miss him and you know, it was a tragedy when he died at such a young age, but he was a pioneer. He believed in English wine, in Devon wine. He he was, as an environmental consultant, he was very aware of changes in climate and anticipated that Devon wines could become more and more important and actually find themselves on the worldwide map as as English wine is now. And so he was ahead of his time. I know he was a, a great friend of your family as well. And so I think, it's great that pebble bed is in your family's hands now because, you know, you respect an honor, Jeff, and what he did. And at the same time, we're taking it forward and continuing with the wine making and with Alex. And, you know, I was really impressed with the wines we tasted just, just two days ago. Going back from twenty twenty two, to the two thousand eighteen vintages and, you know, a very strong pebble bed personality coming through. So, you know, well done to all of you. Well done to Alex the winemaker. I think is doing a really great job. He's a young winemaker as well, isn't he? He is. Yeah. He's I think he's thirty years old. So, so, yeah, he started in Vineyard's, but he was just thirteen, fourteen, at a local vineyard of his. And then, met Jeff, again, making wines at at Pebelburg. Over a decade ago. So, yeah, he's still spooky young. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So he's so young, but he's already got I think he said, what was it? Twelve vintages under his belt already? And he's only Yeah. Only in his early thirties. So, yeah, he's he's done a great job here. And he's got the psychopaedic knowledge of the farm. So while that we've gotten the kind of character Jeff was, he he never did things simply. So when we kind of took over or took on the business, we had to try and wrap our heads around all of the crazy things that Jeff had done around the farm, and Alex just, he's he's got a memory, and elephant knows absolutely everything. So he is a great guy to help on board. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I think the Pebel bed story will, you know, continue to be written in the in the wines that that follow in the years to come. So I'm looking forward to to that. Now, George, I just wanna finally, turn to a project that I know is very important to you. It's a project that you really brought to DART's farm, and it came during that strange, but as you say, productive time of COVID. And that's the farm table. I think it's a very special place that you've created. So let's just talk about the farm table, how you came up with the idea and what it actually is. Yes. So the farm table, it was a little bit crazy the way it came about because we never had this grand plan or business plan or, yeah, timeline for it. We it was during COVID. We our our original, restaurant has been open for twenty years and and a super busy. And then COVID hit and and we were stood in the, like, the children's toy area. And at that time, we just partnered with a local cider maker barney from sample orchards to to have a tap bar and a small batch cider at the back of the store. So we thought we ought to probably do a little bit of food with the cider. So we kind of knocked through a wall into a little bit of the stock room and and had a a space for the kitchen. And then realized we had quite a big kitchen for only probably four seam seats. So we then were we're stood scratching our heads in the Children's toy department. And for actually what really makes us tick is as great as teddy bears and stuff are. We believe in food, and and we had demand then we felt we've accused of the the other restaurant. So we've kind of set up on this journey of building another restaurant that that truly champions farm to table eating. Simple food cooked on fire. And this this kind of organic journey just began. And, yeah, we've been very lucky that our kind of naivety has been unpunished so far. But fantastic. That's showing us he's got a real passion for vegetables and making vegetables to start the show. So so the ethos of the restaurant is combining the farm and the food hall. Mega season, although the menu changes a little bit every week, depending on what's available from the fields, championing the ruby red beef that we have, and then a recently spring lamb, a fish from brickson. I'm not trying to be too friendly with the food and preparing the dishes. It's all about simple ingredients, making them sing. And we thought that's the the kind of the good chef is it's not actually having to manipulate the food. It's just how how can you make the carrot or something so simple. Just tastes so amazing. And combining that with warm hospitality and just a beautiful ambiance. So So, yeah, we've we're we're really proud of of the farm table so far. We've been open for for just over a year now. And, yeah, we've we've got a really great kind of young team that are really excited by what we're doing. And, yeah, some, pouring some great Italian wines from a friend gennaro who I know has done a podcast with you. And it's just down the road collaborating with some great great chefs to come in and do get chef evenings and wonderful, themed dinners. So demo and dime night. I think we might have one with you lined up. I don't know if that's that's common knowledge or or able to announce that yeah, we've been doing Italian wine evening with you. So, yeah, it's a really exciting time. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I think it's a great place, George. I think it it really is a special place because it's doing exactly what you said, cooking I think Tom's a brilliant chef because he he really just cooks simply, but really brings out the flavors of of as you say. Whatever vegetables are being harvested from the fields that day or week. I think the vegetable cooking is some of the most exciting foods in the farm table, but the meats are cooked over charcoal. The fish is cooked over charcoal. You've got the pizza oven, wood fired pizza oven as well. It's a nice atmosphere too, very casual and relax, and I love it. So I think you're doing a great job. I know you devote most of your time to the farm table these days, and you're running it very well. So good job. Thank you. And I'm certainly looking forward to, my event with you. I think that's in May. Yeah. That'll be really, really exciting. Wines for your your recent book, combine that with some of Tom's feed and and a few stories. So I think that's that's the the main thing is in our industry storytelling, and and we're lucky enough to build this community of people that are really engaged in what we do. And I think we're in we're on the customer really kind of exciting food revolution where people are starting to reject these ultra processed foods and, standardized, to modernize food, and that they're really seeking out local, and trying to get gain a better connection to where their foods produce and who's actually thing, the work is. So so, yeah, it's a really, really exciting time to be in this industry and and and this part of the world. Yeah. I think that's right. George, I think the key is, as you say, is is storytelling, you know, telling the story behind why artists and produce is is so good, you know, who's making it the human side. I really appreciate you taking the time today to tell the DART's farm story because it has been an inspiring story that I followed over, well, nearly four decades or more than four decades, George. So I'm glad we've been able to share that with our listeners all around the world. Thanks a lot for being my guest, George. And I look forward to having a glass of wine with you in the farm table soon. Really looking forward to it, Mark. Thank you very much. For having me on. Thanks. See you soon. We hope you enjoy today's episode of wine, food, and travel. With me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Please remember to like, share, and subscribe right here, or wherever you get your pods. Likewise, You can visit us at italian wine podcast dot com. Until next time.