The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Where good food doesn’t cost the earth
GROWING FRESH fruit and veg for Lidl means embracing sustainability, and producing food where the focus is on quality.
For Chris Baldwin, who supplies the supermarket chain with piccolo and vine tomatoes from the Kent farm where he is operations director, the process involves a clever balance of technology and human expertise. “Data and science help determine how much we grow, but our skilled pickers hand select only the best tomatoes to go in every pack,” he explains.
It’s a passion for the scientific side of things that has taken Chris to where he is today. Not a born son of the soil, his interest was sparked by a holiday job picking tomatoes aged 16; after finishing school he went back to the farm and learned all aspects of the business. A REAL MIX
“What kept me here is the mix of science, engineering, technology and mathematics with the physical side of things.” he says.
Much of that technology goes towards improving the quality of the tomatoes in preference to higher yields. “We put a lot of time into getting the right density of plants,” Chris explains. “Overcrowding can result in tomatoes that are too small. A vine might deliver up to 18 fruits, but we can reduce that to 14 or so to maximise the energy, we cut down on waste.
“Light levels here are good and this is key for growing all crops, including tomatoes. It boosts the rate
“Piccolo seems to be our most consistently popular variety. That’s cherry on the vine, with a really nice balance between acidity and flavour. Half the site will be dedicated to those.”
When it comes to sustainability, as much material as possible is recycled or composted. But that’s not all, as Chris explains: “Heat coming off the farm’s electricity generators is diverted to the glasshouses, as is the CO2 run-off; the crops are hungry for CO2, so it’s better than putting it into the atmosphere.
“In fact, the power we generate is far greater than we need, so it gets exported to the grid for local homes to use.”
COMMITMENT Demonstrating Lidl’s own ongoing commitment to sustainability, by 2023 all its non-organic British fruit and veg farms will be LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) Marque certified.
It’s an initiative that our farming industry. To that end it has pledged to invest £15billion in British food and farming (see box).
Lidl also looks out for those who work picking, packing and delivering the produce it sells. Chris’s business is very much in step with this: “Fortunately it’s becoming more common across the industry to think about staff. We have very transparent ways of working, and encourage staff to feed back on what could be improved. Happy staff are really key.”
The good news for Britain’s shoppers is that, despite growing these tomatoes sustainably and looking after all those involved in the production process, Lidl is still able sell them at its famously competitive prices. Sounds like a win-win. 400g
ANYONE who is familiar with Newcastle city centre can’t fail to have noticed the work that’s taking place in Pilgrim Street and the wider area.
The place is undergoing a major transformation which will, says Newcastle City Council, “provide a huge economic boost, securing a vibrant future for our city centre for generations to come”.
The unpopular eyesore,
Commercial Union House, has recently been torn down, paving the way for a new £155m HMRC office complex to be built.
Demolition work has also seen the removal of the Stack shipping container leisure village and the former Dex car park.
Bamburgh House in Market Street will also be bulldozed and so too will the interior of the listed Carliol
House, though its Art Deco facade will be incorporated into the new development.
Slightly further south, around Worswick Street, the former bus station, taxi office, NCP garage and Wilders bar have all been making way for the massive regeneration.
One building in that area of the city that will remain standing but will be refurbished is the Grade Ii-listed Worswick Chambers on the corner of Worswick Street and Pilgrim Street. It’s a building that holds a surprise – or, in fact, 25 surprises.
Newcastle local historian and photographer Steve Ellwood, who has been kindly sharing some of his work with Chroniclelive, reveals a striking feature of the building that many will be unaware of.
He says: “There are 25 sculptured heads on Worswick Chambers and House which have been obscured by scaffolding and plastic mesh for many years. It’s certainly a Newcastle curiosity and one not a lot of folk might know about.”
Here is a selection of the 25 heads photographed by Steve.
It’s a fine building, but one many will have walked by without giving it a second glance.
Steve points out: “Worswick House and Chambers were built in two phases, 1891 and 1898, to a design by Newcastle Architect W Lister Newcombe for Alderman George Grieg Archibold. Minor alterations were made to the building in 1900.
“The faces were sculptured by
John Rogers, from Heaton, who worked for the firm of Robert Beall, stonemasons of Castle Yard near the High Level Bridge.
“He was supposed to base the sculptures on famous people, but instead used his family photograph album as models for the heads. Similar designs can also be seen on a building at the corner of Bigg Market and Grainger Street.”
Carved stone heads on buildings became a fashionable architectural trend during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, before falling out of at the onset of the Great War.
Recently, with the ongoing redevelopment of the wider area, Worswick House has been under renovation and the restricted view was removed for a while, allowing those ‘in the know’ to see and photograph the carved heads – but the scaffolding and covering has returned over the last week or two.