Playing to your strengths

Nigel Logan’s innovative flair has transformed his Co. Antrim farm into a heavenly destination for those in search of the best food and drink that NI has to offer…

Hillstown Farm near the village of Ahoghill in County Antrim offers a textbook demonstration of the potential that can be unlocked by an innovative approach to quality local food and drink.

This is a livestock farm that’s been in the hands of the Logan family for the last four generations – Aberdeen Angus and shorthorn beef, sheep, pigs, chickens, goats and even llamas are currently at home on the 150-acre site six miles south of Ballymena.

But the real genius behind the Hillstown operation lies in the way that its current pioneering incumbent, Nigel Logan (39), has sought to develop a multi-faceted and unique food and drink offering.

Around a decade ago, when the fall-out from a foot-and-mouth epidemic across the UK was still impacting adversely on beef prices, Nigel began thinking of ways in which he and his father, Francis, could diversify and boost their income.

It was the first step on a process that would eventually transform Hillstown into a uniquely self-contained production operation. Today on the farm, there is a retail butcher’s shop operated by Nigel’s brother, Alastair and stocked entirely on-site. There’s also a busy 70-seater café bistro, an artisan food and drink store and the most recent addition, a craft brewery that currently produces around 1000 litres of beer each week.

The whole farm is now geared towards supplying meat to the butcher’s shop and the bistro – and with abattoir facilities available in nearby Ballymena, it means that food miles can be kept to a minimum:

“The butchery and the adjoining shop did well for us from the start,” recalls Nigel. “We thought we’d take a chance since a lot of farm shops only open at weekends, but we opened full-time from the start and took Alastair on to look after the butchery about a year after we started.

“We’re aiming to produce meat that people know they can trust. Customers can come down in here and know that the pigs have been born and reared here, they know us and so they trust us.”

Currently, around 1000 shoppers a month are visiting Hillstown to shop at the butchery and the artisan store, which carries goods from across Ireland and GB.

About two years after the butchery operation was launched, Nigel opened the bistro in a next-door unit:

“We were already producing all this meat and so we thought it would be a good idea to cook it for people too,” says Nigel. “Everything that is sold in here comes from the farm and we like to think that these are pretty good products.”

“The food scene in Northern Ireland has taken off over the last few years and you only have to look at theresults in the Great Taste Awards to see how successful it is,” says Nigel, who has won at the Ulster Pork and Bacon Forum’s National Sausage Competition no fewer than six times. “I don’t think that NI food producers shout enough about that and how good their products actually are.”

But it’s the brewery side of Nigel’s burgeoning operation that really breaks the mould. He established a micro-brewery in a building behind the restaurant a couple of years ago in order to facilitate the production of Japanese Wagyu-style beef:

“We like things that are a wee bit different here and we really wanted to try this beef,” he explains. “We started brewing our own beer for that and now, each of the animals is taking about six to eight pints of beer a day, which helps produce a really tender, first-class beef.”

And Hillstown’s beer is also available commercially in four different varieties – the original Horny Bull Stout; Massey Red Ale; Goat’s Butt Bear, which gained two Great Taste Award Stars and Spitting Llama, a seven per cent Belgian triple. The beers are distributed to outlets across Northern Ireland by Drinks Inc.

It’s all in keeping with Nigel Logan’s belief that farmers need to look at what they have and decide how they can make their assets work better for them:

“I think you have to face facts that you can’t earn a living the way your father did or you grandfather did before you,” he says. “We set out to do what we did well, to produce the best beef, and although we have diversified, we haven’t changed. We still do everything we do the best way that we can.

“Farmers have a lot of different skills. It is their natural instinct to be very versatile and many are turning their hands now top doing other things alongside farming. And whether it’s engineering or farm shops, it’s all important because it’s keeping farming alive.”

As for the future, Nigel intends to retain the niche feel of the Hillstown offering. Aside from supplying some beef and pork to the River Room restaurant at the nearby Galgorm Resort and Spa, he has no plans to expand the operation beyond the Hillstown site, other than via the businesse’s new online ordering service, which went live in December.

“Once you get too big, you have to bring in suppliers from outside and that’s something we want to avoid,” he says.

“In terms of our beer operation, I’m happy with things the way they are now. Maybe next year, we’ll go a bit further, perhaps expand down south or into GB.

“We’re also going to be opening the restaurant in the evenings with a different menu on offer.

“But our online store is going to be our big priority. We intend to add an artisan section to it where we will be listing all the local producers and great products that we have to offer.”

In the medium term, Nigel hopes that the entire farm operation will have grown. He already holds open days at the farm on a couple of occasions every year and he is considering extending that programme in the future with much more regular access.

“The business is going well and I’m happy with it,” he declares. “We think this is the best way to expand the farm, rather than buying land at the margins we could expect. This is by far the better option.”