Jim Fairlie The Kitchen Farmer

Long gone are the days when queuing for half an hour resulted in a greasy fish supper or scabby-not-quite-meat burger. Nowadays we want provenance, flavour and a real foodie treat as part of our event experience and organisers have had to listen up.

One man who knows only too well the importance of traceability and good food is local farmer, Jim Fairlie. Jim was brought up on a council estate in Perth, was a first generation, contract farmer and was the brains behind Scotland’s first farmers market in Perth some nineteen years ago. He is passionate, vocal and as many a councillor has found out, a force to be reckoned with when it comes to his beliefs.

One man knows all too well the importance of good food and traceability, was the brains behind Scotland's first farmers market in Perth some eighteen years ago, a force to be reckoned with.  That man if Jim FairlieJim started working in farming back in early nineties but his love of animals had started young – there’s a whole blog out there somewhere on racing pigeons. It’s a well-known story now that Jim campaigned for and launched Perth Farmers Market in 1999 while working as a shepherd at Glenearn Estate. Together with a voluntary board of directors from the local farming community he worked hard to establish it as the must-visit event on the first Saturday of every month.

But how did a wee laddie from Letham end up running a business that now sees him serve up his own top-notch, quality burgers to ravers, tennis fans and racing pundits across Scotland?

In 2007 Jim took on a contract farm agreement at Kindrum Park Farm on Mansfield Estates. Although the size and scope were very different from Glenearn, provenance remained at the heart of everything he did . This ongoing commitment to local produce would set in motion a series of events which would carve his unlikely career and business into what it is today.

Having supplied Scotland’s top chefs, markets and farm shops for a number of years, Jim and his wife Anne were becoming increasingly frustrated that one bad day at a market or a slow-paying restaurant could have a real knock-on effect for both profit and cash flow. Looking for new ideas, Jim recalled a bad experience involving a dodgy burger van at a U2 concert many years before. At the time, it had sparked a comment from Anne which had lingered with both of them; “You’d think there would be a market for really good burgers at big events.”

The first outing with their ready-to-eat food was in 2009, at a Runrig concert at Scone Palace. Collaborating with other Perth Farmers Market regulars, the group had been tasked with serving up good, local produce to the masses who were due to ascend on Perthshire. Jim had sought out the help of local chef Graeme Pallister and the two worked together on a recipe for making a top-quality beef burger. To say they were sick of hand-patting burgers by the end of it is an understatement, but they tasted bloody marvellous!

People loved them, but more importantly Jim and Anne were hooked on the high energy buzz of the festival and decided there and then that this would be the next logical route for their diversified farm business “There’s no doubt that first Runrig experience was frought with steep learning curves; we knew we had to improve systems to become more efficient but the principle of us serving great festival food was there. We’re a couple of determined buggers, my wife and I, so we quickly pinpointed where we could become better and set our sights on the ultimate in Festival Food - T in the Park.”

Realising that hand making burgers for a crowd of 85,000 people was not feasible, Jim and Graeme returned to the kitchen to develop a recipe that could be made in a regular burger press.  “That first T in the Park was without doubt the biggest learning experience we’ve had. Apart from the sheer volume, we were dealing with a large corporate event company and that came with its own challenges. We got there though and ended up doing seven years, adding to the menu with shepherds pie, soup and steak pies made with chunks of our own shoulder steak. People loved what we did – it was that simple.”

Cut to today. With their two daughters, Mhairi and Caitlin, both out making their way in the world, the idea to sell-up and travel did cross their minds.
“The girls had been a big part of our family venture and, at first, it just didn’t feel right without them. However, once we started weighing up options we realised we were looking at things the wrong way; and so instead of selling, we’ve rebranded as The Kitchen Farmer and ramped the whole thing up a notch!

Jim still farms his own beef and lamb, commissioning Seriously Good Butchery to manufacture the beef and lamb burgers, and beef sausages. Together with the butchery owner, Vikki Banks, Jim has tweaked at hanging times, seasoning and size to get his products just the way he wants them. The Kitchen Farmer burgers are all meat, using prime cuts such as topside, silverside rump and even the sirloin.

So when they talk about a steak burger, that’s exactly what you get. Served in a fresh baked morning roll with salad and caramelised onions they are arguably one of the best products on the Scottish event scene today. Their pies are meaty, delicious mouthfuls of Jim’s own beef, and when the wind is howling round Perth Racecourse, I can promise this is the only thing you should think about eating!

This year has seen some major changes for the couple. Having re-evaluated the business, they gave up the contract Farm agreement they had with Mansfield Estate and cut their stock numbers down to accommodate supplying the catering business needs alone.

Anne said; “ we have done a bit of a 180 degrees on what we are doing. The Farm used to be 80% of the business with the catering side being a 20% diversification. With farming becoming more difficult all the time, we decided we wanted to be in more control of our own destiny, and with growing demand for our festival food, we decided to focus more on that and grow the catering side of business”.

Jim added; “ we are now producing beef and lamb for our own use, which currently means we don’t need to have nearly so many cattle or sheep. As the business grows we can look at increasing the numbers to match the demand from the catering side. I’m effectively farming for our own kitchen, thus the name The Kitchen Farmer, I’m sure there’s a book deal in there somewhere” he said with a laugh.

This summer has been busier than ever for the couple, and they now have a mammoth six weeks ahead. They will be in Glasgow Green for the European Athletics Championships from 2nd August til the 12th, while also doing Perth Show on the 3rd and 4th of August as well as the Perth Highland Games at Scone Palace on the 12th of August (phew, we're busy just writing about it!). It will then be a super quick turnaround before the couple head to the World Pipe Bands Championships in Glasgow as well as running the catering Concession for Perthshire Rugby’s fabulous big day on the 18th August, when Glasgow Warriors play Harlequins on Perth’s North Inch, and then again on 19th August for the Perthshire Salute. It’s then on to the Annual Vintage Tractor and machinery festival of Farming Yesteryear at Scone Palace.

Anne added, "it’s extremely busy at times, but we love the buzz of pulling it all together and then seeing our regular customers who make a point of looking for us at events across the country. it’s brilliant when we get repeat business and great feedback.”