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New farm shop is Classic by nature

Date: 10/11/2006 | Posted by John Garton
JERSEY shoppers can now buy fresh produce, dairy goods, meat and flowers from a new site out of town. Classic Farm shop at Manor Farm, St Peter, opens on 11th November selling a range of produce which promises to be mostly local.

At Manor Farm – home of the Classic Herd of Jersey cows – Darren and Julia Quénault have been perfecting their array of goods. Their new 1,000 sq ft shop sells dairy products which are all made on site. These include milk, double and clotted creams, and fresh and ripened soft cheeses.

Within the past few months, they have already received recognition in a national competition for their range of cheeses which include soft herb cheeses and Jersey camembert, brie and a blue cheese. They also sell beef, pork, sausages and bacon, in addition to organic maincrop potatoes which are grown at the Elms in St Mary. All the Classic Herd products carry the Genuine Jersey brand, which conveys a message Darren is passionate about:

“We wanted to create a quality shop where people can buy fresh local produce and be assured of the origin of the food – everything from the Classic Herd range is produced from our own herd and all our local produce is GM free.


“I’m a firm believer that if you can source food locally it should be done. We’ve already got a loyal customer base and we’ve been producing our cheeses in limited quantities since early summer. We’ve had great feedback and I hope this will bear through to our other dairy produce, meat and potatoes. We’ve made a considerable investment in what we believe the public want. We’re proud of what we produce in Jersey and proud to add the Genuine Jersey logo to our range. It helps to generate loyalty and also gives our customers an additional element of confidence in the product,” he says.

Darren went on to explain his approach to stocking local produce. He said: “Seasonality is really important to us. If locally grown vegetables and fruit are not available in the Island at any point in the year then our shelves will be empty, not filled with goods that have had to be transported many miles. It’s something that the public are increasingly demanding and something that’s important to us too.”

The range includes:

  • Dairy products – fresh milk, cream and cheeses from the Classic herd

  • Dairy Beef – quality meat from the herd

  • Sausages and bacon from free-range, prime pigs

  • A full range of Genuine Jersey quality products throughout the seasons

  • Organic potatoes grown by the Quenaults at The Elms (National Trust property in St Mary).


The shop also sells everything from mustard to vegetables – as long as they are in season, of course – to accompany the core product lines of meat, milk and cheese. There are also various non-local items such as cheese biscuits and unusual sauces and seasonal spices to bring out the best in the Classic Herd range.

Darren and his father Charles have been farming together since 1982 at Manor Farm and their cows are the top production herd in the Island.

The Classic Farm shop is open from Monday to Friday between 8.30am and 6.00pm, and on Saturday from 9.00am until 5.00pm. The telephone number for the shop is 485692.