The hippies whose hard work paid off

GLUTEN-free grain, pasta and bread have become staples for hundreds of thousands of people across the nation and even have their own dedicated aisle in most supermarkets and wholefood stores.

But back in 1978, when ‘Free From’ pioneers Clare and Michael Marriage began experimenting with a range of wheat-free flours, they were met with scepticism.

Undeterred, the precursors of the organic movement in the UK carried on and, more than 30 years on, their business boasts one of the largest ranges of gluten-free flours in the region, including maize, teff, quinoa and tapioca.

Doves Farm was a labour of love and like most success stories started as a small undertaking – in this case a two-person operation.

First, the couple persuaded Michael’s parents to allow them to convert one acre of the 350-acre family farm in Hungerford to organic farming methods, as well as begging a £1,000 loan for a stone mill which they set up in the barn.

Michael used to climb a step ladder with a sack of wholemeal grain on his back and pour it in the top while Clare sat in the kitchen weighing out the flour into small paper bags. They then piled the bags into the boots of their cars and trawled around independent retailers trying to drum up sales.

In those days wholemeal organic flour was unusual and it took a lot of persistence to convince independent stores to stock their products.

“The problem initially was that we were trying to sell wholemeal flour at a time when it was hardly known,” said Clare. “We wanted to get into the supermarkets because so many independent shops were going out of business. But when we rang to make appointments with the supermarket flour buyers I don’t think they knew what to make of us. I think they thought we were total hippies and that we were going to show up wearing sandals and beads!”

As well as being early adopters of the UK’s organic movement – their Soil Association Certificate is number four – the couple were also at the forefront of the development of the ’Free From’ sector.

That same year they began growing and milling maize on the farm and dabbling with other types of grain to make alternative flours. The decision was prompted by Clare’s mother’s intolerance to gluten.

“We puzzled a lot of people, especially when we mentioned things like teff [an African cereal used to make flour],” added Clare. “Some had never even heard of it. But eating gluten-free food is a lot more accepted now.

“It started with my mother and quickly we sold it to other people as well.”

From this early experiment, Doves Farm Foods has become one of the leading specialist flour mills in the country, producing more than 50 types of flour from 10 different grain species with a product range spanning organic and gluten free flours, cereals, biscuits, cereal bars, pastas and unusual grains such as quinoa, teff and buckwheat.

Stockists include Waitrose, Tesco, Amazon and Ocado, as well as numerous independent and health food shops.

Despite the rapid expansion of their range, the business remains a family affair. Every product pack features a recipe, developed and tested by Clare in the farm house kitchen. This is a tradition Clare has been following since the business was started in 1978, when she regularly tried out the recipes on her young sons Jethro and Rupert.

“The challenge for the gluten free recipes was to make them so that they couldn’t actually detect they were gluten free and that they enjoyed them just the same as all my other dishes,” said Clare.

Now grown up and working alongside their parents in the business, Jethro, 31, and Rupert, 32, continue to be their mother’s willing guinea pigs.

As for Michael, he looks after the 350-acre organic family farm where he is currently growing emmer, rye, wheat and spelt. The farm also rears pigs and sheep.

He was the first UK farmer to start growing spelt around 20 years ago, long before it became fashionable with chefs and bakers.

Michael trained at Berkshire College of Agriculture. In 1975 he spent a year delivering heavy machinery in Iran before returning to work on the family farm with his father.

Clare was inspired by her mother and started making bread from scratch in a bid to beat the bakers’ strikes in the 1970s. She soon found herself baking loaves to sell to shops and delis in Pimlico and Victoria.

A small catering business followed, Clare Cooking in 1974, specialising in vegetarian wholegrain catering.

The couple’s incursion into unusual grains has meant the farm cannot supply all of the company’s requirements – many of the grains would not even grow in the UK. So Michael sources grain from almost every part of the world, except Antarctica.

“UK grain can be plump and full of starch, not protein, so we need to import from dry countries where the heat stresses the plant and allows it to then produce protein,” explained Michael “That’s why most people import wheat. Canada produces some of the best wheat in the world.”

Although the success of the Great British Bake-Off series has done a lot to fuel interest in baking, Michael believes that many people are still put off baking bread, thinking it takes too long and is too complicated.

“I think it’s a lot easier than baking cakes. At home we just make the dough in the evening, leave it to prove overnight and pop it in the oven in the morning. It takes just 10 minutes and is so easy. And, of course, home-baked bread is absolutely delicious.”