Speciality Food April 2025

“In regions like ours, so many people are touched by them. They know the name of the business, or have seen a signpost for them, or have an attachment to the farms after seeing the machinery out at cropping times. They’ve been a core part of many landscapes and areas for a long time.” Making a mark Growing up on the farm, running around the land with his brother and sister, enjoying picnics amongst the cherry trees, Stefano says he has a deeply felt affection for farming and rural life… but also for family, and his strongly held values run through the offering of the business today. “I grew up recognising that family businesses should be a hub to support the next generation, but also the wider community.” The core of Macknade as a food hall grew during the 90s, when it exploded onto a burgeoning farm shop scene. Though it wasn’t as easy as putting up a few shelves, loading themwith jars of jam and welcoming shoppers through the door. “Planning officers didn’t understand then the difference between the kind of quality produce we wanted to sell, and generic retail outlets. It would have been really frustrating for my parents,” Stefano says. Fortunately (and in part thanks to a prominent position close to an A road) success would follow Patricia and Renato in their bold new vision. “At the turn of the Millenniumwe stopped farming altogether,” says Stefano, adding that the finances no longer made sense. “My grandfather was retiring, and the retail side of things were growing, we were cash generative, which certainly wasn’t the case with agriculture.” Stefano joined the business in the early noughties, excitedly travelling Europe to find produce that aligned T enmiles fromCanterbury, perched on the edge of Faversham (an important creek town, which once jostled with traders from the surrounding area and Europe, transporting their wares up to London), is the hamlet of Macknade –which gives its name to one of Kent’s leading food halls. The evolution of Macknade, today operated by Stefano Cuomo and his management team, is both romantic, and inspirational. A story that reaches from the almond and olive groves of the Italian island of Ischia, to the cherry orchards and hop yards of the Garden of England. Stefano’s family have been farming the Macknade land since the mid- 1800s. It’s always been a productive, ever-changing dynamic. The family operated petrol stations 60 to 70 years ago. They were some of the first pioneers to print their farmname on trugs of produce delivered to London. They sold direct, as many others did, from the side of the road. Where the story takes a twist from traditional agriculture is in the late 70s, when Stefano’s mother Patricia, working in Italy as an au pair, met his father, Renato. The pair bonded. Over good food and wine. Her farming background. And his industrious nature, having grown up in a place where self-sufficiency wasn’t some rural idyll inspired by a TV show, but a part of everyday life. A time for change Returning to Patricia’s family farm, Renato found himself inspired to ‘get stuck in’, training in horticulture at Hadlow College and, in 1979, carving out his own niche, taking 20 acres of land adjacent to the main commercial operation, and springing forth a market garden. One ripe with possibilities. While it might have been apples or grain being grown up the road, Renato busied himself bringing 30 @specialityfood more unusual, exotic (then) produce to customers, be it plump, bruise- coloured aubergines, or shallots. “They were seeing a lot of farm diversification at the time,” says Stefano. “This was a generation (my father was in his early 20s then), that was wanted to try something new, often looking at the American culture, where pick your own was growing at a pace. At the same time, we were starting to see this tradition of high- end chefs coming out of London and setting up restaurants, looking for great produce.” Renato wouldmeet their demands, growing what they needed, little and often, and selling direct from a farm shack. “That was 1979, the year I was born. My father very much just cracked on with it all andmymother supported him as was traditional in those days. She’d do the accounts, while he was out in the fields.” It was hard to make a living as they edged into the 80s, with a loss of interest in British farming at an alarming scale across the UK, and increased reliance from retailers on foreign imports. “There was a kind of shift in society,” Stefano continues, “all around how people were engaging with produce. My parents decided to grow the pick your own side of the business, looking as well as small scale producers and providing an outlet for them, while starting to source from other growers in the area.” As is the case withmost diversification projects, there wasn’t any defined plan at the beginning of this new era for Macknade. “They just had this absolute love for produce and for Kent and for the land, and community. All of these things are, I think, what makes agricultural businesses so important,” Stefano urges. We travel to Kent, and Macknade, where the values of community and family remain at the core of everything the team does DARINGTO DIVERSIFY