0Gretchen…
Cookery School Owner, Farmer & Mum of two!
‘How did you end up here?’ (Here meaning Netherstreet Farm)
Netherstreet Farm is a Crown Tenancy Property with my family being tenants since 1889. When my father was ready to retire it was a choice of giving the farm up or one of us 3 children taking up a Tenancy with the Crown.
I started my company Jack & Maddie in 2013 and I was looking at ways to expand. In 2015 I was teaching a course I had developed in schools and looking at the possibility of taking over the farm meant that I could expand as well as live and farm in the place that I absolutely loved. The Farm Cookery School was born in 2016 and my Jack and Maddie team and I create and run all the events and classes within the school
In September 2021 also took over the sole management of the Farm and together with my Netherstreet Enterprises Team we farm 360 acres of Land and look after our herd of 70ish Galloways. We are proud to supply home grown Galloway Beef to the local community from our Click and Collect Farm Shop.
So that’s me, but there are other members of the Jack and Maddie Team that are absolutely vital to the success of The Farm Cookery School….
The Jack and Maddie Team
Laura
Laura joined us in September 2017 to help with Customer Services on a 6-hour-per-week contract. By 2018 she was working 21 hours running the finance for Netherstreet Enterprises and The Farm Cookery School as well as masterminding our Social Media Campaigns! Laura is now my Operations Manager and works closely with me on all projects in both the Farm and the Cookery School – a bit of a change from what she thought she was coming here for!
Josie
Josie is the key to our Education Team, she is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist and so brings a whole host of skills to working with children. Josie and I bonded over our love of cooking and actually met because our daughters went to the same school. I was absolutely thrilled that she joined the team and she teaches the alternative provision course and complex needs classes , as well as helping when we have large corporate groups here!
Ciara
Ciara is the latest person to join our team. She has a young family so she is with us during school hours. She sometimes works with Jodie and I in the kitchen as our right hand woman and is a whizz in the kitchen keeping everything clean and beautiful.
She is also a whizz at marketing and promotes our events through various marketing channels
Jodie
Jodie joined us in September 2018 as my Kitchen Manager. Since 2020 Jodie has been teaching classes and she is absolutely excellent. She runs all of our Holiday Clubs, Children’s parties, Saturday Chefs and Bakers plus our Adult and Child cooking together classes. The children and adults love her fun and friendly approach to teaching and she is extremely knowledgeable. Jodie is also our resident Baker and develops all the new Baking Recipes.
The Team
We work within the Government Guidelines with a team of 14 – 18-year-olds who are fantastic. They are quick to learn and keen to work and do all of the washing and cleaning up.
I work closely with the parents to ensure that they are not doing too much – especially when GCSE and A Levels come around! They are our backup in Classes and I am hugely grateful for their help – and yes of course we pay them (above the min wage actually!)