Field to fork - Free as a bird

In the first of a new series looking at how pubs are using the produce of local suppliers, Richard Fox hangs out with Paul and Janet Talling.

There's free-range, and then there's FREEEE-RANGE: take Paul and Janet Talling's Loose Birds organisation for example. If they were running a house of questionable morality, that may be an apt title, but as a poultry and water foul farm, it's a case of outrageous understatement. Their birds are so free, easy and chilled but, it's a wonder they don't fall out of their luxury penthouse coups. You see, ever since I discovered the catalogue of distasteful acts perpetrated against intensively reared foul, I have always gone straight for the free-range label with a conviction that I'm buying into utopian farming methods.

But in the mystical world of food production, things aren't always as they seem: next to Paul's feathered friends, the average free-range label is like calling yourself an international playboy based on a couple of 18-to-30 holidays to Majorca. I learned a great deal on a Sunday morning visit to the idyllic Yorkshire village of Harome, also home to the Star Inn - a delightfully thatched, Michelin-starred pub. Could the proximity of such an esteemed eating establishment to perhaps the finest purveyor of fresh birds this side of the Pennines be coincidence? Or is it in fact the living embodiment of the chicken and egg conundrum? Maybe it's just serendipity: whatever, it's certainly a synergy worth considering when selecting a venue for lunch. Arriving at Paul and Janet's farm on a freezing February morning, I'm initially greeted by the sight of a field of rather vocal, waddling ducks; an adjacent field of gaggling geese, and several, seemingly empty enclosures - apparently that's where the chickens are.

Paul and Janet's animals have freedom of choice - which is more than can be said for the majority of others. In spite of free-range labelling, the reality is this: enormous sheds packed with huge quantities of birds, most of which never get to see the light of day. To chickens, daytime means feeding time, and that's exactly what they do - 24 over 7. That is, until they can't stand anymore because they've reached their killing weight in about four weeks flat. "Loose Birds", on the other hand, take about 12 weeks to reach killing weight, due in no small part to the exercise regime Paul subjects them to. Yes indeed, this place is Champneys for foul: their feeding trough is deliberately placed up field, forcing the idle buggers to get off their fat, feathered bottoms and take a stroll. And what a treat is in store when they get there: a diet of grass meal and maize, not to mention the natural grass they're encouraged to peck at when they feel like it.

I'm just a little surprised not to find white linen tableware and a wine list. Now, even if you're hard enough of heart not to give two hoots about the comparative lifestyles of anything lower down the food chain than homo-erectus, it's important to realise that all these factors have a direct effect on flavour. In the food world, time is taste - until that is, it's time to meet thy maker. At this point, the most desirable thing for all concerned is a quick, stress-free end. Once again, there's no compromise where "Loose Birds" are concerned. Without further ado, we leave this rural idyll, go round a couple of bends and arrive at "the finishing stage". This isn't so much industrialised processing plant as, well, rural idyll. Indeed, Paul suggests that if this element of the production process were ever taken out of his hands, he'd probably give up the business altogether rather than trust his flock to the methods of the masses.

As if this wasn't enough to form a textbook case of high-quality hand-reared production, Paul has a final finishing flurry up his sleeve: the birds are dry, rather than wet plucked. While I won't bore you with technical details, think of a tailor hand-stitching a bespoke suit, reverse the process, and you'll get the idea. By this time, our feathered friends are looking like the trussed-up bundles we're used to seeing. Except they have a natural straw-like hue to the skin, rather than the artificial-looking golden tan often found on the corn-fed varieties, or the insipid, pasty whiteness of the intensively-reared kind. The real test now is to nip round the corner for a spot of lunch at the Star. With one of Paul's trussed chickens cooling down in the boot of my car (that's how fresh it is!), I opt for his Aylesbury cross duck - served with pancetta and creamy curly kale. I close my eyes and reflect on a loved-up world where… the living is easy, fish are jumping…

Contacts:​ Loose Birds​ (Harome) Ltd Tel: 01439 770683 The Star Inn ​ Tel: 01439 770397