Every morning, Lorna Jackson greets her 75-year-old mum in Saltburn’s Real Meals delicatessen that was first opened by her mum, Sheila, and her late stepfather in 1998.
‘Mum says it’s the best breakfast in town and after working hard her entire life, she shouldn’t have to make her own breakfast anymore!’ Lorna laughs.
Lorna’s mum retired from the deli in 2019 – the same year she lost her beloved Tim when he was 74.
But it remains a family affair with Lorna’s brother Dan one of the chefs and leads in the kitchen.
‘He’s got my Mum’s talent for cooking – he’s really creative,’ says Lorna, who was born in Halifax and lived there until the age of 12. Her sister-in-law also cooks and works front of house and their children work in the deli.
‘It’s a real family business – my two girls have also both worked at Real Meals and on festival day, even the young children get involved – and my partner sometimes works in front of house where he makes a mean flat white!’
Sheila and Tim first started the business from their own love of food. They had been teachers, but by the time they were 50, Tim had been made redundant and Sheila had suffered a heart attack.
They weren’t ready to retire and thought there must be other people that really love good food. The couple started selling French cheeses and Italian salamis, Parma hams and. ‘other things that you couldn’t previously buy locally’, says Lorna.
The emphasis was always on ‘real’ unprocessed food. As an ecology graduate, Lorna travelled around the world advising on best practice farming.
She particularly recalls the outstanding quality of the food in organic orchards across the UK.
‘At the time my mum and Tim started the business, I was working as an agricultural researcher, looking at sustainable farming systems. The quality of the food I was experiencing was just unbelievable.
‘A lot of the produce on those farms tastes so much better and is so much better for the environment!’
With the growing success of the family business at home and her wide-ranging experience on organic farms behind her, Lorna made the decision to join her mum and Tim at Real Meals in 1999.
‘I’d experienced all that good produce and the idea of sustainability and brought this experience with me into the deli,’ she says.
‘With the three of us at the helm, there was time for me to explore my interests in local food systems and my love of shopping. So from 2008, the farmers market became like an extension of our shop. We extended the food choices that could be offered in Saltburn but also brought a bit of excitement to what is a beautiful town.’
Next, the shop itself expanded, moving from Station Street to bigger premises in Milton Street.
Lorna was also influenced by a particular holiday in France in around 2010, where she would visit night markets. In France, the town centre would be closed to traffic. Cheese and salami producers and ‘anyone with something good to sell’ set up a stall.
‘I looked around and thought, ‘there’s nothing that they are doing here that we couldn’t do in Saltburn’, Lorna said.
‘We saw that there was such an appetite for food festivals and bringing stalls offering real food.’
Although the food festival was her own idea, Lorna calls herself co-founder, because of her friend Alison’s input and involvement.
The festival stems from a Community Interest Company (CIC), Food First, with the idea that if you eat the right foods it leads to a much better life.
‘Food brings everything and everyone together and the idea of Food First is that we lead with food when we’re looking at strengthening our community and our economy. I saw conversations and relationships developing around the farmers’ market and the positive impact of people coming together to enjoy food and drink at the festival. It makes you feel really grounded being part of a town and a community where you know people.’
As for the future, Lorna looks set to continue working on the festival and farmers markets for many years to come.
Her gran just celebrated her 100th birthday – and she worked in the family deli until she was about 80.
Lorna also has big plans beyond the festival, as she says: ‘I love the idea of developing, not just the food festival, but food and drink in general across the North East and North Yorkshire. I think we are on this path of how great things are going to be – and how tasty things are going to be!’
Saltburn Food Festival takes place on Sunday 28 July 2024. For more information, visit foodfirstsaltburn.co.uk
