Charlie Fermor is a fourth-generation, multi-British Farming Awards-winning farmer, and his patented process of preserving the bond between natural sugar and fibre in preparing the products is key to them providing children with the best possible nutrition. All of Freddie’s Farm’s products are made with 100% British fruit and veg. As a result, we have lower free sugars, which help prevent kids getting sugar highs and crashes, which we certainly like to avoid with our two at all costs!” Soaring demand and sales boost

Now the fledgling business has fought off competition from hundreds of other hopefuls to be named Aldi’s Next Big Thing and landed a contract with the national supermarket chain, as televised on the Channel 4 series in November. Sign up and find out why our readers call our newsletter the most influential in Business. Get the UK's leading business content straight to your inbox every week. Hosted by Countryfile’s Anita Rani and Chris Bavin, of Eat Well for Less, the six-episode series sees hopeful food and drink suppliers compete for a space on Aldi’s shelves, before Julie Ashfield, managing director of buying at Aldi UK, decides on the winner – who is then given their very own space on Aldi shelves.

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As the couple are making all their produce from their farm in Kent, the ongoing cost-of-living and energy crisis is making it increasingly expensive to keep operations up and running.

We offer Sheepdog training and experience days. We have dogs of all ages and experience which will often work for anyone as well as having different sheep in different environments. The drying process has been perfected over a long time so it’s quite special. We try to keep the flavours you get in raw fruit and veg,” Laurie said. Freddie’s Farm is based at the Fermor family’s Bramley Mount Farm in Ashford, and produces a range of fruit shapes aimed at toddlers that currently come in three flavours – apple, raspberry and blueberry – but all contain beetroot, carrot, and spinach, and no added sugars. Charlie Fermor, Co-founder, Freddie’s Farm, says: “ It’s just been such a long time getting to this point. I started the journey as a student studying agriculture at Reading University. I took such a risk when I invested in our unique dehydrating machine. Then with the pandemic happening just as business was taking off, at one point we thought we’d never get here. Actually during the show we’d convinced ourselves we hadn’t won, but when Julie announced our name it was crazy. We can’t be happier, and it was so exciting to tell the kids – we can’t wait to get them down to an Aldi store to see it on shelf now!”

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We need to look at ways to make everything more efficient – and to meet our ever-increasing demand,” she said. Laurie Fermor, Co-Founder of Freddie’s Farm, which also employs two factory staff, said: “Our business idea, inspired by our taster-in-chief Freddie and now his baby sister Ottie, has come a long way in a short space of time, and recognition from a name like Aldi marks the latest exciting milestone for us.