About Us

In December 2005, we completed the purchase of 35 acres to the back of our garden. The land needed attention. We decided to put a new stock proof fence around the perimeter of the field and remove large quantities of ragwort which would make it ideal to rent out.

However, our children had different ideas and our eldest daughter drew up a business plan on her computer. They wanted to grow up on a farm!

We had no experience in farming or land management, so armed with many Smallholder magazines and books we began developing her plan. With only 35 acres we would never be able to farm on a large scale so we set out short-listing our livestock to suit.

Any livestock would have to supply us with a high quality, excellent tasting produce not available in the local supermarket. We would also have control over their diets and care. By keeping animals as traditionally as possible we would eliminate the need for unnecessary drugs and vaccines. The more we researched, the clearer it became, that all these criteria fitted together beautifully and were indeed very feasible. The only reason farms have intensively bred meats, dairy and eggs is in order to reduce costs to the consumer, with huge implications to the welfare of the animals and subsequently the contents of their produce.

Traditionally many of these animals would never finish so quickly, produce such vast amounts of milk or lay that many times a day. This is due to generations of selective breeding. This in turn breeds generic problems which require the routine use of drugs. Something everyone nowadays has been made aware of by a number of celebrity chefs. I found it shocking that even today, battery hens are still fed additives which make them produce yellow yolks like that of free range.

So we set about acquiring the old fashioned, rare breeds of livestock which had been bred for showing / exhibiting, quality rather than quantity of produce, hardiness and disease resistance.

Margo

Pigs are very friendly

Margo our first sow

Gayle the sow, Margo’s mother

“The one major thing that started the farm was me (Shannon the eldest). It all started out before Martha was born with me sitting on the sofa next to mum and watching a programme on TV about farming (Jimmy’s Farm). Then the thought came in to my head that we could run our own farm. I didn’t mention anything then but, a few days after, I had a piano lesson and my teacher was talking about her life when she was a child and she mentioned the fact that she was brought up on a farm. Then the thought went back into my head and that night I mentioned it to mum and dad and for one whole week I was telling them and eventually the farm began to develop.”