Smallholding
In many ways, we’re farming novices and probably make many amateurish mistakes every day – hopefully less as time goes on and we learn from our experiences. For us, the more important issue is our belief in nature and natural things. We’re constantly listening, reading and discussing – and we also take some formal advice. We’re not aiming to be organic or biodynamic, not that we disagree with these ideals, but we are more focused on biodiversity and limiting our negative and maximising our positive impact on the environment. We are committed to ensuring we practise good animal husbandry and we obviously avoid the use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers on the farm. We’re particularly focused on self-sufficiency and sustainability and find the whole regenerative farming, permaculture and, even, rewilding ideals as great inspiration. Ultimately, we want to harmonise the symbiosis between cultivation and nature.
Our expertise comes when the ingredient is ready – we know how it should taste and recognise its ideal condition, allowing our kitchen team to make it into something delicious.
Livestock
The paddocks immediately surrounding the farmhouse are home to our small flock of pedigree Poll Dorset ewes. Over the coming year, we’re planning to gradually increase the flock whilst balancing this with our kitchen and menu needs.
On the hill above the farmhouse, we have a large pig pen where we keep a few Oxford Sandy & Black pigs. We’re pleased to be able to ensure that the pigs enjoy a nutritious diet including vegetables and fruit from our gardens and whey from the organic cheese maker located just four fields from our farm. We make our own bacon, sausages, coppa, prosciutto, brawn and thankfully enjoy excellent pork chops, amongst many other things.
Just next to the farmyard we have a large fully-enclosed chicken run for our egg laying hens and ducks, that also enjoy a wholesome diet of vegetable trimmings and organic feed.
Kitchen Garden & Fruit Growing
We’ve got two quite large gardens where we grow everything from a plethora of different vegetables and fruits to chamomile and calendula for herbal teas. In general, we do not grow large quantities of basics like carrots, potatoes, beetroots and so on. Instead, we aim to have lots of different and unusual things - heritage varieties and cultivars that aren’t always easily available, such as winter radishes, puntarelle, kohlrabi and cime de rapa, etc. Our aim is to grow according to the natural seasons and pick the ingredients when they are at peak condition. Then, we immediately (within minutes!) get them to our kitchen – zero miles, zero packaging and zero waste!
The original kitchen garden is a combination of traditional and no-dig gardening techniques (we sometimes competitively grow things to see what tastes better!) and the new production garden is exclusively no-dig with the only exception being the fruit cage that is home to 250+ raspberry canes, 100+ strawberry plants and various colour currants and gooseberries.
We’re fortunate to have a large greenhouse and a separate poly-tunnel where we operate a successional sowing and propagating plan throughout the year so that we can enjoy produce in peak condition over a longer period. That said, we equally celebrate gluts, which provide opportunities for our kitchen team to produce a wide range of raw and unpasteurised preserved foods.
In late 2020, we planted 35 new fruit trees including various plums, gages, mulberries, quince, pears and medlars, that should start to fruit from as early as summer 2021 but which we are seeing as more of longer term plan.
If you are interested in starting your own kitchen garden or simply want to know more about growing herbs, vegetables and fruit, we plan to host day courses covering these subjects. See the Workshop schedule for more details.
Bees
One of the first things we established when starting on our journey was the importance of introducing bees to the farm. Their role as pollinators should not be forgotten or under-estimated and we’re keen to set an example for others to do the same. We’re also honey lovers! Our honey production is never going to be huge but we are aiming to have a few hundred jars per year and also provide complimentary honey to those staying in our cottages. More importantly, we’re fortunate to be working with Paul Webb of Black Bee Honey and he’ll be hosting monthly beekeeping workshops at the farm from May, further details can we found on the Workshops schedule.
Foraged & Wild Ingredients
We are pleased to work with @thehappyforager on the sourcing of local foraged ingredients for our menus. And, we can arrange unique foraging days for small groups.
Wild venison and game from our area is supplied by two excellent (and responsible) local gamekeepers. Deer stalking experiences and masterclasses in venison butchery, amongst other things, can also be arranged.
We’re also surrounded by organised shoots, which kindly supply us with much appreciated pheasant and partridge.