The Principle
Our ethos about food has long been that is should be, whenever possible, FRESH, SEASONAL, LOCAL and ORGANIC (in that order of importance). This is not just for our own health, but more importantly for the overall health of the planet. Nowadays, so many businesses seems to have jumped on the 'green band-wagon' and, by making practically no changes at all to their business practice, can suddenly provide a "sustainable product with a zero-carbon footprint". We don't believe it's that easy. For us, its become a bit of a crusade to achieve a truly sustainable lifestyle and what we've become are peasants, poor in money terms but extremely rich in all the resources we need, not only to survive but to enjoy an enviable standard of living.
When we first came to France, all we wanted was enough land to be able to become basically self-sufficient in food. It's taken seven years but we finally feel we've got there. It's been a very steep learning curve and an enormous amount of hard work but certainly worth it. What a fantastic feeling it is to put a meal on the table knowing that we've grown absolutely everything on it; to know that there are no additives or preservatives (without having to plough through loads of small print on the labels); to know it's all 100% pure, top-quality ingredients; to look forward to the foods which fit the season; that first sun-ripened tomato in June or a fattened goose at Christmas.
Meat plays an important part in our diet and our farming system. At the scale we keep animals, every single one can be guaranteed the highest quality of life, in the conditions they would naturely live. We try to do all the slaughtering on the farm so that no stress is caused to them in their last few hours. Now that we have our basic breeding stock, all our animals are born on the farm and never leave it. Once they have been slaughtered its our duty to make sure we use every single bit possible, nothing gets wasted. This leads on to our belief that food should not be seen in isolation from the inputs and wastes involved in its production. By recycling between plant growth and animal husbandary, there's no such thing as waste - everything provides energy and nutrients for the next thing in the cycle. We aim to produce just enough of everything for our own consumption with a bit left over for sale to our friends and holiday-makers. It's great to be able to offer people the opportunity to eat such a wide range of truly home-grown produce of a quality and freshness that's hard to beat.
The Practice
The Animals
If you're a vegetarian, you may find what follows a bit disturbing. If you're a meat-eater, these are only the facts of life (and death), unsanitised by a polystyrene tray in a supermarket chiller-cabinet!
Top of the list has to be Alice, our Jersey cow. Everyday she provides us with about 11lt of the creamiest milk. We hand-milk her in the field where she lives with her daughter, Natasha, and two granddaughters, Molly and Emily (destined for the freezer in 2009). They graze outdoors all year round, there's field shelters for them if they need it. With the milk we make a reblechon-style cheese, butter, yoghurt, cottage cheese and ice-cream.
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Then comes Mummy Pig, our Tamworth sow. She produces about 2 litters a year of 6-9 piglets by artificial insemination as we couldn't justify keeping a boar for one sow. Of these piglets, we fatten two ourselves and sell the rest to friends and neighbours as weaners. These pigs are fed on the whey left from the cheese-making, any non-meat scraps from the house, boiled veg peelings, topped up with our own milled grain (tritical this year). The combination of traditional breeds and a wholesome diet results in some of the best pork you'll ever taste. We kill them on the farm and can therefore collect the blood for making black-pudding. We also make bacon, sausages, faggots (including the lungs), patι, Parma ham, traditional boiled hams, chorizo, pork pies. Some of these things are still at the 'experimental' stage, others are perfected and appear on our produce list.
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The Produce List
| Jersey milk | 1 per lt |
| Jersey cream | 3 per lt |
| Jersey clotted cream | 5 per 250g |
| Cottage cheese | 3 per 250g |
| Natural yoghurt | 3 per 250g |
| Le Coty semi-hard cheese | 18 per kg |
| Real raspberry ice-cream | 5 per 500g |
| Raspberry Pavolova (serves 8) | 16 |
| Free-range chicken eggs | 3 per dozen |
| Bunny Burgers | 1.50 each |
| Lamb Burgers | 1.50 each |
| Free-range pork | from 12 per kg |
| Free-range chicken | from 9 each |
| Rabbit | 12 each |
| Fresh Raspberries | 2.50 per punnet |
| Tomatoes | 2 per kg |
| New Potatoes | 2 per kg |
| Sweet Corn | 1.50 per cob |
| Mixed green salad | 2 per bag |
| Cucumber | 1 each |
| Courgettes | 1.50 per kg |
| Pumpkin (various sizes) | from 1 |
| Beetroot | 2 per kg |
| Spinach | 2 per bundle |
| Garlic | 50 cents per bulb |
| Onions | 2 per kg |
| French beans | 3 per kg |
| Runner beans | 3 per kg |
| Fresh Parsley or Corriander | 1 per bunch |
| Raspberry Jam | 3 per jar |
| Goldfish (free-range,Catch-your-own!!) | from 1 each |