Why?

. is always a good place to start. As individuals we chose to be interested in the lifestyle choices we make and especially in the decisions on what we eat. Our concern for our food is four fold. We want to know that:

• our food is wholesome, is in a simple form (mechanically recovered meat is so unappealing) and, perhaps radically, actually tastes of something.
• our food is free from artificial contamination (we don't like the idea of ingesting things designed to kill things).
• our food is from a system which delivers benefits rather than costs to the environment
• our meat is from animals given the scope to express natural behaviours (like pigs rolling over to have their tummies scratched)

If we chose to consume like this, we also should chose to produce like this and so we have set about trying to farm in a way which can deliver food that meets, in a visible way, those choices.

How?

As simplicity is not exactly a byword of modern food production and processing, to best be able to assure ourselves and our customers that what we eat can meet our concerns the shorter the production chain and the closer we can keep it to home the better.

For us this starts with farming organically - as an ideal and as a quality assured system. Alongside the standards we also chose to farm with animal breeds suited to our philosophy and our environment (short square cows are less likely to get blown over). We actively seek to promote bio diversity and quantity, just for the pleasure of hearing a murmuration of skylarks. Slaughter of the majority of animals takes place within 20 miles of the farm and the transporting is under our control. All butchery, curing, processing and cooking of products is undertaken by us at the farm in our own butchery and processing area. We also run the delivery round.

We are advocates of the Slow Food movement (www.slowfood.org.uk) which champions the diversity and traditions of food production as a response to the idustrialisation of the world food market. It supports food which is Good, Clean & Fair. Good - in its quality & taste, having been simply crafted with care and passion, Clean - in its minimal ipact on the environment and its sustainable production methods and Fair - in the non exploitation of producers who receive a fair return for their endeavours.