A Day Out on the Farm
An all-important part of keeping the connection between our shops, hard-working team and the produce we are selling is to make sure we organise regular trips to the farms of our friends and producers. It helps us all to understand and appreciate the hard work and effort that goes into rearing animals properly with the highest standards of welfare and to share this with our customers.
As we have always said, animals looked after well in the field, taste better on the plate. The more care and effort put in throughout the entire process, the better the quality of the produce.
Botterills – Free range poultry
We recently took people from all eight shops in London for the annual pre-Christmas trip to the Botterill family farm in Leicestershire. The Botterill family rear our 100 day chickens, ducks and those all-important Christmas turkeys and geese for Christmas tables around the country. It was sausage rolls at dawn and a long drive up the A1 but we were greeted with glorious November sunshine and the geese on their daily walk to their paddock.
Boyton Farm – Caroline Wheatley-Hubbard’s Tamworth pigs
Stunning pure breed Tamworth pigs have been reared at Boyton farm for generations. We recently went to visit them and catch up with Caroline.
A little history: Joshua Hurst Wheatley lived and farmed in Warwickshire at the turn of the century. He had reared pigs for many years, but in 1921 he bought his first pedigree Tamworth, Jemima, and she was to be the start of the pedigree herd.
Over 90 years later, Caroline and her son Chistopher, farm in Wiltshire, breeding Jemima’s direct descendents. The Berkswell herd is now the oldest Tamworth herd in the UK, with over 20 sows from all the bloodlines and three boars. Caroline has long been friends with our founder Tim Wilson, sharing his passion for sustaining this wonderful breed.
