Newsletters from a small farm like Lower Hurst  tend to get written when one of us has a spare moment.  Hence the rather long gap since we last sent one.

We are pleased to say that the farm is still here on the Derbyshire / Staffordshire border, with all the cattle, both young and old, safely tucked away in the barns out of the wintry weather.  Only the sheep flock are to be seen in the fields and they will happily stay out all winter.

We continue to produce our own 100% organic beef and lamb, matured and butchered here on the farm and sold as usual through our farm shop or by mail order.  We remain an independent family owned and run business aimed at meeting a demand from people who are on the lookout for exceptional food and who like to know where their meat is coming from and how it has been produced.

Our website first went live almost 8 years ago when there were few British farms selling direct to the public.  How things have changed!  Most areas now have farmers’ markets or farm shops of some sort and customers have a variety of interesting alternatives to the standardised supermarket fare.

Change afoot

Reading the above you might assume that it’s a case of business as usual at Lower Hurst but the reality is rather different.  Earlier this year, we were asked if we could supply Derbyshire’s primary schools with organic beef for their school dinners.

Without entering into the detail of the various initiatives by central and local government to improve school food generally, the idea was to get local and organic food on the school menus.  The sheer volume required could have been a stumbling block but we decided early on that this was a cause worthy of all our efforts and the farm is now producing 10,000 tasty little meat balls a day and several other LHF products will be added to the school menus from April 2008. 

A key part of what we call “the schools food project” is that the local schools will now visit the farm to see first hand where their meat comes from and how it becomes a meat ball or other lunchtime treat.   We expect to receive our first school visit in January.

Looking for Quality

 The Lower Hurst research department (Sharon, Dave and Lesley) continues to extend the range of meat which we can offer.  The French Cuts and Mature Beef really do offer different flavours compared to the regular British cuts and the schools programme is pushing us to present good quality organic meat in a form which children enjoy.  This week we have had two mothers ringing the farm to ask if they can buy the meat balls direct from the farm so something must be working!!

Organic

People often ask us whether we really need to farm organically, and many of our fellow farmers are reluctant to recognize the value of being organic.  UK organic sales are still growing at an impressive rate and only this autumn, an independent EU study has published research suggesting that organic food has up to 40% more nutritional value.  So, yes, we must continue to farm organically.

So where is the farm shop in all this?  Well, it is true to say that the butchery has been taken over by the schools initiative but since our main business remains the production and sale of extra special organic beef and lamb we have been converting part of the original farm building into a smart new farm shop which will have been in use for the first time on 7 & 8^th December. 

We want the farm shop to remain a true outlet for the farm’s own produce.  Many of the new wave of farm shops supply a wide range of goods from different suppliers.  Lower Hurst will remain a working farm whose produce can be bought direct off the farm.

Don’t forget - the shop days are the first Friday and Saturday of each month and we are open from 10am to 4pm.

January Shop Sale – 4th & 5th January

As usual, our first shop weekend in the New Year will have all our frozen lines on offer at a 20% discount to normal price.