A quirky new farm shop has opened up at Townsend Farm in Brampton Abbotts.
The Little Meal House was built in just three weeks from an old horse trailer, and is run by the Taylor-Davies family. The farm shop stocks locally produced products with a focus on regenerative agricultural techniques, which enhances the environment and farm ecology.
As well as delicious cakes, chocolates, biscuits, cheeses, bread and cooked breakfast packs, there will also be the addition of fresh Milk from Trewen Farm from this Friday 29th January. Boxed home grown regenerative chicken, lamb, hogget, pork, and beef orders are being taken from 1st February, with lots more to come in Spring and Summer.
The farm shop is open daily from 6am-8pm and can be found at the entrance to Townsend Farm, Brampton Abbotts, HR9 7JE. Card payments are accepted.
Follow the Little Meal House on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelittlemealhouse/
You can find our more about the farm, the techniques and plans for the future by visiting: https://www.regenben.com/
Ben Taylor-Davies has gone into more detail about the farm, their plans, The Little Meal House and the reasons behind it below:
Farming in the UK has to change…. massively! The ‘green revolution’ has been anything but! Yes, it’s fed an exploding world population, but to the detriment of the environment, ecology and the main asset that a farmer owns ‘soil’
The difference between dirt and soil is quite simply ‘life’ a teaspoon of healthy soil will have more microbes then there are people on planet earth. These microbes are able to provide plants with everything they need, however synthetic inputs and cultivation’s have turned most of the nations soils to dirt.
It is our aim at Townsend farm to regenerate our soils, enhance the environment, protect our SSSi the river Wye and uplift the ecology that is found here, all whilst lowering inputs and increasing profitability! This really can be done.
The focus here is based around taking carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, this reduces the massive effect CO2 is having on the planet and carbon in the soil does everything from regulating moisture to providing plants with nutrition as required.
The 5 principles of soil health are being observed and leading us to a more sustainable future, which also means the reintroduction of livestock on the farm and recreation of traditional meadows, as well as diverse herbal leys.
Animals however do require husbandry and care and with a busy family life and a regenerative farm advisor role for myself, it was a chat with our friends Nicola and Matty Richardson-Wall, who were brought up on the Man of Ross farm, were also keen on keeping farm animals, that we made the decision to reintroduce livestock. We have concentrated on rare breeds and now have sheep, cows, chickens, ducks, geese, goats, pigs and alpacas which will all help contribute to soil fertility.
There is a market to sell slow growing healthy, nutrient dense quality meat, and we discussed many times a farm shop. However stocking fresh meat on a daily basis will take a huge amount of effort to provide a consistent supply, and with one of the best butchers around in Hanks’ Meat & Game, it would be a tricky market to compete in. Instead we are hoping to supply Tim with meat as local quality producers, as well as offering boxed meats of whole or half carcasses as butchered by Tim.
It was during the chats about farm shop etc, the idea of the Little Meal House meal was born, named by my mother Sue after the barn it is parked next to where ‘meal’ was milled for animals back in the early days of horses and steam power.
Trying to lower ours and others carbon footprint we work on a few principles, although COVID has meant some of these will be unrolled in due course.
1. Reusable packaging wherever possible, where not, it can be composted.
2. Encourage visitors to come by foot, bicycle or horse.
3. Supply with as much produce as we can from the farm, other produce has to be local and have the same desires about the environment as us.
4. Focus on high quality nutrient dense foods.
5. Produce to compliment each other.
The largest issue, was how we would deliver our ideas, and with my wife Helen’s love of horses it was looking at an old one that we thought we could convert pretty quickly into a small honesty shop.
In 3 weeks at various times of the day and night we converted the trailer as can be seen in the video https://www.regenben.com/shop/
We towed it out a few days before Christmas and have left it to pretty much create it’s own audience, carefully increasing stock items with Great Trewen milk being available for the appropriate #febudairy.
We intend to also stock OMGoat ice cream in the summer and fresh berries when seasonally available. Information about our animals, the history of our farm and some self-guided farm walks will also be coming, which, depending on distance, walks will be indicated around the farm with explanations of what we are doing and trying to achieve.
Time will tell where the project heads, but at the moment we are thrilled with the response, and looking forward to the spring when the hedges and field margins begin to flower and the wildlife becomes far more vocal and obvious. By which time we hope we will have the walks planned and signed.
