Tails From The Farm – January Newsletter

Welcome to our inaugural newsletter. Better late than never and the first of many to come. Thank you to so many of you for subscribing to our newsletter. We have been working extra hard behind the scenes over the Christmas period to bring you an exciting programme of events throughout the year ahead. Not only our regular farmer’s markets but also a comprehensive array of food festivals and regular visits to local taprooms, distilleries, and wineries. So check out our calendar to see where we are going to be in 2024.

Farm to Fork

We started the year off with a visit from one of our favourite customers, Oakley Hall Hotel near Basingstoke. Head Chef, Jacob, who is all about local and working with producers, brought along both his kitchen and restaurant staff to see what we do and how we do it. They met a group of our ewes and had lots of questions so that they can explain to their clientele just how special our lamb is.

Oakley Halls, Glasshouse fine dining restaurant, boasts fresh local products sourced by Head Chef Jacob himself from within 30 miles of the hotel.

The Lamb Van 2.0

At the beginning of 2023, we saw the introduction of The Lamb Van, and there is absolutely no denying that it’s been nothing but a roaring success, selling out at multiple food festivals and events. The past 12 months have been a steep learning curve, and we hugely appreciate the patience of all of our customers, who have been a great support to us.

As we moved into 2024 and after much deliberation, we have taken the leap and added The Lamb Van 2.0 to our catering empire. Although we will never part with the original Lamb Van, you will still see it out and about. The Lamb Van 2.0 is much bigger, allowing us to serve faster and expand our menu. So watch for us at our bigger events.

We are also more than happy to cater your private and corporate events, parties or weddings.

New Kids on the Block

The development of our breeding program is a constantly improving process. We generally only use our rams for 2 years until their daughters are in the flock. So it’s not unusual for us to buy new rams. We recently became aware that a friend of ours was cutting down on her stock, so a quick trip up to Reigate and we came home with 2 new Blue Texel ram lambs. These boys will be the basis of our next generation and will be going to work in November 2024. So watch this space.

Big Blue Rolls In

January has already been an expensive month with the purchase of the new Lamb Van, but then in rolls Big Blue. It’s always been part of the master plan to expand the contracting side of the business to give Joshua something of his own to build on. The foundation of this is Joshua’s New Holland 7740 tractor. Giving him the ability to offer a range of grassland maintenance tasks and general tractor work. Let’s hope this is the start of great things to come for Joshua.

The Lamb Van hits Liss

Not too long ago, we were approached by Liss Parish Council and offered a weekly pitch with The Lamb Van at Liss Pavilion every Thursday evening from 5:00pm until 8:00pm. As much as we love the big events and food festivals, for us, it’s all about local. So it’s great to get the opportunity to bring The Lamb Van out for our local community and get to know some new faces. If you’re local to Liss, we would love to see you on a Thursday evening.

Address: West Liss Recreation Ground, Station Road, Liss, GU33 7AJ