Before we moved to the Smallholding at Tufton on the edge of Whitchurch, John and I had never looked after farm animals so we have experienced quite a learning curve. Our reason for moving was to increase the size of our plant nursery, but with the size of our holding, diversification became the name of the game.
We started with four sheep and that has now become a flock of around 55 of which we sell the meat privately and, more importantly to me, we use their fleece. It is important to me that we use as much of the animal as possible. The wool is truly sustainable requiring very little in the way of oil or chemicals to produce clothing, blankets and knitting yarn.
The pleasure and achievement our customers get from making their own items from our knitting wool is obvious from the pictures we see. As well as the sheep, we keep free-range poultry. We sell the eggs at market and also use them in our ‘very lemony’ Lemon Curd. (See Recipe of The Month).
Another part of the business is Preserves, home-made to traditional recipes, some handed down by my mother and that is how we came by the name ‘Pinkhams’ – a tribute to the many hours mincing orange peel for marmalade.
We have been coming to the Farmers’ Markets since it started over 10 years ago and its great advantage is that you can put together a great meal with the freshest of ingredients and actually talk to the people who are involved in its production. This makes the shopping experience quite unique – through it we have met so many interesting people, both fellow producers and customers.
