OUR FARM
we moved to our small farm in Minera, NORTH Wales in 2011. In 2013 we started growing our first salad produce and started selling to local pubs and restaurants. The salad proved popular and with every year that passed we had to expand production to meet demand. In 2021 we were looking for something else that we could produce to sell alongside our salad produce, after many different ideas we settled on welsh Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil and Welsh Cold Pressed Sunflower Oil. We made a few small sample batches and it was a success! WE are constantly coming up with ideas for new products and processes. What will the next few years bring for us?
RARE BREEDS
Not only do we have Salad crops and the Cold Pressed Oil production, but we also keep rare breed animals to help us manage the grazing on the farm. We have Oxford Sandy and Black pigs, they love to eat any unwanted lettuce! The Dexter cattle graze the steep banks and rough ground that we have, keeping the gorse and bracken clear for the many wildflowers that also live here. Our hens supply us with lots of tasty eggs and our North Ronaldsay sheep are part of a conservation breeding programme as the breed is on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust ‘critical’ list, with less than 500 breeding ewes left!
All our animals enjoy eating the waste produced from producing the Cold Pressed Oils too. The spent seed after oil extraction is a valuable feed for them, and apparently very tasty too!
HYDROPONICS
Our farm is located at around 1200ft above sea level, in North Wales, above a quarry and close to ancient lead mines. Growing produce in the soil just wasn’t an option for us! So we had to look for an alternative. For us, hydroponic growing was the best choice. Growing in polytunnels extends our growing season and protects our produce from the weather and from pests! The hydroponic systems that we use are also a highly efficient growing method, using up to 90% less water than field grown crops and allowing more produce to be grown in the area as we can grow on multiple levels. The produce has all the nutrients it requires and never runs out of water when it is growing, as a result our salads are full of flavour