FREE-RANGE

Nearly 20 years and two very important (not so small Blue Tinners later), we now have a herd of 86 Dexter beef cattle, a never ending farrowing of our free range Gloucester Old Spot pigs, a wildflower orchard of laying hens, the obligatory bonkers spaniel and a bigger sparkly farm shop building to fit everything in.

Our breeds are particularly suited to the free-range outdoor lifestyle, the Dexters are a very hardy breed who thrive on the rough chalk grazing and our pigs spend their entire lives in free range grass paddocks with cosy straw bedded huts for the winter and deep wallows in the Summer.

We are incredibly proud of our Dexter beef. This rare breed is renowned for it’s full rich flavour, incredible marbling and a texture like butter. Our Dexters are entirely grass fed and traditionally reared in an unfussed and quiet lifestyle.

We also utilise a significant portion of the farmland to grow root crops and fodder beet which we feed back to our animals, as well as growing our own herbal ley which is used as a natural wormer and making all our own hay and silage from much of the land we rent in the area.

With a resurgence in popularity of the ‘old-fashioned’ cuts of beef such as shin, osso bucco, cheeks, flank & ribs and offal we work closely with our abattoir and butchers to ensure that we can supply these cuts from our animals which are not always readily available in mainstream outlets.

We utilise every single piece of our Dexter beef as we use the enormous smokehouse to create some incredible charcuterie which is an emerging and exciting new element to what we do!

In 2002, our first 10 Gloucester Old Spot pigs were reared with no knowledge of what may be the end result. Some casual conversation resulted in advance orders for all 10, although we still didn’t know how good the meat would be. There was no need to worry, the repeat orders flooded in immediately as the meat was so tasty and tender.

The Gloucester Old Spot breed is particularly suited to its outdoor lifestyle and all our pigs farrow outside so from the day they are born they are free to roam in large grass paddocks with wallows and houses full of clean straw bedding. This natural outdoor lifestyle means that our pork has a slightly thicker layer of fat and consequently far more taste than mainstream ‘supermarket’ meat; ‘how meat used to taste!’ is a much used description.

From then until now is a long story full of very hard work… in all weathers, broken fences and escaped piglets; frozen hosepipes in the winters and continual wallow filling in the summers, not to mention an invasion of adventurous 2 week old piglets into the farmhouse garden! The free range paddocks are divided by electric fences and therefore it is not unusual to see the smallest little piglets ducking under the fences to hoover up the acorns on our lane before returning home to their beds!

However, despite the enormous learning curve and all its inherent mountains to climb, Blue Tin Produce is now proudly producing a continuous supply of the best quality, traditionally reared pork.