Newsletter 14th September 2021

Good afternoon,

Andrew is away for the next couple of weeks so Nev & I will be paddling intensely to keep afloat in his absence. Please bear with us in the meantime.

I took the last batch of this year’s Hubbards to our friends with a slaughterhouse in Ditchling yesterday which was, as it always is, a bittersweet journey. We have enjoyed having these feathered friends in the orchard but are pleased to be able to offer slow grown and well looked after poultry to local chefs and customers.

We received our first batch of birds in May and it has been a summer of learnings and labour. On their arrival, we turned big plastic containers, that were intended to transport used brewers grains from Hepworths Brewery to feed our cattle, into cosy brooders with heat lamps and bedding for 70 chicks. At 1 week old we upgraded them into former apple crates for a little more air ventilation.

We gradually weaned them to handle cooler climes and at 3-4 weeks old moved them outside to spend the rest of their days in the orchard. They lived in moving 4m x 3m chicken tractors, which kept them safe from predators whilst giving them constant access to grass. We moved each tractor up to 3 times a day so that they had plenty of fresh grass to eat, and plenty of fresh bugs and dirt to occupy themselves with.

Moving 4 tractors up to 3 times a day was labour intensive and hard work but it meant we spent more time with the birds, learning from their behaviours and enjoying their curious company. They moved about a lot and lived on a natural and healthy diet - as a result they have produced flavourful and succulent meat.

It was always intended as a summertime project because we fear the birds wouldn’t thrive outside in the colder and wetter months and so this will be our last batch of fresh poultry until next spring.

order fresh chicken

Wagyu shin ragu in the yard this weekend

We will be serving up warming bowls of slow cooked osso bucco shin ragu or seasonal vegan curry on Saturday.

Join us for lunch, a drink and a full bellied amble around the farm.

Please book so we know how much to cook….

Newsletter 8th September 2021

Good evening, and a glorious one at that.

We’ve been finishing up with the summer jobs this week and so the blue skies and warm evenings have been a dream.

Andrew has been spreading green waste on the fields to increase organic matter in the soil. Finley has been keeping an eye on the hens, and pressure washing out the cattle barns so they have time to disinfect with fresh air before the winter residents return. Nev has been rotationally grazing the cattle and drilling a 20 species grass mix into the fields. Clare has been keeping everyone quenched at the Big Nibble. And I have been packaging fresh cider to make room in our tanks for the upcoming harvest, making a new batch of wagyu dripping and hatching exciting plans for some upcoming events in the yard.

online shop

Dates for your diary

• 11th & 12th September - Worthing Food & Drink Festival 10-5pm

We will be pulling pints of the good stuff and hope to see you in the sunshine this weekend.

• 18th September - Osso bucco in the yard 1-4pm

I’m back in the kitchen and will be slow cooking Trenchmore osso bucco for lunch. Book online here.

• 25th September - Kinsbrook Harvest Party 12-7pm

Whilst we kick off the apple swap in the yard at Trenchmore, we will also be serving burgers, steaks and cider at Kinsbrook Vineyard to celebrate their grape harvest. More info and tickets here.

• 2nd October - Sistie Moose in the Roundhouse 2-5pm

The Trenchmore roundhouse barn will transform into a music venue for the afternoon as we are joined by the fantastic female folk duo, Sistie Moose. Grub will be supplied by 3Bros and tickets will be available soon.

Newsletter 20th August 2021

Good afternoon,

Our girls are doing amazingly well and we are over halfway through the calving season, with all newborns looking happy out on the grass. We welcomed our 500th calf this morning! Please email over your name suggestions for her as the assigned ‘100500’ simply won’t do.

Apple harvest is nearly here and we are looking forward to our 5th year of apple swapping. We know some of your trees will already be bearing ripe fruit but I am afraid we can’t accept them yet. There are a few reasons for this - primarily the varieties of apple that ripen later in the season tend to be better for making cider. Also, we need to make sure all the apples we take are definitely ripe so we like to hold off for a few more weeks - any fruit that hasn’t converted its starch into sugar cannot ferment, and thus, cider, cannot make. And lastly, our orchard doesn’t tend to be ready until October and it makes sense for us to do all the sticky wasp-attracting mess-making pressing in one fell swoop.

We are planning to swap every Saturday in October but this might change slightly depending on the weather - I will keep you posted.

Events…

The 3Bros Burger Boys are back in the yard next Saturday from 12-3pm. If you’d like to join us for lunch please book here.

If you fancy a Trenchmore burger but eating in a farmyard isn’t your preferred dining experience (hard to believe it isn’t everyone’s favourite dining experience…), Trenchmore and the 3Bros will be heading down the lane to Kinsbrook Vineyard for their Black Tie By The Brook event in the evening for opera, oysters and sparkling Sussex wine. Tickets are available through their website and I hope to see you at the Silly Moo Bar, or on the dance floor.

And lastly, we have Sussex Wagyu steak, pastured chicken & organic veg boxes available to pick up tomorrow. Swing by 11am - 5pm, stay for a drink, say hello to the hens and take some well grown grub home with you.

Newsletter 8th July 2021

Good afternoon,

As a farmer in the States astutely tweeted this week, ‘farming is wondering if it’ll ever rain or wondering if it’ll ever stop raining over and over again until you retire or die.’

And it feels about right this week.

Oh boy, the grass is growing. It is churlish to complain about epic grass growth, but it is so long that it has started to lodge (fall sideways) and will need even more sunny weather to dry out before we can mow it.

The cattle are poaching our soggy soils so we are having to keep them in low density groups and move them every couple of days. We aim to mob graze with our herd to improve the soils but it is difficult to do when the ground is this wet without causing more damage than good.

We’re hoping to harvest some of our arable in a few weeks but the machinery will cause soil compaction, which tends to reduce the water infiltration and leads to run off later in the year.

We’re crossing our fingers for sunshine, keeping our chins up, playing Travis on repeat and wading onward.

We ate our first Trenchmore chicken on Sunday and it was delicious. Juicy, plenty of meat on the bone and a good flavour. We have already sold out for this week but are taking orders for next week.

Our eggs are getting great feedback and we have plenty available for match-day breakfasts. They are £4 for a dozen and you might get a double yolker or two.

Charlotte Lilian will be hosting the Trenchmore collections on Saturday and will be selling her beautiful British flowers on a first come first serve basis.

The Farm shop & Moo Tap is open every Saturday 11am-5pm so join us for a drink, pick up some farm produce or just pop by to say hello.

15th June 2021

Good evening,

It is a glorious time of year to be farming. Long days, seeing the animals bask in warm sunlight and watching our lush grass grow faster than the cattle can graze it reminds us how lucky we are to work outdoors.

On top of that, we are looking forward to welcoming you and the 3 Bros for lunch on Saturday. The boys will be grilling beef & vegan burgers and you are invited to tuck in on the farm or take home with you. The Moo Bar will be open and stocked with cider & apple juice.

book your burger

Long days bring long working hours and this month we’ve been making silage. Making silage consists of cutting the grass at the peak of its quality and baling it in airtight black plastic. We then cart this back to the yard and stack the bales in piles.

The aim is to pickle the grass to preserve it until it’s needed. If properly airtight, bacteria will anaerobically ferment some of the sugars to produce lactic acid. To help things get started we spray lactobacillus on the grass just before it goes into the mouth of the baler.

When the pH is low enough, the bacteria and fungi cannot survive and the grass is safe to store until the cattle eat it in the winter. It is the traditional way to feed our animals rich homegrown food when the days are short and the grass won’t grow.

In order to get an anaerobic ferment and prevent rot, the plastic needs be perfectly sealed. We’ve already been visited by a family of starlings who have started pecking at (and kindly crapping on) the plastic. We tape up the holes as soon as we spot them, and will take it in turns doing our best scarecrow impressions until they move on.

Today Andrew has been spreading farmyard muck onto the freshly mown fields, which feeds the grass nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. We get to utilise what the herd bless us with and minimise our need for artificial fertiliser and means we can return to cut the grass in about 6 weeks time for a second crop.

Covid regulations may be delayed but farming continues to dance to the tune of the seasons.

Collecting eggs has quickly become my favourite chore in the yard.

The girls haven’t all worked out that the nesting boxes are for nesting, and some seem to prefer a dark spot in the corner of the egg-mobile or an extra grassy patch outside, but they’re getting there.

We’ve ordered some curtains for the nesting boxes to give them a little more privacy and hope that will help.

The eggs are also now my mainstay lunch and I haven’t eaten this well in ages. Even in a rush, there’s time to quickly scramble in butter or grab from the jar of soy-marinated eggs in the fridge.

We have eggs available to order online and collect on Saturdays.

eggs

Newsletter 7th June 2021

Good afternoon,

We first started thinking about expanding our mixed farm offering in January this year in response to the question we’re often asked - where can we find good chicken, locally? As always, we aim to please…

I had an ‘aha’ moment after eating a Fosse Meadows roast chicken for the first time a few years ago - it tasted much more like chicken than anything I had found in the supermarket. It also made a really rich and flavourful stock. I discovered that like most things, there is chicken and then there is… Chicken.

After looking into farmers who are producing really delicious birds, like Fosse Meadows and Tablehurst Farm, we learned that much like beef, the key to flavour is fairly simple - genetics, slow grown, a natural diet and the encouragement to scratch the ground and move around.

A good life makes a tasty and more nutritious meal.

There are other benefits to rearing our birds on grass - small flocks that have space to roam and bugs to find are not inclined to perform the aggressive behaviours towards each other that their stressed out cooped up counterparts might be familiar with.

And then there is the matter of faecal matter. Big scale chicken farms often have difficulty getting rid of their chicken waste. Mixed farmers, on the other hand, know how bloody crucial the stuff is to improve soils and grow lush crops. It will fertilise our orchard and arable fields, saving the need for expensive and polluting chemicals.

True to our style, we have opted for a labour intensive rearing option - two flocks (egg laying hens and table birds for meat) that are pasture raised and rotationally grazed. This is a step further than free range, which offers access to the outdoors but doesn’t move onto fresh pasture very often, if ever.

• The table birds live in tractors that move every day. The system keeps them safe from predators, encourages them to move about and gives them access to fresh insects and grass. We plan to get them into the fields to clean up after the cattle once they’ve worked their magic in the orchard.

• The laying hens roam in a fenced paddock in the orchard and sleep in an egg-mobile, which moves every couple of days. The egg mobile has a mesh floor to keep things hygienic and allow us to optimise their pooping power.

As with Trenchmore Beef we are growing food for flavour, and improving our soils whilst doing it. We strongly believe the more diverse their diet, the more they move about and the more we engage with regenerative practices, the more nutritionally dense the food is.

We will be selling our table birds online a couple of weeks before they’re ready to collect, and our beautiful pullet eggs are ready to order online today and collect on Saturday. Don’t be deterred by their tiny size - pullet eggs are the first eggs these girls will lay and they are very special. We’re expecting larger eggs in a week or so.

Newsletter 25th May

Good morning,

It’s been an exciting and exhausting few weeks in the yard as we have had some new arrivals…

We have taken our first batch of Cornish Cross chicks and they are growing incredibly fast. They’re in brooders and will be moving into the orchard as soon as it warms up a bit.

And if that’s not exciting enough, Nev has finished building the egg-mobile and it’s been occupied by 100 beautiful laying hens…

Both flocks will become part of the essential fertilising system for the farm and enjoy a life of dust baths and scratching around for fresh bugs & grubs in the orchard.

Trenchmore pastured poultry and eggs coming soon.

Newsletter 10th May

Good morning,

I knew when deciding to write about Nev, Andrew & Jack that I would also have to cast the spotlight in my own direction at some point.

Writing about myself feels self-indulgent and uncomfortable but I know we need more stories about female farmers, so I will indulge (and cringe).

After today we will have looked at the four people who make up the Trenchmore team, but this is not to suggest that the progression of our farm sits squarely on eight shoulders. We are supported by a community of interesting and inspiring farming friends and I plan to bring you some of their stories, too.

Before joining Trenchmore, I was working with a London distillery. It was a similarly small but efficient team and I enjoyed getting stuck in, and being involved in all aspects of their business. The wonderful founders taught me a lot about the drinks industry and how to run a young business, and I adored the variety in my role and working with the glorious and grubby bars and pubs around London.

Meanwhile, my parents were producing their third batch of cider in Sussex.

This batch had come back from the bottlers’ in spring and all seemed well. A couple of weeks after if had been delivered to trade customers, it became clear something wasn’t right. The cider was going cloudy. It turned out that there had been a fault in the bottling line and tiny amounts of yeast had been introduced to the cider before the bottles were sealed. The cider was re-fermenting in glass bottles that were not designed for high pressure.

They decided to recall the whole batch and needed all the hands they could find to collect the delivered stock and deal with the aftermath of an expensive and embarrassing product recall. So, I moved out of my London flat, dusted off my wellies and have been making the cider and helping run the farm business ever since.

At the beginning of last year, Silly Moo was tasting fantastic and we were finally getting listed with a couple of big deal national distributors. We were supplying some of the best restaurants in the UK with our beef and were starting to be recognised as purveyors of quality produce in Sussex. We were eager for a big year of building our brand and our distribution. And then the lockdown was announced and our customers cancelled their orders.

This is when my role changed. We went online and started selling directly to households and delivering our goods across London, Kent, Surrey & Sussex. It was an exhausting first few months, navigating the impact of the virus whilst figuring out new ways of operating - we made mistakes and learned a lot.

One of the best lessons for me was actually working out what I wanted Trenchmore to be. A successful and ethical farming business, yes, but also something that sparks conversation about the things that are important. How we eat, how we respect our environment and how we leave our community and little patch of land better than we found it.

I didn’t know much about farming before joining Trenchmore, but I did understand the power of good food, good drink and good community. I’m learning about regenerative agriculture through our farm’s practices, by working with Nuthurst Farm & Shrub Provisions, and with the amazing books and videos that are available.

Meeting and talking to the people who eat and drink our produce is a privilege that most farmers don’t get. I discovered that getting people onto the farm for our order collections, yard pop-ups and apple swaps would start the conversations that I was keen to have. I’m looking forward to doing more in the yard this year, hope to see you there.

Newsletter 27th April 2021

Good evening,

We have had a very busy few weeks ferrying kegs of Moo to the pubs who have managed to open up their gardens once again. It has been restorative to catch up with landlords and bar managers, and we have enjoyed “doing our bit” for the industry and stopping off for a couple of quick thirst quenchers…

I have compiled a brief list of pubs who have Moo on tap this week in case you are undecided of where to visit on the bank holiday weekend. As we work with wholesalers, we’re not always sure where our Moo ends up so we know this list is not exhaustive.

If you’d prefer to stay at home but don’t want to miss out, dust off your BBQs and dig out your aprons - we are well stocked with fresh Sussex Wagyu for the weekend.

order online

Moo on tap…

The Crabtree, Horsham

Shepherd & Dog, Fulking

The Windmill, Littleworth

The Ginger Fox, Hassocks

The Independent, Brighton

The Brunswick, Hove

The Oak Barn, Burgess Hill

The Fox, West Hoathly

The Norfolk Tap, Arundel

The Halfway Bridge, Petworth

West Beach Cafe, Littlehampton

The George Inn, Felpham

Jack & Jill, Clayton

The New Inn, Hurst

The Sportsman, Goddards Green

The Jolly Sportsman, Lewes

The Black Jug, Horsham

The Sussex Ox, Polegate

The Prince Albert, Hastings

Chesham Arms, Hackney

Dogs Grandad Brewery Taproom, Brixton

Wimbledon Brewery Taproom, Wimbledon

The Palm, Tottenham

The Duke of Richmond, Hackney

(And lots more really really great pubs with really really great taste)

Newsletter 23rd April 2021

Good morning,

If you are anything like me, your inbox will be bursting with emails about Earth Week, the virtual climate summit and how we could be doing better this week.

Instead of more finger wagging, we’d like to invite you to put the kettle on and indulge in a little regenerative agriculture conversation.

One of the big problems agriculture faces when thinking about its impact on climate change is that conventional farming promotes tillage because it is a wonderful way to quickly improve the soil structure for growing things.

Unfortunately, tillage giveth with one hand and tillage taketh with the other - by cutting up and turning over the soil, microbial and insect life is damaged and locked-up carbon in organic matter is released into the atmosphere -contributing to climate change in a pretty devastating way.

As organic matter diminishes, soil life and soil structure deteriorate resulting in
lower yields and greater risk of erosion. And the vicious cycle means farmers rely even more on the very thing that has caused the problem.

At the current rate of loss, some predict we are only 30-40 years away from being able to grow much food at all.

Thankfully, many farmers are already evolving their approach and
regenerative agriculture - farming to revive, restore and replenish - is
finally moving mainstream. The good news is regenerative agriculture can
actually take carbon out of the atmosphere and put it back in our soil.

It also appears to produce more nutritious and delicious food, whilst increasing biodiversity, giving us something to celebrate.

For those wanting to learn more, I have compiled some things to
enjoy below. We always welcome conversation on the farm - call us, email us
or come and say hello at our weekly farm produce collections.

Things to watch…

• Kiss the Ground, documentary on Netflix

• What is regenerative agriculture - YouTube video outlining the 5 key principles

• Gabe Brown’s TED talk

• Richard Perkins on how regenerative agriculture works

• George the Poet - Seeds of Hope

Things to read…

• Can regenerative agriculture help save the planet? A Farmdrop blog post

• Gabe Brown’s Dirt To Soil book

• How To Be A Conscious Eater, by Sophie Egan

• Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World, by Carolyn Steel

Things to do…

• Greening Steyning’s next book club - What We Need To Do Now by Chris Goodall

• Plant trees with Ecologi

• Listen to a podcast on recylcing and how it actually works

Things to eat…

• Hodmedods - British Grown Grain

• 28 Well Hung - South London regenerative restaurant

• Duchess Farm - oils and grains

• Cull Yaw from Matt Chatfield

• Shrub Provisions, who source local, seasonal and regenerative veg for their veg boxes

• Riverford for their organic veg and compostable packaging

Newsletter 9th April 2021

Good morning,

Two things to mention before we get into it today - the online shop is stocked and the pizza is ready to book for this weekend.

TRENCHMORE SHOP

We’re open 12pm - 3pm this Saturday for collections and Tom’s much missed pizza.

Tom tends to sell out before the day so please book if you want to join us. Don’t forget you can order a Shrub Provisions Sussex veg box or eggs by Wednesday to collect from us on Saturday, too.

SOPI PIZZA

Today’s newsletter is going to focus on Jack, who has been working with Trenchmore for a few years. Only 25 years old, Jack is the youngest of our motley crew but by all measures a crucial cog that keeps the Trenchmore tractor wheels turning.

Jack didn’t grow up in a farming family but spent his childhood sat in neighbours’ tractors from the age of 2 or 3. He started working on a farm in Ashurst at 13 and spent weekends and summers there for the next 9 years, saving money and growing his experience and knowledge of working with livestock.

During his agriculture course at Plumpton College, Jack spent his placement working on a 4,500 acre arable farm. All those hours spent in the tractor cab certainly honed his driving skills but also made him realise that he wanted to work with cattle more than crops, and gave him the time to contemplate starting his own herd.

He now has 28 cows and offers regular relief work at Trenchmore and other local farms. 15 of his herd are destined to spend some time with one of our Wagyu bulls, and the offspring will be reared for the Trenchmore system. We are limited with the amount of grazing land we have available at Trenchmore and working with farmers like Jack, who share the same standards and attitudes to us mean we can collaboratively grow our herd and expand our business.

The goal is to manage his own farm but for now Jack gets a lot out of working with different farmers. There is the opportunity to learn from everyone’s best practices and tough lessons, and encourage them to share their ideas and experiences so the community can move forward together.

Jack is a safe pair of hands that we and the cattle love to see in the yard.

Newsletter 23rd March 2021

Good afternoon,

It’s a big week on the farm - the herd are moving outdoors! It is pure joy to watch the animals jostle their way onto the pasture and we’re hoping the sun dries out the ground sufficiently to get them all out over the next couple of days.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Today’s people profile focuses on Andrew, the chap who co-kicked things off at Trenchmore 9 years ago and who is the driving force responsible for getting us to where we are today. Also, my boss and my dad so treading carefully here…

Similar to Nev, Andrew didn’t grow up on a farm but was bitten by the agricultural bug (there must be an ointment somewhere..?!) at the tender age of 8 after spending the summer helping a Welsh dairy farmer. Not deterred by the early starts, Andrew entered a writing competition sponsored by Westminster Bank on why we should save. He wrote about saving to buy cows and won the competition.

After graduating with a degree in agriculture, he went to work with a commercial cattle herd. This was the mid 80’s when Big Ag was very big and conventional farming methods were being taught and practiced across the country. Profits and yields trumped welfare and sustainability for most farmers, but Andrew wanted to do it differently. Much to his frustration, he soon realised that without patrimony, matrimony or parsimony he would struggle to ever have his own farm and look after his animals as he’d like.

He wanted the opportunity to give his cattle a good life, to graze grass and suckle their young. He wanted to run a farm that proudly held up three pillars of sustainability - ethical, environmental and economic.

So after a 30 year stint in branding and family rearing, Andrew managed to return to the land. An opportunity to farm the land surrounding our family house came up so we went for it.

After decades of intensive arable farming, the land had lost a lot of top soil and fertility so we set about improving it. Water pipes were laid, fencing was repaired and natural ecosystems were restored. Cattle get more than their fair share of bad press when it comes to the climate - the science (and our anecdotal experiences) show that they are instrumental in restoring depleted land. Methods like mob grazing and muck spreading help to capture carbon in the soil, improving its fertility and taking carbon out of the atmosphere.

Trenchmore is an integrated mixed farm and Andrew organises the beef, cider and arable so that they all work together and in balance with nature. He is proud to produce delicious and nutritionally dense foods, whilst improving our soils and working with our community.

He has high standards and won’t accept mediocracy, which is why you will often find him working the longest and hardest out of all of us. But he has much to show for it - those who have visited Trenchmore will have noticed how lush our grasses are, how beautiful our yard is, how happy our cattle look and how delicious our produce is. We have Andrew to thank for making it happen.

Date for your diary: April 17th, 12pm.

Assuming no bumps in the roadmap, The Trenchmore Arms will be open again, serving a Sopi Pizza with one hand and a Silly Moo Cider with the other. Heaven.

Pizza booking will be available through Sopi’s website from 11th April.

Things to watch, read and enjoy…

Alison Roman’s short rib recipe for the next time you get your hands on some Trenchmore short ribs

The upcoming Green Books event -Investing To Save The Planet

Derek from Daylands Farm - look out for him and his gorgeous produce at Sussex farmer’s markets

The How to Save a Planet podcast episode on soil health and regenerative agriculture

Newsletter 16th March 2021

Good morning,

This is our first in a small series of people profiles and who better to kick things off with than the man who looks after the cows…

Always wearing his hat and sometimes caught with a pint of Silly Moo in his hand, Neville joined us at Trenchmore in May 2018 with a lot of Wagyu breeding and stock management experience under his belt.

Nev grew up in South Africa and started helping on his Grandfather’s mixed farm at the age of 5. The farms in SA are a little different to ours, covering vast areas of open land and where too little rain is more of a regular problem than too much, but the appetite for good food is strong. Neville has spent the last 35 years looking after sheep, pigs, cows, chickens and growing crops.

He first started working with Wagyu cattle in 1999. He had previously been producing Brahman and Simmental beef because they were the hardy and disease resistant breeds popular in South Africa, but the meat quality was low and he wanted to find an alternative. He set about crossing Wagyu with his cows, and then also with Black Angus to increase the Wagyu’s small gene pool. Nev found that the animals he was breeding with Wagyu not only had the healthy hybrid vigour of a crossbreed, but also much improved flavour and tenderness in the meat.

Neville and his wife Karry first moved to the UK in 2016 after the South African political system became too difficult to farm under. They started with an Angus stud herd in Worcester before they came to join us at Trenchmore almost three years ago. Before moving here, the only thing he had heard about Sussex were the wonderful native cattle breed, which sounds about right.

Since he has been with us, Neville has brought an understanding of the herd that only lived experience can know. He is helping to keep our mums healthy and producing some of the most delicious beef we have ever managed. He is in the process of growing the Trenchmore herd to three times its current size and manages to do it all with a healthy dose of wit and cheer.

If you visit the farm and want to know anything about cows, Neville is your man. Next time you see him, make sure to say hello to the cheerful chap in the cowboy hat.

We are butchering a Sussex Wagyu for collection on 3rd April. We also have Nuthurst Lamb available to pre-order for Easter, plus our tasty Silly Moo Cider to toast the sunshine with.

Pre-order here

Things to watch, read and enjoy…

The Unconventional Farms of the Future

Celebrating women land workers

Anna Jones’ new book One Pot, Pan, Planet

Horsham’s Climate Cafe

The upcoming Green Books event - Investing To Save The Planet

Newsletter 25th February 2021

Good morning,

As we let out a cautious but harmonised sigh of relief at this week’s news, I wanted to send a short note to explain our supply situation.

We started farming in 2012 with 6 cows, 30 acres and big dreams. We have grown to 300 cows, 300 acres, 16,000 apple trees and now have even bigger ideas of where we want to go.

Out of the 300 head of cattle, 140 are breeding cows, 5 are bulls and the rest are for beef. We matchmake our bulls with breeding cows in the spring and the autumn, see them through 9 months of gestation and patiently wait 2 and a half years before processing them for meat.

We have been growing our herd steadily but it takes almost 3 and a half years to get from intention to food. Our business changed quickly last year and we have not been able to scale up our beef production to keep up with the new (and much appreciated) demand quite as quickly.

We’re pushing forward, we’re working with likeminded and local farmers to sell their produce and get them to help us grow ours. We’re moving as quickly and efficiently as we can, whilst holding onto the ethics and welfare standards we started with tightly.

Thank you for being patient with us as we go through this transition. We will have a lot more beef to supply you in the coming years, but for now we appreciate your ongoing support and promise to keep you up to date with farm news and upcoming butchery plans.

Newsletter 1st February 2021

Good evening,

The cattle are keeping dry indoors, the cider is happily bubbling away and our wheat is tillering nicely. Things have been moving fairly slowly at Trenchmore for the past few weeks, which has given us a little more time for reflection, learning and tea. Lots of tea.

One of the topics that keeps cropping up when looking at the work of regenerative farmers across Europe and the US is diversity. We are pleased to see the word being recognised more across various social and political contexts too, but listening to one of our farming heroes Gabe Brown and one of our food heroes Tim Spector connect the diversity in the soils to the diversity in our guts really brought home its value to us as food producers.

Tim Spector’s research into the microbiome (the huge community of microbes residing in our bodies, especially in the gut) has shown that the more diverse the food and nutrients we put in, the healthier the microbes are. The healthier the microbes, the more resilient the microbiome and the less likely we are to develop mental and physical health problems.

This research mirrors what we are learning about soil health. The more diverse the plants we grow, the happier the microbes will be. Crop rotation and a mixed cocktail of cover crops means the soil will have different root lengths and constant ground cover. This delicious range of plants not only support greater ecosystems above ground, but also pull carbon out of the atmosphere to feed to the microorganisms through their various root lengths. As payment for the carbon, the microorganisms give nutrients to the plant so they can grow bigger and stronger, which enables more carbon to be fed down. A symbiotic relationship that benefits both plant and soil.

The healthier the soil, the more nutrients in the plant. The more nutrients in the plant, the healthier the food we put into our bodies, and the happier our gut microbiomes.

It is beautifully simple and yet incredibly complex.

Without getting bogged down by the science, the positive take away in what we’re learning about our own health and the health of our land is that they are completely complimentary. As nature cleverly designed it, it works well to achieve both together.

So, with this in mind our aim is to continue increasing the diversity of our soils, and also bring more diversity to our offering. We have some exciting projects in the pipeline, but for now we have Sussex Wagyu beef, Nuthurst Lamb boxes & Shrub Provisions veg boxes available to order.

The Sussex Wagyu is being butchered next week so will be fresh and ready to collect on Saturday 13th Feb, just in time for cooking something a little special for Sunday 14th.

There are also a couple of lamb boxes available to order and collect this Saturday. There are more due around 20th Feb and these are now available to pre-order. The date may change subject to the butcher's schedule but we will keep you posted.

And the veg boxes are here each and every week, with their contents changing with the seasons.

Order here

We are going to be keeping our online shop open moving forward and would love to hear your feedback. If there’s anything you’d like to see more of, please let us know.

Moo love x

Newsletter 11th January 2021

Good evening,

Happy New Year to you.

Side-stepping the news over the last week or two, I love the momentum that kickstarts the beginning of each year - good intentions, a fresh start and the enthusiasm to live better, healthier and kinder lives.

I must admit, however, that I'm always slightly underwhelmed by the suggestion we should start the year with sacrifice. No sugar, no meat or dairy and definitely no booze! With everything going on this January, I would prefer not to submit to more deprivation.

I would suggest that instead of giving things up, we might do better to embrace new habits. For those unfamiliar with ‘Regenuary’, it’s the suggestion that we put more emphasis on where we source our food this month. Supporting farms who produce good food whilst also prioritising animal welfare and land regeneration.

Surely, the easiest way to eat "better" is to know what you're eating and where it has come from. The way our food is produced today has an undeniable impact on the way we will be able to live tomorrow.

As my brother astutely put it, eating is farming by proxy.

Whichever way you’re leaning this month, we have you covered. Shrub Veg boxes, filled with vegetables grown from local regenerative, organic and biodynamic farms are available to pre-order and collect on Saturday.

Expect to see sprout tops, celeriac, parsley, coriander, carrots, onions and cabbage.

We also have delicious Trenchmore Beef and our pure juice ciders in stock online. I’ve personally had quite enough self-sacrifice for the time being. It must be time for a treat.

Newsletter 8th December 2020

Good afternoon,
 

Last Friday was a joy. Cold fingers wrapped around warm cups of mulled cider, cheerful tunes with only one or two Christmas classics slipped in for good measure, alluring pink lighting (the cows aren't disturbed by red light so it wasn't put there especially for the evening, but definitely added a certain je ne sais quoi...) and bellies full of homemade pulled brisket, Shrub's seasonal slaw and Gwyn's focaccia.

A very good evening indeed, thank you to everyone who joined us.

We have decided not to try and replicate it this week (the farmhouse aga was a little stretched catering for 70...) but to invite back our old friends Tom & Tessa and their brand new pizza van for some wood-fired Neapolitan pizza on 
Saturday. 

The Moo bar will be open and SoPi will be serving pizza between 4-8pm on Saturday. Please book ahead as Tom will knead to prepare his dough.

Pre-order pizza

We are open for beef, cider & veg box collections this Friday 5-6pm, Saturday 10-11am and 4-8pm. We will then be closing the farm gates until mid January for a little feet-up action. 

Shrub have put together slightly more generous veg boxes for this week, filled with festive staples like parsnips, sprouts, potatoes and carrots. All locally grown by organic, biodynamic & regenerative farmers. We also have Silly Moo stocking fillers for any last minute gifts.

And beef - we have steak, braising joints and roasts available this week. 
 

Trenchmore Beef

We hope to see you on Saturday and wish you all a restorative Christmas break if we don't speak before. 

Moo love,

Rachel, Andrew & the Trenchmore team x

Newsletter 1st December 2020

Good afternoon,

With restrictions for this month now (somewhat) clear, we are looking forward to igniting the fire pits and keeping our fingers warm around cups of mulled cider with you on 11th & 18th December.

The yard will be open from 5pm - 8pm on 11th and we will be serving pulled brisket buns (pulled mushrooms for vegetarians) and mulled cider in the open barn. TBC about the menu for 18th - it depends on what is in stock that week.

We will provide benches and bales so you can spread out, and I'm sure it goes without saying for an event outside in December - please wear your thickest and cosiest knitted garms!

We can organise take away options if you'd rather enjoy at home. Please book below for 11th so I can ensure we have plenty.

I'll email when we start taking bookings for the 18th.

Book

We have some more festive treats to look forward to next Friday...

Clare has been busy with the last chillis from this year's harvest and will be selling her delicious chilli oils, chilli sauces, chilli jams & dried chillies. They make a great gift for friends who like flavour, if they manage to make it past your own fridge.

Andy, Clare's husband, has some 3ft pot grown Christmas trees available for sale - all grown within 500m of our farm so they haven't travelled far! They are £25 each - please bring cash if you'd like one and let me know if you'd like us to reserve you one.

The very talented Charlotte Lillian (Lillian's London) will be selling her stunning British grown flower wreaths. You can pay by card on the day - please let us know if you'd like to reserve one.

Newsletter 23rd November 2020

Good morning,

A glorious Wednesday to you all. At last, some good news in a rather dreary month - Nuthurst Lamb boxes are now available to order through our website. I'll be filling your inbox with some Trenchmore Farm news soon, but for now I'll hand over to our very good friends Rosie & Jack for information on their lovely Sussex lambs...

Hello!

Rosie and Jack from Nuthurst Farm here. The wonderful team at Trenchmore have invited us to take over the newsletter today to introduce you to our flock, ourselves, and our delicious lamb boxes. 

We started farming a few years ago, looking after other people’s sheep and other animals, before deciding last year to bite the bullet and get some of our own. Now this autumn, we are at long last excited to be able to share our produce with you. 

Taff, Head of Business and Comms

Rosie’s family have farmed in the area for 12 years and she’s spent the past five years working on several different sorts of farms in West Sussex - looking after sheep, cattle, poultry, pigs and even the Silly Moo Cider customers. She currently spends her mornings milking the Jersey cows at Tablehurst Farm in Forest Row.

Jack has spent the past few years chasing after (quite literally) thousands of sheep on the South Downs with Taff. He’s come down off the hill to pursue his interests in agricultural fencing and woodland management - and to keep a closer eye on our flock.

Our sheep graze at our home farm in Nuthurst and other farms, meadows and herbal lays in the surrounding area. They’ve even been treated to a visit to Trenchmore’s cider orchard - a traditional orchardist’s trick, saving the need for chemical or excessive mechanical intervention... keeping things natural and delicious, the Silly Moo way!

One of Nuthurst’s Mule ewes

Hampshire Down X lambs

Jack and Taff, driving the lambs

Our ewes are Suffolk Mules, a hardy cross of native breeds that do well on our local climate and soils. We cross them to a Hampshire Down ram, which is like a South Down but bigger and arguably more handsome. 

This cross of native breeds produces a good size animal that can be successfully fed only on grass, eliminating the need for bought-in feeds containing soya and maize. As such, the lambs are more sustainably reared, and full of flavour.

A limited number of Nuthurst Lamb boxes will be available to order via the Trenchmore website for collection on the 11th or 12th December, with more available early next year. Each box is made up of half a lamb and will weigh between 7kg and 11kg - which will fit in a standard freezer drawer.

For any questions or specific requests, please say hello at rosieamartin@gmail.com.

Look forward to meeting you at the collection in December!

Rosie & Jack

Newsletter 17th November 2020

Good afternoon,

We've adjusted our butchery schedule and now have Sussex Wagyu available for collection on Friday & Saturday this week. Plus some Sussex beef and plenty of delicious Shrub Provisions boxes.

Writer Sarah Langford posted this on instagram last week and I thought it would be churlish to try and paraphrase...

I remember Tim Siadatan - co-founder of Trullo & Padella restaurants and all round star chef - telling me about his gateway food. It was a tomato. He bit into one in Italy. It was then he realised what a tomato could taste like. Should taste like.
I have had a few moments like that over the last few years. One of them happened recently after visiting Trenchmore Farm and going away with some of their wagyu beef burgers and steaks. We BBQd the burgers and ate them in the woods.
They tasted - genuinely - like no burger I've ever had. The kind of food that makes everyone go quiet and then start murmuring.
I took many things away from that farm visit but one was the level of knowledge the farmer had about what goes into the taste of our food. How we grow it, what it's fed - whether a plant or an animal - directly affects how it tastes. Of course it does. We are what we eat, and we are what we eat eats too.

You'll be pleased to see we have restocked with burgers this week.

Moo love x