Newsletter 11th May

Good afternoon,

We’ve been operating with fairly limited stock for a little while and so have taken the opportunity this week to catch up by butchering two bodies - we are ready for the cautiously approaching barbecue season.

We’ve got steaks, short ribs, brisket, roasting joints, rump joints & mince in the fridge, and burgers & hot dogs in the freezer ready to be picked up on Saturday 11-4pm.

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This week…

The cows & calves moved out, made things very muddy and then moved back in to the yard again.

The field they were in is now puddled with muddy water, which means we went a little too early.

We’re keen to get the herd outside as our winter food stores are running low, but there is nothing to gain from letting them poach the soils, and it’s still just too wet.

We injected 6 cows with Ovarelin this week, to get them ready for artificial insemination - we will put fertilised wagyu embryos into each cow which we hope will give us 3 more pure blood wagyu bulls to father our Sussex wagyus.

Looks like one mama had made a little effort for the occasion with a trip to the hair salon…

We invited a few of the people who work with Trenchmore over for dinner last night, and the weather just about allowed al fresco dining.

We feel very lucky to have such wonderful people working with us, in various capacities, and it was lovely to share a meal with some of them.

It really does take a village.

And to end on a little local news, we’re very proud of Councillor Knowles (my Mum) for being elected to serve Cowfold, Shermanbury & West Grinstead with the Lib Dems.

We know it means great things for the village - well done Mum!

Newsletter May 4th

Good afternoon,

Before we hop back into the cidery today, I thought I should let you know Charles’s coronation isn’t the only newsworthy thing happening this weekend - the boys are back serving 3Bros burgers fit for a royal (or republican) in the yard on Saturday (pre-order here), and I’m running the Moo Bar at the Campervan Campout Festival in Ardingly tomorrow, Saturday & Sunday.

What a weekend it is going to be.

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So, cider v cyder - you might have spotted our tap badges are changing from Unfiltered Cider to Cyder Cider, which probably looks like a typo to some.

Cyder is the olde English spelling for a tipple made in the olde English way - thoughtfully, slowly and with respect for both fruit and drink.

Even though often drank out of a pint glass in a pub garden, cider is different to beer. Beer is made from barley, which can be harvested and stored, and then malted, stewed & fermented over a matter of days as and when the brewer wants to. Cider is made from apples which don’t store well, meaning traditional makers tend to press & ferment all their juice once a year at harvest time. The juice can take 6 months to ferment and benefits from a little more time in the tanks to mature.

Compared to beer, cider making is inefficient business.

Big modern cideries have found ways to get around this - using apple concentrate which stores for ages, and adding sugar before fermenting to get a higher alcohol content, which is then diluted back down with water before drinking. More booze & more sugar helps to stabilise things, which makes these ciders more consistent, efficient and affordable.

What they gain in affordability & stability, they lose in flavour. Efficient, after all, is rarely delicious.

Concentrating & then diluting the juice removes the volatile aromas and tannins, which are the moreish flavour makers we love. It is the polyphenols in traditional cider apples that are only retained with a slow & natural fermentation that give complexity & variety to the best cyder ciders.

Our cyder is made from fresh apple juice, fermented slowly with wild yeasts and diluted to a sessionable strength with more juice. Naturally delicious & full flavoured, we think it deserves the ‘y’.

Newsletter 20th April

Good afternoon,

We’ve been busy tidying up for our Spring Market this week, and getting the new Trenchmore Kitchen through its first hygiene inspection (5 stars, thank you v much).

The orchard and pastures are drying out with the help of some good wind and sun, and we’re gearing up for the great exodus for both flock & herd into their respective summer residencies next week.

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The Spring Market is here! There will be 2 hot food options, 1 coffee truck, 5 food producers, 5 drink producers and 1 stall selling lovely things made from reclaimed wood & cement.

You don’t need to book or buy a ticket to join - the gates are open from 11am - 4pm on Saturday, with the farm walk leaving the yard at midday and our favourite folk duo Sistie Moose playing music in the afternoon.

There will be covered seating, plenty of parking, extra loos, if that’s a selling point, and lots of farmyard fun to be enjoyed. Dogs & families are very welcome. A little more info here.

Newsletter 13th April

Good afternoon,

Whilst the cows & chickens moo & cluck their way to front of mind most of the time, our cider quietly and politely bubbles away in the tanks, demanding much less attention but no less appreciation. As the weather warms and our appetite for something cold & delicious grows, it feels like a good time to give that golden liquid the word count it deserves.

So, the next few emails are going to focus on our much loved beverage, and how Silly Moo Cider came to be.

We’ve got a 7 acre south facing field that looks onto the farmyard. Being so well positioned, deciding what to do with it took a little thought when we first started farming 10 years ago. A winemaking friend suggested we grow grapes for him, but, despite the efforts of climate change, it is still tricky to grow vine fruit without fertilisers & fungicides this side of the Channel.

Apples, on the other hand, grow comfortably with little intervention.

The other inspiration was a French holiday spent sipping different Brittany and Normandy ciders. We tasted something that was totally different to the ciders available in English shops and pubs at the time - a drink that honoured the apple, and that had a balanced depth of flavour that could be compared to a decent wine. And so, with an appetite for better English cider in Sussex, we planted our first apple trees.

Cider varies in flavour depending on where you are - there are style preferences and cultural variations in production, but more importantly the fruit grown differs in variety & flavour across the world.

Even if we hone in on the UK alone, the apples grown in the West are contrasting to those in the East, and the ciders from each region have a certain local flavour & character.

The Western counties tend to produce cider from tannin-rich, bittersweet cider apples, blended with sharp & sweet varieties, making a deliciously flavourful and complex drink with plenty of mouth-feel. The Eastern counties grow dessert & culinary apples (traditionally for the London fruit market), making their cider prominent in freshness, fruitiness & acidity.

Although geographically we’re in the South East, we wanted to make a cider that pulled together both styles so we grow traditional cider varieties in our orchard, and backsweeten with fresh local culinary apple juice for a balanced, moreish and sessionable drink.

As lovely as a cider-drinking holiday in France and planting our traditional orchard sounds, it’s not all been romantic scenes from Cider With Rosie (or Rachel…) - secondary fermentations, unintentional cider vinegar and competing with national brands for a spot at the bar has at times made ‘cyder’ making feel like a futile operation.

I will dip into that over the next few weeks, but for now I’ll mention that the liquid we pour from the farmyard cider tap every Saturday is a delicious example of how proper cider can taste. Low intervention practices, a full-juice recipe and a balance of tannin, sweetness & acidity means you will often see us sipping our own cider whilst enjoying serving it to you as well. Andrew will be pouring (and sipping) cider & snacks this Saturday so please do pop by for something delicious.

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The Spring Market is next weekend!!

We are not taking pre-orders for hot food but both vendors will be preparing plenty of burgers & pizza for walk-ins. We’re sorry they sold out last time and they have promised to overcompensate this time.

The farm walk will leave the yard at midday, so please arrive 5 minutes before to park up and join in.

Live music will be from 1pm and fabulous food & drink is available all day.

We’re hoping for a really good turn out to help us support our local producers, and we can’t wait to sip some cyder with you all.

Newsletter 6th April 2023

Good morning and happy Easter to you,

Less quantity but better quality seems to be the flavour of the moment when it comes to eating animal products, which makes sense for health, ethics & the environment. When it comes to better tasting beef, studies suggest the British prefer the flavour of suckler beef over dairy crosses, grass fed over grain fed and certain breeds, such as Angus, tend to come out on top.

Some countries like America, Australia & Japan actually reward their beef farmers based on the quality of meat they produce by paying more for better tasting beef. America, for example, grades its beef by three main categories - prime (the most delicious and expensive, with plenty o’ marbling), choice (good but less marbling) & select (uniform quality but leaner). The grade is judged by cutting between the 12th & 13th rib and seeing how much fat is dispersed in the meat of the ribeye, as the clearest indicator of flavour, juiciness and deliciousness is marbling.

In the UK, the supermarkets & large meat processors tend to value beef based on the carcass yield, not flavour or quality. Farmers in Britain are incentivised to produce a carcass with a high meat to fat & bone ratio, and our cattle are graded on the shape of the animal & the leanness of the muscle. As a result, the eating quality is low down on the list of priorities when breeding, and so what’s available to buy from the supermarkets tends to lack flavour.

On setting out to produce the best beef we can, we learned that 5% of all American beef is in the top rated ‘prime’ category, and impressively 38% of American beef that has been crossed with the Akaushi breed - aka red Wagyu - qualifies as ‘prime’.

Wagyu is producing more than its fair share of prime beef by quite some way.

If you’d like some for the easter weekend, pop by tomorrow from 11am. We’re serving hot dogs & Silly Moo Cider and look forward to seeing you in the sunny yard.

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The line up is looking excellent, with hot food from 3Bros Burgers & SoPi Pizza, live music from Brighton folk band Sistie Moose and lots of wonderful Sussex food & drink stalls.

Newsletter 31st March 2023

Good afternoon,

March has been wet. I try not to harp on about the weather too often but working on a farm in England makes it inevitable sometimes. The weather does dictate what we can do, and is probably the thing most groaned about over a morning coffee when discussing plans for the day.

We’ve not yet been able to sow our spring barley and we have unfortunately missed the chance to grow our winter wheat this year, which needs soil warm enough to grow through, and then a sufficiently cold spell to vernalise - the ground has been too cold, and is now too wet to get on with machinery.

Our cattle release day also looks a few weeks off in order to save our muddy fields from hoof damage. We’ve got plenty of fodder for the herd from 2022’s silage & hay making, but we’re soon going to run out of bedding and it might be difficult to buy it in as everyone around here is in a similar soggy boat. We shower all the pens with fresh straw everyday, keeping the cattle on soft, dry ground and helping to balance and bind their manure for the muck heap, so we’re hoping it dries off enough to get them onto pasture soon.

It’s been wet, but not dreary - we’ve had 55 new Sussex Wagyu calves join the Trenchmore herd, and lots of new restaurants and pubs joining the Trenchmore troupe. Have a look at the full list here.

We’re looking forward to plenty of delicious things in the diary starting with 3Bros burgers this Saturday from 1pm. We will also be joined by Loz & Ian, two friends who share a passion for making lovely things from offcuts, reclaimed wood & cement. Expect functional & beautiful things, including picture frames, chopping boards and the odd garden gnome thrown in for good measure.

Trenchmore shop

Spring Market

We’ve got some wonderful Sussex producers joining the line up on 22nd April, with two hot food options and live music.

Andrew & Nev will be hosting a farm walk from 12pm - 1pm, and everyone is welcome to join. Just find them in the yard at midday and join us afterwards for some delicious grub and live music.

Newsletter 23rd March 2023

Good afternoon,

Our fridge is stocked with short ribs, tomahawks, fillet & roasting joints this week, and we’re serving pizza 12-4pm on Saturday. 

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Spiced, braised short ribs

nabbed from Alison Roman

Serves 5 people

2kg short rib

Salt, pepper, vegetable oil

0.5kg small, waxy potatoes, quartered

1 large yellow onion, sliced

5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon crushed chilli pepper

2 tablespoons cumin seeds

2 tablespoons fennel seed

1 tablespoon coriander seed

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons tomato paste

110ml white wine vinegar

700ml beef stock

2 lemons, seeds removed, thinly sliced

A big handful of coriander, coarsely chopped

Season short ribs with salt and lots of pepper. Preheat oven to 160°C.

Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat & sear short ribs until deeply golden brown all on all sides, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer short ribs to a large plate.

Drain some fat from the pot, leaving behind any of the good bits, and add potatoes cut side down, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, without disturbing for about 5 minutes. Give them a stir and continue to cook until browned a little more evenly. Transfer potatoes to the tray with the meat, leaving any bits and fat behind.

Add onions and garlic to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Cook 5–8 minutes. Add chilli flakes, cumin, fennel, coriander seed, and cinnamon, stirring to coat and toast the spices. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Add stock and vinegar, and bring to a simmer, scraping up all the bits on the bottom of the pot.

Return short ribs and potatoes to the pot, nestling everything in under liquid and scatter with half the lemon, ensuring the beef is submerged. Cover and place pot in the oven until short ribs are falling off the bone tender and potatoes are impossibly creamy, 2.5 to 3 hours.

Increase oven temperature to 220°C and remove the lid. Continue to cook until short ribs and any potatoes on top are browned and starting to crisp and the liquid has reduced to a very nice, rich sauce, 25–35 minutes.

Remove from heat and scatter with remaining lemon and the chopped coriander.

Newsletter 9th March 2023

Good morning,

Thank you to everyone who came to see us last Saturday. We’re open again from 11am tomorrow, serving hot dogs and cider from 1pm. You can book or just pop along.

Abattoirs are a necessary link in the food chain for meat eaters. They’re often intentionally tucked well out of sight and mind, but in order to make better food choices we could all give local slaughterhouses a little more thought.

We’re very lucky to have a good one only 15 minutes away from the farm. The proximity means less travel-time for the cattle, and enables us to slaughter every week and supply our customers with regular fresh beef. Small abattoirs lend themselves to higher welfare systems - smaller numbers in holding pens means less stress for the animals, and local abattoirs enable less intensive farming, which tends to be more ethical for animal, farmer & the environment.

There has been a drastic decline in small abattoirs because of rising costs and staff shortages. Every closure makes farming in the local area harder and if closures continue at their current rate, there wouldn’t be any small abattoirs left in this country by 2030.

But there has been some good news - new funding for small abattoirs was announced by farming minister Mark Spencer last week. The details haven’t been confirmed but the announcement is very welcome, and signals that our government might be starting to take our fragile food system a little more seriously.

Easter Lamb

We’re taking orders for Nuthurst Lamb boxes for Easter. Each box has a leg, shoulder, cutlet, chops & mince and will fit into a standard sized freezer drawer.

We can also have individual joints so please email if you’re interested.

Newsletter 1st March 2023

Good afternoon,

March is here, and with it a feeling of spring is in the air thanks to the keen daffodils and wild garlic. To celebrate, the yard shop is back to normal hours and will be serving farmhouse cider & wagyu hot dogs this Saturday and we hope to see you.

We will have wagyu hot dogs available for walk-ins, but please let us know if you’re meat or gluten free as I’ll need to organise these beforehand.

We’ve got beef, eggs & cider to take home aplenty - take a look here.

The first thing most people notice when they come down our farm drive is the unusually shaped cowshed in the middle of our yard. Not only does it serve as a convenient roundabout for shop customers, delivery drivers & tractors, and an interesting venue for interesting talks by agricultural authors, but it provides a happy home for our cattle.

The design is inspired by the principles of Temple Grandin, who observed cattle prefer to move in curves rather than straight lines, don’t enjoy heading into darkness and feel more safe in a confined creche-like handling system, which this barn has in its centre. It has a chimney that draws moist air up and out, improving the health of the herd, and its design enables the cattle to all see each other, which helps keeps them calm. All in all, it’s a thoughtfully designed building and the first barn we put up at Trenchmore, almost 10 years ago. We currently use it for the finishers, where they get ample silage and bi-products to eat, and access to the Happy Cow, a rotating brush that is turned on when a cow pushes against it for a back and neck rub.

We’re open on Saturday 11-4pm so pop by to see the Happy Cow & our happy cows.

Newsletter 23rd February 20323

Good afternoon,

As February draws to an end and the days are getting longer and warmer, we’re looking forward to the new season beginning. We’ve been calving for the last few weeks, a little earlier than expected with 25 newborns arriving so far. It’s almost a full house as we also have Nuthurst Farm’s sheep tidying our orchard, and the pregnant ewes are a cheerful indication that spring isn’t so far off.

Nev has built our newborns a play pen, which allows them a little respite from protective mums and time to hang out with the other youngsters. They can head back in for feeds and nuzzling whenever they want.

Change has been in the air this month as we’re now working with a new butcher, we are supplying a few new chefs in Sussex, and we have been preparing the seed bed in our four new fields - named Thornybank, Willowbank, Cowfold & Summersby.

We’ve made fast work on these fields, clearing the brambles and scrap, and getting the soil primed and ready to go back into food production after 17 years of being inactive. Prior to that, they’d had their top soil stripped for turf so I expect it will take a bit of time to get things to where we want them but progress is underway.

November’s batch of pressed apple juice has been slowly bubbling away in our steel cider tanks, and has almost finished fermenting and tastes fresh, fruity, with a slight sweet tang and pleasing effervescence - it tastes alive which is exactly what it is. Once it has finished fermenting completely, we will let it mature for at least 6 months before blending and packing into Silly Moo.

We are pleased to have the Moo Tap & Yard Shop back open from 11am - 4pm on 4th March, and all Saturdays from then on. We will be pouring pints and serving Wagyu hot dogs on our first Saturday back - pre-order here.

Take a look at some other events in the pipeline here, with much more to follow soon.

In the meantime, we have plenty of beef in the freezers and steak boxes on offer and are open for collections this Saturday 11am - midday.

We’re looking forward to seeing you soon.

Newsletter 26th January 2023

Good morning,

Hello, howdy and a happy new year, if we’re still allowed to wish it this late into January. It has been a short while since my last email and I hope everyone is keeping well. We’ve been quiet at Trenchmore this month and are looking forward to resuming full shop hours and yard events once it warms up a little - and January’s virtuous intentions start to lack their flavour.

In the meantime, we have been bedding & feeding the hens and herd every day, and getting ourselves in order for the spring. This has involved a fair amount of office work and yard sorting, with the added excitement of frozen, and sometimes bursting, water pipes.

The hens are happy and are laying well - in both egg quantity and egg size - seemingly unperturbed by the nippy weather. The cattle have struggled a little more with the cold & damp air, and we have had to treat a couple for pneumonia. Nev is keeping a close eye on everyone and we thankfully seem to be past the worst of it.

We have taken on some land near to the farm which needs a fair amount of TLC before we can put the cattle on it, or sow our wheat. We’re working on clearing the brambles and plan to make the hedgerows denser with some clever pruning and improve the soil with some clever farming.

We delivered our first 1.5 tonnes of Trenchmore DP (diverse population) wheat to E5 Bakehouse in London last week, and will be supplying them with plenty more over the next month. If you live near enough, their Hackney Wild loaf is up there on my list of favourite foods, rubbing shoulders with tiramisu and my mum’s lasagne. Even if you don’t live near enough, it’s probably worth the trip.

We’ve had our first calf of the season this week and are expecting lots more to come over the next month, so pay us a visit if you’d like to coo over something fluffy, wobbly and a little shy.

This chap is a Wagyu x Angus and is very very sweet.

For those who have pre-ordered, Rosie’s lamb boxes are ready to pick up tomorrow 11-12pm. She’s taking orders for more if you would like to have one in the coming weeks.

The Trenchmore Yard Shop is open every Saturday 11am-12pm, and has fresh & frozen beef available to take home. We will be back open 11am-4pm in March.

We look forward to seeing you in the yard soon.

Newsletter 23rd December 2022

Good afternoon,

Whether you’re spending today frantically tying up loose ends at work, or you already have your feet up and are nursing a glass of something delicious whilst chestnuts roast over an open fire, or you’re mentally preparing yourself for a few days of seeing more family than you’d usually care to, we’re pleased to have made it to the homestretch for 2022.

And what a year it has been. Politically, nauseating. Financially, brutal. Weather-wise, very hot and very cold, and now very mild. But through all the excitement, the grass continues to grow, the cattle continue to eat and the hens continue to lay - remarkably well, I might add.

It’s definitely time for us at Trenchmore to slow down, pull our wellies off and mull over plans for 2023. But just before we do, we are open tomorrow 11-4pm and Thursday 29th 11-4pm for the last collections for the year, and we hope to see you.

We will not be open on 31st December, and will be moving into our hibernation hours for January & February - 11am-12pm every Saturday.

Thank you for the continued support this year - be that buying from the shop, eating & drinking our produce in restaurants & pubs or simply spreading the good word. All of it means a lot and enables us to keep farming in the best way we can.

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year to you all.

Rachel, Andrew & Neville

Newsletter 16th December 2022

Good afternoon,

It is breathtakingly cold & beautiful at Trenchmore this week. We’ve been keeping busy making beef stock & dripping for our festive boxes, piling muck whilst the ground is cold enough to let the machinery on and making lots of cider - blending freshly pressed apple juice when it is at its best (just after harvest) with last year’s fermented base cider for our signature juicy Moo.

We’ve got some wonderful beef in the fridge and are offering home delivery in Brighton & Hove before Christmas. I’m afraid our little electric van has a limited mileage so we can’t offer it further afield just yet, but we’re still open for collections for the next two Saturdays, 11-4pm.

Sussex Wagyu Steak Box

If you’re stuck for a last minute gift, or fancy stocking up with steaks to see you through the cold months, have a look at our stellar Sussex Wagyu steak box.

This week each box includes 6 pairs of fresh steak including fillet, sirloin & flat iron.

If it’s a gift, just send us an email and we can pop a card in for you.

order here

Sussex Wagyu Rib Joints

We’ve got a few extra bone-in rib roasting joints if you’re yet to decide on your Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day menu.

They are all dry-ageing so will be fresh this Saturday or next.

order here

Sussex Wagyu Roast Joints

We’ve got 1.5kg & 2kg fresh roasting joints in this week, and the shop lists them by their cut & weight so you can choose the perfect joint for you.

The options are Aitch Bone, LMC, Topside & Top Rump.

Newsletter 9th December 2022

Good morning,

Thank you to all the chefs, bakers, makers, farmers, growers & eaters who joined us in the yard last Saturday. It was a wonderful day, full to the brim with food, music & merriment, and we were pleased to see so many of you.

And the festivities at Trenchmore are not over just yet - we are open today and the two next Saturdays to pick up produce & grab a cup of mulled cider.

We’ve got fresh tomahawks, sirloin steaks & roasting joints in the fridge today.

3Bros burgers in Chichester

The boys are serving Trenchmore Sussex Wagyu burgers at the Chichester Christmas Market every day for the next 2 weeks.

Pop by to pick up gifts, produce and something tasty for lunch.

Christmas veg

We’re selling local organic veg boxes for Christmas, brimming with the classics (spuds, sprouts, ‘snips & the rest) that have been grown locally and are all organic.

You can pre-order a Barcombe box online and collect from the farm on 24th December.

more info

New Year lamb

Rosie is taking orders for lamb boxes which will be ready to enjoy in January. Each box will contain a leg, shoulder, rack of cutlets, chops, neck fillet & mince and will fit into 1 freezer drawer.

Rosie’s sheep are well loved and grass-fed up the lane from us, and the flavour is excellent.

order here

Trenchmore gift cards

Not sure what to gift someone who cares about their food?

Not only how it tastes, but also where it has come from and the impact it has had?

Well, if you want to give the gift of good food grown well, we have £25 - £100 gift cards on our website which can be spent on any produce or events through our website.

Newsletter 2nd December 2022

Good morning,

We’ve been moving machinery, tidying away the tools and sweeping up the yard this week in preparation for our festive food market tomorrow. The wreath workshop benches (covered piles of pallets) are in situ in the cider house, the smell of mulled cider has been wafting around the farm and the pot holes in the farm track have been filled in.

We are ready for you.

We’re expecting a big turn out so please drive slowly in the yard and follow the signs for parking. Dogs on leads & kids are welcome but are your responsibility - we’re a working farm with livestock, machinery & enticing but unstable things to climb on so keep a watchful eye on your troop.

From 11am - 4pm you can pick up beef, cider & wheat from the Trenchmore shop and delicious provisions & hot food from our friends. There will be live music & fire pits so we hope you will hang about for a bit and enjoy being merry with us.

We will be giving out free sourdough starters for those who pick up our wheat - please bring an empty jar to put it in.

And lastly, thanks to your pre-orders we have raised £360 for JustLife to help support the amazing work they do in Brighton. It would be great to give even more so please pre-order a discounted cup of something delicious here to enjoy tomorrow.

Newsletter 25th November 2022

Good morning,

We’ve had 12 inches of rain so far this month, which is almost half what we would expect to get in a whole year. Half. In about three weeks.

I’m struggling to let that sink in, much like the sodden soils and overflowing streams. Well, thankfully, it’s not too bad at Trenchmore - the fields are a little muddy but not waterlogged and our farmyard is blessed with the largest umbrella in the parish. The roundhouse is doing a great job of keeping the cattle dry but we are having to bed up every day at the moment, as opposed to every few days, to keep things comfortable for them.

Young Bucko is back in the roundhouse and has made a couple of friends - one who was born very late and another who’s mother didn’t produce enough milk. The three of them maybe the smallest and slowest of the pack but we hope they will soon catch up to their cohort and enjoy getting onto grass in the spring.

The hens are doing just fine in their new digs. Plenty of space to scratch about and straw, chopped grass & porridge (topped with linseed flakes, which Dad claims is for the omegas but I’m sure he’s showing off his culinary flair) to peck through. Plus Radio 4 plays in the background so they can stay up to date with The Archers. They’re laying remarkably well for this time of year.

Our farm shop is open tomorrow and we have plenty of fresh steaks & roasting joints in stock. Plus eggs, cider & wheat. Take a look online or just pop in from 11am.

online shop

Festive Food Market

Next Saturday we are hosting a festive food market with 8 delicious market stalls, 2 hot food options, live music and Christmas trees & wreaths to buy.

We’ve just added Kinsbrook Vineyard to the offering, who will be serving wine by the glass & bottles to take home.

You do not need a ticket to join the market but we are selling warm drinks online for £3 (£4.50 on the day).

For every £3 drink that is bought online, £6 will be donated to Brighton based homeless charity JustLife, thanks to The Big Give campaign.

Newsletter 18th November 2022

Good morning,

Our Festive Market is in two week’s time tomorrow and we cannot wait to see a full farmyard of merry making. Cold fingers clasped around cosy cups of something delicious, bopping bobble hats listening to the live music and people perusing the market stalls for something special to eat or take home.

Our lineup celebrates some of the best local chefs, distillers, chocolatiers, farmers, bakers and makers, and we are all excited to see you. Scoot down the page for a flavour of what’s to come.

You can pre-order cups of mulled cider or juice for £3 here, and all proceeds will be doubled by the Big Give campaign and then donated to Brighton based homeless charity, JustLife.

We’re open as usual this Saturday from 11am-4pm and the shop is stocked with beautifully marbled Sussex Wagyu beef, Trenchmore wheat, fresh eggs & cider.

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Barcombe Nurseries

Supplying organic produce from their Sussex farm along with locally & sustainably sourced fruit & veg, Barcombe will have plenty to stock up on and information about signing up to their local veg box scheme.

Slake Spirits

Winner of the highly coveted Great Taste Golden Fork Award, Tom’s spirits & aperitifs are made in Shoreham and would make an excellent gift for someone special, or maybe just find their way into your own drinks cabinet.

Cocoa Loco

Based up the lane from us, Sarah & Rory have been making their ethical & organic chocolate in West Sussex since 2005.

They work with farms in the Dominican Republic who are growing organic cacao in gaps in the rainforest canopy, not from clear-cut areas.

Properly fair trade & delicious.

Clare’s Chillis

A Trenchmore staple, Clare will be selling her plants, chillis and sauces at the market - all delicious and grown right next to our farm.

Plus, her husband Andy will have his 3ft-4ft Christmas trees for sale. Get in touch for more info.

Susana & Daughters Kefir

Based on the Cowdray Estate in the South Downs, Susana makes her kefir from a single, free-range dairy herd and sells it in glass bottles, which can be refilled. It is deliciously creamy and teaming with gut-healthy probiotics.

Gwyn’s Bakery

Set up & run by Ben Lines, who has worked in 1, 2 & 3 Michelin starred kitchens, Gwyn’s focuses on British ingredients, sourdoughs baked from scratch everyday and perfectly flakey pastries with seasonal fillings.

My Posy Neighbour

Charlotte is running a wreath workshop and selling pre-made wreaths for you to take home.

All the gorgeous foliage Charlotte uses is sourced from the UK and eco-friendly.

The workshop is pre-book only and will include a light lunch and welcome drink.

Book here

Tin Roof Pizza

When not doing the trade deliveries for Trenchmore Farm, Barny makes hand stretched, wood fired Neapolitan style pizzas from his 1956 Dodge pickup. He’s normally very busy with weddings & events, so we’re chuffed to have the Trenchmore X Tin Roof debut at this year’s Festive Market.

The Syndicate Kitchen

Michael & Jon will be cooking & serving up smokey BBQ sandwiches, using Trenchmore beef and locally sourced and seasonal ingredients.

Plus sides & something sweet to finish.

Newsletter 11th November 2022

Good afternoon,

We’ve had 7 inches of rain this month and the ground is holding up relatively well thanks to the dry summer. Even still, all the cattle are back at basecamp for the winter so we can save the soils and grow enough grass again next year.

Those who have been with Trenchmore for a while might recall the days of our heritage wheat, which we grew & sold for a few years pre-covid. Mum & I would spend our weekends sampling homemade sourdough bread and cooked wheat berries at various markets and events, so you may even have tried it or baked with it yourself.

After a couple of years of poor yields and, despite rave reviews on the flavour, not much traction on sales, we took our foot off the grain gas to focus on our silly moos.

And now, a few years on and with a better understanding of growing, something has led us back to bread. We have been developing a diverse population to better suit our soils, which means it can be grown with less intervention and is more resilient to disease. We harvested our first crop of the new Trenchmore Wheat this year and are going to start selling the cleaned wheat berries through the farm shop. We’ve borrowed a table-top mill so will be able mill a bag of wheat, if you’d like us to.

The shop is open tomorrow from 11am - 4pm, and well stocked with fresh beef, eggs, cider & a very limited amount of wheat.

shop

Festive Market

Our festive market on 3rd December is shaping up to be something pretty special. We will have two bands playing, a couple of hot food options, 5 or 6 market stalls and plenty of festive cheer to kick the month off with.

Plus, a very special wreath workshop and lunch with My Posy Neighbour on the day as well. More details and booking can be found here.

All proceeds for pre-sold hot drinks will be doubled and donated to JustLife, a Brighton based charity supporting homeless people, so please do order yourself a cup of something delicious to enjoy at the market here.

Newsletter 28th October 2022

Good afternoon,

It may be an unseasonal 18C outside but we are stepping into November next week and are looking forward to our festive plans.

Our Christmas beef boxes are now available to order online and will include a centrepiece joint for the big day, plus plenty of delicious treats to see your family through to the new year. Take a look and pre-order here.

And, we’re holding a festive market in the yard on the 3rd December with live music, food stalls and a wreath making workshop (pre-booking only). Entry to the market is free but we are pre-selling warming cups of mulled cider & mulled apple juice for £3 - all of which will be donated to a local charity that supports people who are homeless.

We hope you can join us.

Meanwhile, we’re open every Saturday 11-4pm for stocking up on Trenchmore provisions and have plenty of fresh Sussex Wagyu in the fridges.

Newsletter 20th October 2022

Good evening,

What a week it has been. The lettuce that outlasted the prime minister, talk of a second wave of Boris Johnson and now, a local flock-down.

We don’t need more bad news this week but unfortunately bad news is the flavour of the month and farming is no exception - avian flu has found its way to a large commercial flock in Billingshurst. The entire flock has been culled and there is a 10km surrounding surveillance zone set up, which includes our farm.

We have spoken to fellow flockstars and some understand that a case of avian flu would require the culling of your flock and also the shutting down of your farm for a period of time to disinfect. This would be dire for most farms as it would restrict other farming business and trading. I know local egg farmers that are already planning to cease producing eggs because of the increased cost of feed, and now the cost of required housing and risk to the rest of the farm business doesn’t make it viable. We are likely to see a reduction in the availability of free-range & organic eggs in the UK, and probably the price of good eggs to go up. Definitely not good news.

Nev & Finley finished reconstructing our hen house today and our girls are now reluctantly but safely back in the yard.

Meanwhile, apple pressing has been going well and we’ve almost filled two of our 8,000L tanks with fresh juice already.

We are serving organic pizza & mulled cider in the yard tomorrow from 1-4pm. The website is well stocked with Sussex Wagyu steaks, roasting joints & braising cuts, eggs and cider.

We hope to see you in the yard.