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Make the most of every meal
Eat organic everyday with our monthly box range
Why not also check out our new recipes for using up leftovers.
Where am I?
Our background and values
Our background and values
Back in the day
Before we became a proper company, we (well, Geoff) simply sold lamb reared on Carswell Farm to friends and family. Then in 2001, we entered the Soil Association Organic Food Awards, and our lamb won in the blind tasting. We repeated this success in 2002, and decided that two years in a row can’t be luck. That’s when The Well Hung Meat Company began. Since then, you could say we’ve grown organically - in more ways than one.
In 2003, as demand for our meat grew, we had to look beyond Carswell and started sourcing lamb and beef from other local organic farms. The following year, we took on our first butcher and assistant, and in 2005 we revved up The Well Hung Burger Van, travelling around the country to let people taste our cooked meat. All the while, we kept adding new products to our range - bacon, mutton, sausages, venison. We also developed the way we prepare our meat, so today we do all our butchery the traditional way by hand, with no machinery at all. (There’s something very unromantic about a buzz saw).
Passionate outpouring
We believe in what we do: producing wonderful meat for as many people as possible to enjoy, when and where they want to. We think it’s a worthwhile way to spend our time, and we love it. Believing in this means believing in quite a few other things. They’re all part of why our meat’s so good, and our service so convenient.
We believe the best things in life, particularly food, are simple, natural and unspoiled. Organic meat produced in this way should be an essential, affordable and enjoyable part of home cooking.
We believe that if you want to eat meat, you should take some responsibility for the welfare of the animal and how the meat got to your table. We’re serious about our responsibilities – not just to our animals, but also to our farmers and staff, and the environment we all depend on. And of course we have a big responsibility to our customers too. We’re not stuck in the past. In fact, we’re quite a young bunch, and we run a modern business.
We believe that farming should work with nature, not against it - and we believe in this totally, especially when dealing with live animals.
We believe in grass: it is one of nature's miracles that grass captures the energy from the sun, and that our cows and sheep can convert this into healthy meat full of vitamins, and healthy fats, omega 3s and conjugated linoleic acids.
We believe the whole experience of producing, cooking and eating meat should be a real pleasure. We want you to enjoy dealing with us, taking delivery of your meat, and then turning it into a fantastic meal to share with friends and family.
We think too many organisations seem to have forgotten how to behave properly, with kindness, generosity, consideration and honesty. We always try our best to be as good as we can. Being good also means always aiming to improve, in everything we do. We’ll keep looking for new and better ways to do things - like finding more sustainable packaging. Standing still isn’t good for anyone.
Our farmers
We have partnerships with several organic farms, here is a selection. Read on to find out more...
Carswell Farm belongs to Geoff Sayers, and has been in his family for generations. So naturally it was the first place to supply our meat, and it’s still a major source for us today. The farm stretches for three miles along the South Devon coast, and has a tradition of sheep and cattle farming going back hundreds of years. This is seriously lush pastureland - the best in Britain. The animals love it, and the humans here have learned to live with the changeable weather that creates it. Warm and wet. Often very, very wet. But sunny sometimes too. Perfect conditions for the finest organic meat.
South Torfrey Farm, in Fowey, Cornwall, is the home of our Christmas turkeys and geese. Here, Debbie and Simon Andrews follow strict organic principles, bedding their birds on straw and giving them plenty of room outside to range freely. They’ve been certified organic for a number of years - and another reason we like them is they’re keen on improving the tenderness and flavour of the meat by hanging.
Bowden Farm is just up the road from us at Buckfastleigh, on the edge of Dartmoor. This is where Russell Ashford farms organic lambs and cattle, as well as keeping chickens and miniature ponies. Half of the 300 hectares he works is typical Dartmoor moorland grazing - and he rents 150 hectares from the Prince of Wales. Russell specialises in traditional British breeds, and supplies us with Scotch and Texel Cross lamb and mutton, and Welsh Black and South Devon beef.
Stapleton Farm, run by Adam Stanbury and his family, is where our award-winning organic rose veal comes from. It’s near Ilfracombe in North Devon - a happy, healthy breeding ground for our calves, and the place where all their organic feed is grown.
Littons Farm is the highest farm on Exmoor, at 1,350 feet above sea level. Tim Hinder rears superb organic chickens and ducks for us here, working hard to make sure they’re all happy. He even makes his own chicken houses, and tops up the birds’ natural foraging with maize for that distinctive yellow, flavoursome meat.
Stream Farm, in the Quantocks on the Devon/Somerset border, produces organic chickens, beef and lamb. Andy Bradley rears Devonshire Gold chickens for us. At night they’re housed in roomy sheds, and by day they roam out on the fresh, organic grass - all year round.
Fowlescombe Estate supplies us with organic Angus beef and rare-breed Manx Loaghtan lamb. This is a 190 hectare organic farm in the South Hams, about two miles south of Dartmoor, where Richard and Barbara Barker manage the land as much in the interests of the natural wildlife as their magnificent livestock.
Dowrich Farm is a haven for happy pigs in Crediton, between Dartmoor and Exmoor. Here, Anthony Lee produces all our organic pork, and has done for more than five years. His pigs are Duroc Cross, and are free to roam and forage all year round - just as nature intended.
© 2012 The Well Hung Meat Company
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