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Our homegrown and handmade produce is available from the pop-up farm shop
“The Three Turnips” on Saturdays 10am–4pm in the lean-to shed at the Grain Store at Lower Hampen Farm, Andoversford, Cheltenham, Glos GL54 4JJ.
Our What3Words location is: ///soaks.most.nourished
Everything we grow and make is seasonal and produced in small quantities so the shop varies from week to week and from season to season!
Our Vegetables, Herbs and Flowers
Our Veg Box Scheme & Subscribers Membership provides a year-round supply of homegrown veggies, to be collected from the lean to shed at the Grain Store at Lower Hampen Farm, GL54 4JJ. The box scheme is one of many Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes across the country.
Veg Boxes
The weekly veg box costs £14 a week, billed at the beginning of the month, for a year round selection of approximately 8 different items. Additional veg can be purchased on top of this.
The monthly subscription is £20 a month (approximately £5 a week), billed at the beginning of the month, and this is a credit to be used towards purchasing vegetables each month.
Subscribers and members of the veg box scheme can collect anytime between 10:00 – 20:00 on Thursdays and Fridays and from 10:00 – 16:00 on Saturdays.
The pop-up shop will be open on Saturdays from 10:00 – 16:00.
Herbs & Flowers
We will also be offering herbs each week included within the memberships and posies of seasonal cut flowers will be available to purchase as extra, along with any other items such as meat, jam, honey, eggs, jellies, candles and woolly bits or charcoal.
Volunteering
We want to encourage people on to the farm for an hour or two each week to engage with the way in which we do things and to better understand just how critical farming in an environmentally supportive way is for all of our futures. We want volunteers to see the beetle banks, observe the biodiversity and species rich wildflora, count birds, enjoy the changing days of weather and to have fun being outside, chatting away and pulling a few weeds or harvesting crops.
Our Lamb & Mutton
Our flock of pedigree Devon Closewool sheep graze our permanent pastures rich in herbs and wild flowers providing a healthy natural balanced diet. The lambs are allowed to grow naturally at their own pace making for delicious sweet meat. We butcher only a small number of lambs at any one time only when they reach their optimum weight.
The meat is sold in half lamb packs or as individual pieces from the pop-up shop. The lamb is beautifully butchered and vacuum packed. The half lamb packs include leg and shoulder joints, loin chops, cutlets and chump chops, mince, and either heart or kidney. Joints can be left whole or halved. Pre-ordered meat can be purchased fresh but generally lamb is sold in freezer packs.
We are delighted that mutton is now back in favour, it is a wonderful meat for use in curry’s and casseroles. Mutton requires long slow cooking to make it melt in the mouth but it really is worth it.
Please ring Clive or Lydia on 01242 820295 if you would like to order lamb or mutton. We offer free delivery within a 5-mile radius of the farm or customers are very welcome to pick up their order direct from the farm. We encourage people to visit us so we can show off how well we care for our sheep. Deliveries further afield can be arranged by courier at extra cost.
Our Candles & Honey
We are very keen beekeepers and look after seven hives situated in three apiaries on the farm. The farm provides a great diversity of pollen and nectar plants from the meadows, herb leys and woodland as well as our arable crops. Bees are also essential to pollinate our sainfoin crop which we grow for seed. Sainfoin, a legume, is a wonderful nectar source for bees and produces the most delicious summer honey.
An added bonus is the golden beeswax produced when the bees feed on sainfoin. This wonderful wax we make into candles and tealights as well as wonderful moisturizing honey and beeswax soap. We harvest only surplus honey and always leave the bees enough stores to keep them fed and healthy.
Our Woven Wool
A range of beautiful woven products are made for us by Curlew Weavers in Dyfed, Wales, a traditional family run mill specialising in wool from rare and traditional sheep breeds. In some of our products, the Devon Closewool yarn is combined with the luscious dark wool of the Hebridean sheep and the beautiful soft tones of the Shetland to produce a range of naturally coloured blankets and throws.
All other products are made of 100% Devon Closewool wool, the yarn dyed to our bespoke colour specification by Curlew Weavers and woven into ‘blue’ and ‘green’ ranges of blankets, cushions, scarves and throws. Many of these designs are available online CLICK HERE.
In addition, other one-off items that have been hand woven, plant dyed and created by Lydia using fleece from our Devon Closewool flock are available in the pop-up shop and some online.
Our Homegrown Devon Closewool Fleecewool and Yarn
Our wonderful Devon Closewool sheep produce a bountiful dense fleece of good staple length. The fibre is very versatile and strong and easy to spin and dye. The yarn is perfect for outerwear and blankets, sweaters, hats and mittens. It can be used for knitting, weaving, crotchet and many other art/craft practices.
Our Natural Yarn
Our natural yarn (now available to buy online) has been professionally spun by Curlew Weavers and is offered as both Double Knit (3ply) weight, Arran (4ply) weight and lightweight 2 ply. The 2 and 3 ply yarns are sold as 100g skeins and the 4 ply as 200g skeins.
Our Plant Dyed Yarn
Lydia has been experimenting with dyes from plants grown in the garden and from the farm using age old recipes some dating as far back as medieval times. The dyed skeins offered have been thoroughly washed to ensure they are colourfast. As with all dyes, including commercial dyes, it is advised not to expose the wool to long periods of direct sunlight which may cause fading of the colour. It is difficult to replicate plant dyed material across different batches so skeins on sale from the pop-up shop must be considered as unique.
Our Sainfoin Seeds
Sainfoin is a very deep rooted legume capable of growing on the driest Cotswold limestone soils and is extremely drought resistant. It is a uniquely wonderful plant both for the soil and as a forage crop for farm livestock and bees and other insects. Sainfoin contains tannins which aid protein absorption in livestock resulting in faster liveweight gains when compared to any other forage. From an environmental perspective, the tannins in sainfoin also help reduce methane production in ruminants and it never causes bloat. Sainfoin also has natural anthelmintic properties thereby reducing the need for artificial wormers that do so much harm to the soil ecology. On our farm we grow sainfoin for seed which is then added to other herbs, clovers and grasses for environmental herb leys. The added benefit to us is that it produces the most delicious honey!
We would like to encourage everyone to plant some beautiful sainfoin in their gardens and paddocks to encourage bees and other insects. Seeds are available for sale in the pop-up shop.
Farm Walks and Workshops
With the growing interest in regenerative farming and farm diversification, we have held several educational farm walks and workshops for interested parties so please contact Lydia or Clive by email homegrownathampen@outlook.com if you wish to bring a group to the farm.
Regenerative farming is a relatively new and undefined system of farming and we, like many are at the beginning of our journey, learning as we go. We do not profess to be experts but we can offer help and advice based on our experiences and with plenty of enthusiasm! We are linking up with other organisations to also offer classes in rural and craft-based skills. Information regarding any walks and workshops will be posted here.
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