From field to plate... in a matter of metres

IT’S not often you can sink your teeth into a burger knowing the meat was reared just metres away.

But Roves Farm’s tearoom, in the visitor centre at the 400-acre farm in Sevenhampton, serves pork sausages and lamb burgers made from the farm’s own animals.

Visitors can also buy the produce raw in packs to cook at home, as well as pork boxes containing roasting joints, steaks, chops, spare ribs and sausages. Lamb boxes containing cutlets, chops, chump steaks, shoulder, leg and mince are also available.

This is just the start though, as the Burr family, who have been running the farm for the last 22 years, are hoping to build a farm shop in about 18 months’ time.

It will also sell beef produced from cattle they are currently rearing, and they will have their own butcher too.

Currently the meat they sell is butchered by Andrews Quality Meats in Highworth before it is brought back to the farm for visitors to buy.

Pippa Burr, 25, who bought the farm’s ewes for producing lamb in 2011, said the meat is popular with the customers.

“All the meat we sell is born and reared here. There is nothing more rewarding than somebody praising your own produce,” she said.

“We love the animals – you don’t do farming unless you love it – and to actually supply your local community with your own produce is the most rewarding part of sheep farming. When people come back and say how lovely it is it makes late nights worth it. During lambing season I can be up for 19 hours a day for three weeks.”

The lamb is hung for 10 days to make it tender, which Pippa said makes a big difference.

The farm has been selling its own sausages, made from their rare breed Gloucester Old Spot Pigs, for about four years but only recently started selling pork boxes.

Pippa said the type of pigs they have improves the flavour of the pork.

“Gloucester Old Spot is a rare breed. The pigs grow much slower and they have a bit more fat on them. Because of that it produces really nice crackling and it’s a nice tender and juicy joint,” she said.

“I have had lots of comments from people who have bought the pork boxes saying how succulent the meat is. Our burgers and sausages use the best parts of the meat, which makes them really flavoursome. They’re really high quality.”

The farm is most famous for being a visitor attraction, with a visitor centre, new indoor and outdoor play areas, and chances to meet and feed the animals, including goats, hens and ducks.

Roves Farm was originally a sheep farm and the visitor centre grew out of the lambing open days they held.

But when foot and mouth disease broke out in 2001, the farm focussed more on the visitor centre side of the business and sold the remaining flock.

Pippa’s father, Rupert, said: “The visitor centre has overtaken the farm in terms of its economic and financial importance. I have wound the farm down to keep the visitor centre going.

“Foot and mouth cost us over £100,000 and we have just finished paying that off. The farm had to play second fiddle but now we are beginning to invest back in it.”

Sadly, the original visitor centre was destroyed in a fire caused by an electrical fault in May 2012, but straight after the blaze staff worked around the clock to turn the old lambing shed into the new visitor centre.

They hope to start building a farm shop where the old Visitor Centre used to be in 18 months’ time.

They also plan to open a lunchtime restaurant there, where people can eat the farm’s produce too.

Rupert said: “This was something we wanted to do when we started 20 years ago but we had to wait until we had enough people coming through. People don’t come here to shop because it’s a bit out the way. Now we are more established and have bigger numbers coming through so it is worth doing.

“It’s a long term thing and we have got an eye on what is happening with new houses being built nearby too.”

The farm now has 18 sows which produce over 300 piglets every year, as well as 250 ewes and 250 lambs too.

They also have 36 cows, and they will be increasing this in the future so they can start producing beef in 18 months’ time.

Pippa said: “It’s a learning curve for us. We have got to have continuity but lambs are born at a certain time of the year. We had to work out how to spread it so the growth rates vary and we produce lamb all year round.”

Pippa said they are focussed on providing their customers with good value for money. “People assume farm shops are expensive but they’re not because we’re cutting out the middle man. Our lamb boxes are 24 per cent cheaper than Tesco and our pork boxes are 39 per cent cheaper,” she said.

The burgers and sausages are available from the farm’s reception. They also sell vegetables from a farm three fields away, as well as a local farmer’s eggs in the visitor centre.

Roves Farm’s sausages are £3.73 for a pack of six. The lamb burgers are £8.40 for six.

A half lamb box (9.5-11kg) is £65 ot a whole lamb box (19-22kg) is £130. A half pork box (35kg is £110.

To order a lamb or pork box contact Pippa by emailing pippa@rovesfarm.co.uk or phone 07708849298. For more information visit www.rovesfarm.co.uk.