fir-farm

BOOM Awards Winners!

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 14:46:29 GMT

One dark, gloomy morning in January as I was sifting through my emails, one caught my eye – “Enter now for the Soil Association BOOM Awards”, so I scrolled through the categories and low and behold there is one for “best milk, cream & butter”, ten minutes later I’m in the draw...

At Fir Farm we are now milking 45 pedigree Red Polls, of which all our milk is directly sold, either through our 3 milk vending machines, or to a local artisan farm shop nearby. We have also invested in a cream skimming machine with the help from a FiPL grant, so we are now making our own cream which we utilise in our ever-expanding ice-cream business. This ice cream is again, sold through our two frozen vending machines, along with frozen meat from our Red Poll & Sussex cattle herds.

The Farm itself is just over 1100 acres, fully organic, PFLA accredited dairy and beef, and farmed using regenerative methods, such as integrating livestock within our arable rotations, having roots in the ground all year round, minimsing soil disturbance and experimenting with bi-cropping across the whole farm. We also have a big emphasis on trying to improve the wildlife and biodiversity across the whole Estate, with the help from several experts who offer us advice on how best to farm this land with nature at the forefront.

When it comes to our Red Poll herd, we are very much in the mindset that the cows should dictate to us how much milk we can have, rather than us pushing them to demand milk from them. This ethos has shifted our milking patterns to only milking the cows once at day at 6am, and then allowing them to have whole day grazing our lush, diverse organic pastures, resulting in a much creamier, richer and almost sweeter milk.

It is this milk that is now making the brand of Fir Farm a stronger one, and that, I believe is one of the most important attributes to a successful farming business. We have built up quite a strong following with local customers, who come daily to get their milk, and we are lucky to be farming in a very affluential part of the UK, surrounded by tourist.

These tourists visit our vending stations on a daily basis, who then tell their friends about our products, and the circle continues. So it is vital that we have consistency in the quality of the products that we are trying to sell. This is where the Red Poll’s fit perfectly. Not only is the milk off the scales, but arguably, the meat is competing with our Sussex herd every time.

Three weeks ago I had an email come through – we are finalists in the BOOM Awards. I’d been invited to go to the ceremony in Bristol to see if we would win. I couldn’t believe it. I looked at the other two finalists in our category, one of which was Abel & Cole (who were sponsors of the event). How could a small farm like ours compete with such a massive business like Abel & Cole?

So I got myself dressed up, drove up to Bristol, and sat in my seat nervously waiting. It turns out Red Poll cattle do give the best milk – we are now officially BOOM Award winners!

Free-Range Chickens

richard@innuo.co.uk (Richard Jaques) — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 14:36:04 GMT

We recently boosted our mixed poultry flock by adopting 20 ex-battery hens from the British Hen Welfare Trust, a wonderful charity that has been re-homing hens since 2005.

When the chickens first arrived they were in an extremely distressed state with little to no feathers and barely able to walk.

Fast forward a few months and it’s great to see them enjoying free-range life in the outdoors. They are looking much healthier and are exhibiting natural behaviours like scratching the ground for food, exploring their grassy surroundings and socialising.

They, like our existing Burford Browns, bantams and guinea fowl, have access to the outdoors 24/7. Their hen house and enclosure is moved around the farm every month. They are now producing beautiful healthy eggs, which are being used in our Fir Farm ice cream . Aside from the food they forage in the fields, their diet is supplemented by organic mixed corn.

Pasture raised chicken is three times higher in omega 3s, contains twenty one percent less saturated fat than conventionally raised chickens, and is fifty percent higher in essential vitamins like A, D, and E.

For further information about the British Hen Welfare Trust or to adopt your own chickens, click here .

From Field to Fork

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 09:32:06 GMT

Flour

In line with our efforts to offer products with zero food miles, one of the big ambitions has been to mill, package and sell our own flour. A special container has been built in one of the Fir Farm sheds for a new organic flour mill, currently being assembled with a view to milling the heritage wheat (Maris Widgeon) and other grains grown on the farm.

Fir Farm’s in-house chef Mira Kowalski has been perfecting her bread recipes including a delicious sourdough made from our heritage wheat. Scientists, nutritionists, and health experts all agree that naturally-fermented sourdough bread is healthier than ‘regular’ white or whole wheat bread – for a multitude of reasons. Sourdough is more nutritious, easier to digest and contains less gluten than other bread.

The Fir Farm team has been busy testing new products to sell directly to local customers as well as further afield. With one eye on expanding our product range and the other on easier ways to sell the finished items. From field to fork and cow to cup…

Fresh sourdough coming soon

Ice Cream

The chef has also been researching and making organic ice cream made from our delicious, creamy whole milk. Various flavours are currently in production including Salted Caramel, Vanilla, Chocolate and Redcurrant, all shown here, as well as the ever popular Mint Choc Chip.

Ingredients will be sourced locally and seasonally. Compostable pots will be available in 120ml and 500ml sizes. For sale at Fir Farm now. See below for more details.

Organic ice cream in compostable pots

Skimmed Milk & Cream

As a by-product of the ice cream making process via centrifugal separation, we will be able to sell skimmed milk as part of our dairy offering. Depending on the season and quantity of milk produced, we are hoping cream may also be available. Yoghurt is also in development.

Honesty Box & Freezer

To sell our ice cream and other freshly chilled/frozen farm products (including prime cuts of organic beef and pork, sausages and bacon to name a few) a new freezer with an honesty box and smart card reader has been installed alongside our milk vending machine at the top of the Fir Farm drive.

Larger cuts of meat will also be available by pre-ordering from the Fir Farm office.

Manor Farm Milk Machine

Another milk vending machine is located at Manor Farm, Buckle Street, Upper Slaughter GL54 2JJ.

Watch this space for more information or contact us here for bulk orders and more.

Polytunnel

richard@innuo.co.uk (Richard Jaques) — Sat, 25 Feb 2023 13:46:53 GMT

The extremely durable, cellular clad greenhouse is divided into several distinct areas, whose temperatures and humidity can all be carefully controlled and monitored depending on the species being grown. Three tonnes of home-grown compost provided top dressing for the beds. Vegetables and salad plants are prioritised with a view to prolong their growing season. Bedding plants and flowers are also grown for the farm as well as neighbouring estates. Jon is hoping that any excess plants can be sold locally alongside the Fir Farm milk.

Next to the greenhouse, a standing out area provides space for young saplings to acclimatise.

Fir Farm’s poly tunnel is providing year round growing space for native breed trees, plants and hedges as well as fruit and vegetables.

An enormous 7,500 litre rainwater harvesting tank (which would not look out of place in an art gallery) was installed next to the greenhouse, which enables fresh rainwater to be used to irrigate the structure.

Jon Heath, Fir Farm’s Head Gardener, has been growing organic plants and vegetables for most of his life. In October 2022, he was able to take this to a whole new level with the completion of a Keder Greenhouse in a corner of Fir Farm land. Its purpose? Simply to grow a plentiful supply of native breed trees, plants, hedges and food for the farm and beyond and where possible, avoid buying seedlings altogether.

7,500 litre rainwater harvesting tank

If you would like to know more information about this project, please do contact us here .

Biodiversity Update

richard@innuo.co.uk (Richard Jaques) — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 13:24:11 GMT

Vaughan Lewis, River Management

“Both Fir Farm and Manor Farm are blessed with sections of beautiful limestone streams. At their best, the clear water, steady flow and abundant plant life rival Britain’s chalk rivers for ecological value.

Early indications suggest that the River Windrush at Manor Farm appears to still be in good condition, with abundant stands of water crowfoot and fallen tree that provide superb in-channel cover. Wild brown trout are plentiful with otters taking advantage of this food resource; the fact that otters are now unremarkable is a mark of just how rapid their recovery has been over the past 20 years or so. Baseline and longer term monitoring of water quality, invertebrate populations and macrophytes will help to quantify the true ecological status of the river and identify any changes over time.

Sadly, things do not appear to be so positive at Fir Farm, where visible signs of decline on the River Dikler have become all too obvious over the past few years. Despite coppicing to allow more light into the channel and the placement of felled timber in the stream to create flow diversity, much of the submerged weed has been lost. Water clarity has also declined, with evidence of increased sediment and algae lying in the riverbed. There are concerns that pollution from upstream may be damaging this lovely stream. Further investigations will be carried out in conjunction with Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP) and the Cotswolds Rivers Trust to find the source of the pollution. There is some good news. Improvements to water quality have taken place in the small streams passing through Fir Farm and entering the Dikler. Simple refurbishment of a private sewage plant, the creation of a wetland and the excavation of a bypass channel around a nutrient rich pond have all helped reduce the nutrient loading to the river. And the fish pass constructed around the downstream Hyde Mill continues to work effectively, allowing brown trout to move upstream for annual spawning.”

Our expert advisers in ecology, river management, invertebrates and birdlife continue to collect extensive data on Fir Farm and around the River Windrush at Manor Farm. A few soundbites are listed below.

Phil Wilson, Ecologist

“My current work at Fir Farm has been a repeat of the first survey in 2018, with the aim of seeing how the farm has responded to recent changes of management. While it is probably too early to tell over most of the farm (botanical changes can be very slow), the fields where species-rich hay from Hyde Mill Meadow has been spread have been transformed in the space of four years, showing that the restoration of these flowery meadows is possible. There is a lot of potential for further restoration on the farm, and we are very fortunate to have Hyde Mill Meadow as a seed source.

The survey at Manor Farm is the first that I have carried out there. While much of the farm has been quite intensively managed in the past, there are some very interesting areas which suggest that there are good prospects for habitat restoration. The field in the extreme south of the farm by the Windrush is another with very botanically species-rich grassland partly resulting from the lime-rich water draining from the surrounding land. Some of the woodlands on the farm are also very interesting with uncommon plants including herb-paris and white helleborine.

To the south-west of Hill Barn were some very rare arable flora which includes nationally rare species including broad-fruited corn-salad, shepherd’s needle and prickly poppy.

Marc Taylor, Invertebrates

“Fir farm’s ‘field 17’ is considered of exceptional quality in a national context. This summer surveying at its eastern end for invertebrates I recorded a small fly that I’d never encountered before, Villa cingulata (Meigen, 1804).

The fly is a member of the Bee fly family, its biology is largely unknown. It’s species designation taken from DRAKE, C.M. 2017. A review of the status of Larger Brachycera flies of Great Britain – Species Status No.29. Natural England Commissioned Reports, Number192, is Nationally Rare, in that it has been recorded in less than 100 of the 3,854 hectads (10km sq) in Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the 15 Channel Islands.”

For more information on efforts to improve biodiversity on our land click here.