LOVE LOCAL
recently embarked on another challenge. Chattingwith theirmany catering customers, including Russell Brown’s Michelin starred restaurant Sienna in Dorset, theWoods learnt of the difficulty in sourcing free-range duck
eggs.After much research, 400 four-week old Khaki Campbell ducklings arrived on the farm. They're notoriouslymucky, but after watching a video of themreturning to their barn – these girls even have their own Twitter feed - I instantly fall for their charmand share Briony’s affinity for the newarrivals. “Watching themis like a flock of
- their stockists have jumped by 100 in the last year alone. It comes back full circle. To keep up
with demand and in need ofmore land conducive to happy hens, Blackacre has taken on 12 locally contracted farms. With 200,000 producing over amillion eggs aweek, all ofwhich are collected by hand, there’s a lot ofwork to go around to the local community. Even theWood’s three young children get involved. It’s tiringwork, but ‘producing good food, and doing itwell,’ iswhat counts. Getting people involved in
appreciating locally sourced quality produce is also central to the educational programmes that Blackacremuck-in with. They often travel to country shows
with live hatching eggs to share the excitement about free-range farming. Although conventional battery caged hens have been banned in the UK since 2012, “themedia still portrays a lot of the bad eggs in the industry,” Dan puns. “We want to showpeople howit can be done.” Part of this involves the impressive decamping of two and half thousand inner city Bristol school children to aNorth Somerset showground each year to get them thinking about howfree-range eggs are
produced.Many are surprised that eggs don’t in fact just come fromthe supermarket shelf! If entertaining thousands of school childrenwasn’t enough, Blackacre
birds,” says Briony (omelettes cooked by theMr.). “Looking out onto the field you just see a big brownmass, butwhen they move, theymove as one.”Aswe go to print they’ll have 140more individual personalities to get used to. They’re hoping that the rich tasting and deep yellow-yolked eggswill be ready for sale by the end of December; aNewYear’s morning treat perhaps? But ducks being ducks, theywill laywhen they’re ready to lay. Stay tuned to their Twitter feed @waddlingfree to find outmore. In themeantime, life on the farm
doesn’t
stop.Not even for
Christmas.As well as tending to the girls and the new arrivals, theWoods have invited the family and the farmteamover for all-the-trimmings celebrations. It'swhat the conversationwith theWoods keeps on returning to; an appreciation of 'the girls', all ‘the gang’working on the farm, and the unique food community in the SouthWest, helping tomake the region's food industry very special.
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