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Helen & Martin Boyd A
rtisan cheese makers Helen and Martin Boyd have restored some of Devon’s
ancient farming heritage. Tere have been goats in this area dating back to the Domesday Book and the couple are proud to be putting goats cheese back on Dartmouth’s menu. Te couple founded Stone Tree Dairy (
stonetreedairy.com) in early 2024 at Higher Swannaton Farm. Tey spent the previous three years renovat- ing the derelict farmhouse and installing barns and a dairy on the for- mer beef farm before buying their first herd of goats in August 2023. Cheese-making then began in earnest on the 57-acre farm and now their delicious produce is stocked by Smith Street Deli in Dartmouth, Country Cheeses in Totnes, Ben’s Farm Shop in Staverton and served up by local restaurants Te Seahorse and Andria. Ginny Farrell visited the pair to find out more about their passion for goats, cheese and sustainable farming - and to meet their inquisitive goats!
“Goats are lovely animals, they’re friendly, incredibly
gentle and very intelligent. It means you can train them quite easily – or at least that’s the theory,” Helen enthused. “You don’t need to herd them, they’ll follow you. And they’re very curious; they say goats eat everything and that’s sort of true but they actually just want to try everything. Ours love the bramble hedges - and zips. And the kids are hilarious, they have the funniest sideways jump.” Helen and Martin are clearly passionate about their new venture but farming life is a world away from Martin’s previous job as president of a multinational financial technology company. “Martin has wanted to do this for years,” Helen explained. “I combine the farm and dairy with other work,
including being trustee of Rowcroſt Hospice. But we both wanted to produce food, to create a high quality product in an environmentally friendly way as possible and put back into our land and our community - and cheese was the obvious choice.” Te couple gained their new-found
“It’s hard work but it feels like a pretty remarkable thing to be doing and a hugely positive change in lifestyle.”
cheesemaking skills at the School of Artisan Food in Leicestershire last year and now produce four kinds of goats cheese. “Martin does more of the
cheesemaking, it is absolutely his passion, whereas I tend to do more of the external facing activities like marketing,”
said Helen. “But there’s always something to be done, whether turning and scrubbing cheese with brine, or cleaning down. It’s hard work but it feels like a pretty remarkable thing to be doing and a hugely positive change in lifestyle. Dartmouth is such a great place to be, everyone’s been so supportive. We’re very fortunate.” Te couple have 165 goats including five beautiful
rare breed Golden Guernseys, famous for their rich, creamy milk. “We have a variety of goats like Saanens and Anglo
Nubians which are lovely but we also wanted to introduce some rare breeds to improve biodiversity
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