About us
We are a family business, committed to looking after our environment and local community, and we do everything we can to protect our habitat for future generations. We follow sustainable farming methods, home-rearing our animals with the respect and welfare they deserve. We keep food miles to a minimum and recycle and reduce waste wherever possible.
Marie – from flower girl to butcher
Shop manager
Our shop is run by Marie, our aunt, sister and sister-in-law. She’s an excellent entrepreneur as she’s hands-on, bubbly and full of great ideas. Furthermore, she has a strong sense of community and a passion to learn new things – she’s recently learnt to make sausages and cure bacon, for example.
Being a farmer’s daughter, Marie understands what traditional farming involves. She is committed to supporting local businesses and is a great advocate of animal welfare. She enjoys rural live and is an animal lover, with several dogs of her own. Her career has included working for the Dutch Government at a garden festival held at Stoke-on-Trent, for a fine art and furniture auctioneer, a residential letting agency and a brewery, providing her with a wealth of expertise that now comes in handy for running the farm shop.
Charlotte – a key player behind the scenes
Flock & Herd manager
Charlotte is key to our family business as she looks after the pigs (including their litters), sheep and cattle at Baa Hill Farm. Responsible for their welfare, she makes sure they lead a happy life, stay healthy and grow naturally. Being a firm believer in sustainable farming and quality rearing, she won’t deliver any animal to our farm shop until it is the right size.
The 20-year-old is a graduate from Reaseheath Agricultural College in Nantwich, where she studied all aspects of farming, from animal husbandry to crop growth. Charlotte manages our lambing season and has recently introduced new Texel rams to our flock. You’ll also see her serving customers in our shop and keeping our butcher, Joe, supplied with coffee…
Charlotte was brought up on a family farm and is a keen horse rider. Aged 19, she passed her trailer towing test, which allows her to take the animals to market or the abattoir herself.
Joe – our butcher
HEAD BUTCHER
At just 21, Joe Crawford is incredibly talented for his age. We feel honoured to have such a highly skilled young butcher on board, particularly since butchery is becoming a dying trade, as more and more people buy their meat from a supermarket.
Joe has an agricultural background, with his father rearing a flock a sheep, and began his butchery career when he left school. He completed his apprenticeship at Cherbrook Farm Shop in Nantwich, staying there for two years. He was then headhunted by a start-up butcher’s shop, which he ran for a further two years before joining Baa Hill Farm Shop.
Joe is a local lad and enjoys customer contact. He is a creative butcher and loves coming up with new flavours for our sausages.
Our animals
Our herds include native breeds, such as Dexter, Aberdeen Angus and Hereford, Llyn Peninsula sheep and Saddleback pigs. All our animals are predominantly kept outside, with plenty of space to roam, socialise with each other and happily graze on grass and forage for food.