Our meat and suppliers
James and Tom have created a farm shop to allow everyone to experience the best the South West has to offer.
Both born and bred in Devon and have spent many years admiring the wonders that this part of the country has to offer. We wanted to make sure that everyone can experience the same.
At Fordmore, our core ethics are at the heart of everything we do, the most important thing to us is sustainability and animal welfare – we only work with local small farmers whose ethics fit with us. One of our key drivers when opening our farm shop, was ensuring that our butchers is sustainable and ethical and that all our meat is in-line with our own values and ethics as organic farmers.
As organic farmers we strongly believe in working with our environment to help to create the best possible product whist keeping our animals in the healthiest possible way. We have increased our organic poultry business, and we use our organic land to grow food for our chickens to decrease their food miles and decrease our reliance on others.
We have an ever-increasing herd of Longhorn cattle, currently at around 120 cows, and 75 calves, heifers, and bullocks. We are in a fortunate position to have a route to market with our own butchers and this gives us full traceability for our meat.
Longhorn is the only beef we use at Fordmore Farm Shop; it is a very old, slow growing British breed of cow with a wide range of brindle colours (including colours from red to grey) but they all have the characteristic white line or "finching" along the back and down the tail. They take between 2.5 to 3 years to mature unlike others that do it in 18 months. Working with our natural environment we do not push these cows to do more than they could naturally do in the wild. They live their lives roaming on our Devon organic pasture, with the occasional top up of own home-grown silage.
We run our Longhorn as breeding/suckling herds with Longhorn bulls. They are excellent mothers, and their docile nature makes them an easy breed to manage. Their breeding, longevity and relatively low body weight makes them very good animals to make the most out of organic farming. We are firm believers in the slow grown meat as it produces the most amazing marbling, taste and texture it is definitely on our own tables most evenings.
Fortunately, Fordmore Farm Shop has gone from strength to strength and in 2021 we put in a larger cold-room. We have also created our own a dry aging chamber on our farm, using Himalayan salt blocks, we leave our beef there for at least 45 days, but for some of our clients we can do more on request.
We also have a flock of around 90 Jacob sheep which are farmed organically on our land and which we lamb in February.
Along with our daily farming we are also proud to share that we have planted over 5,500 trees across our farm and we have installed another 64kw of solar panels on our rearing sheds to help reduce our carbon footprint and put us on track for creating a carbon neutral and sustainable farm to keep us farming for generations to come.
We are happy to be in a position to offer organically-farmed, home grown, dry aged, sustainable and traceable beef. We are sure that you will be able to taste the difference and we have converted numerous customers to our high-quality ethical meat who now won’t go elsewhere.
Our suppliers and awards
We use three suppliers for long horn cattle; Geoff and Sue Nichols whose farm is situated in a small hamlet of ancient thatched cottages on a 25-acre small holding. It nestles within a lee of the rolling Devon countryside and is placed on the edge of Exminster. They farm a herd of beautiful Long Horn cows which produce the most fantastic British beef. Due to the time frame with rearing these slow growing beasts we also rely on Richard Berry who farms in Kenn, in South Devon who also works with Long Horn cattle, that have been grass fed on rolling Devon Hills and only brought in with the harshest weather, finally we also use Watton Farm just down the road in Halberton; The Grabham family have been farming at the 325 acre Watton Farm since 1871. Peter Grabham, now the 6th generation at the farm, manages a herd of sustainably reared Longhorn cattle.
We strongly believe that good meat is something worth travelling for. Along with our beef we are passionate about lamb and we only use the finest. We use Victor Pitts who is able to supply us with wonderful Jacob lamb that is grass fed, slow growing and tastes how lamb should taste.
Our fruit and veg comes from a number of suppliers, with the aim of sourcing as locally as possible and our enviable cakes come from expert baker James Patisserie.
Our wine is selected for us by Christopher Piper Wines. He established the business in 1979 after working in Beaujolais as a wine-maker in Brouilly. His principle business is the supply of top-quality wine to independent hotels, restaurants and pubs throughout the South West.
Roast Works is a small, independent speciality coffee roaster based in Devon dedicated to bringing speciality coffee to more people. They want to make speciality coffee more accessible by clearly highlighting the tangible, qualities of high-grade coffees imparted by growing region, variety and processing method. The coffee is not defined by strength, but by flavour, so you will not see strength scales on the bags.
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Shutelake lamb
Fordmore are proud to be the sole distributor for Shutelake Lamb.
At Shutelake we are proud to produce a flavoursome and tasty product, which we hope you enjoy eating as much as we enjoy producing. Our lambs are true “spring” lambs, born in April. They are reared on their mother’s milk, rich from newly growing wild meadow grass, herbs and flowers. Lambs begin to take their first nibbles of grass at just a few days old and this increases as the summer progresses so that they gradually wean themselves on their natural food. The result is a sweet, tender and juicy meat perfectly marbled, just as English lamb should be.
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The UK BBQ School
The UK BBQ School, founded by Marcus Bawdon has launched a new permanent base for teaching BBQ techniques at Newlands Park next door to our shop and café so if you want to learn how to BBQ our meat like a true master get in touch with Marcus to book onto one of his courses.
This new dedicated premises will enable our students to learn how to cook outdoors, bbq, smoking, and how to do wood fired cooking.
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Devon Cookery School
Based in the Hayloft, Devon Cookery School offers cooking classes for all abilities in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Choose from more than 20 different classes for all abilities, cuisines, and tastes. From Mexican street food, pastry, Japanese, fish filleting, bread making plus many more. Whether you are looking for a fun experience with friends, learning new skills or just looking to take them to the next level, Devon Cookery School has something for everyone.
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Taste of the West Gold Winners 2020/21
We are pleased to announce that we have received a gold award in the 2020/2021 Taste of the West Retail & Hospitality Awards in the café/ tea room category! This is a huge achievement for us as our café hasn't been open long and we've had a tough year with everything going on, so we're really proud ourselves and our team and hope that our customers feel the same as we couldn't do it without you! Thank you Taste of the West!
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Proud members of Taste of the West
We are pleased to be a member of Taste of the West, the largest independent regional food group in the UK. They promote and support fantastic local food and drink from our region and as such we are proud to hold membership.
Their aim is to champion food and drink producers in the West Country, as well as all the places that serve and sell them, to prove that when it comes to what you eat and drink, it really is best in the South West.
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Recommendation badge from Restaurant Guru
Fordmore Farm Shop & Cafe has been awarded a Recommendation badge by Restaurant Guru based on customer reviews! We’re really happy about our achievement!
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Fordmore Farm Shop winner of Prestige Award for Farm Shop of the Year 20/21
We are over the moon to announce that we have been awarded South West Farm Shop of the Year 20/21 in the Prestige Awards! The judges commented that "we were impressed with your personal touch, consistency of reviews and community feel. The passion for what you do really comes across and I hope this achievement brings more success during these difficult times."
We hope you'll agree with their kind words. In what has been an year of ups and downs all-round we are so pleased to be able to support our community through everything and want to say a big thank you back to all our customers too, we couldn't do it without you.