Hampton Estate Naturally Reared Produce News Nov 2023
FRIDAY 8th DECEMBER will be our final beef collection day of 2023, and as thoughts are turning to Christmas festivities it’s time to order Hampton pasture fed beef, Hampton wild roe venison, and all the associated cuts, joints, sausages, offal, pies and even beefburgers.
If you eat beef but once a year, now is the time to celebrate the best British fare and really spoil yourself with top quality produce. Hampton beef is only sold to very discerning locally based customers through our beef days, and we love seeing and getting to know all our visitors every beef day. Similarly, all our wild roe venison is culled from our fields and woodlands and is the very best quality. There is so much to choose from, including, I’m delighted to announce our special steak pies, which are back on the menu. A family pie feeds four handsomely and an individual pie feeds exactly one!
For all info on all our produce please check our website, beef is at www.hamptonestate.co.uk/beef/ and our wild roe venison price list is www.hamptonestate.co.uk/game and select whatever is needed for your fabulous Christmas and New Year meals.
I know that already our ever-popular carvery ribs, sirloin joints and a whole host of other cuts are being ordered with gusto, so do pop over your own order to sophiesutton@hamptonestate.co.uk to avoid any disappointment.
Our vet visited last week to pregnancy diagnose all the cows and I’m pleased to report that our bull Petworth Major will be the proud father of 43 new calves, which should start to arrive in March 2024. Another success story for the cows in 2023 was their introduction to Puttenham Common after a gap of some 70 to 80 years. The new high tech ‘No Fence’ collars worked really well after both we and the cows had got to grips with the very clever system, and they left the common at the end of October looking extremely well and sorry to lose their human fan club. They will be returning in the late spring, and we will give everyone lots of notice.
In the meantime, we are delighted to announce that you will soon be able to pick up a delicious cup of coffee/tea/pastry and more from the Top Car Park, Puttenham Common when you visit The Little Coffee Pantry. Based in a bespoke, converted horsebox and run by Rochelle, the opening date is Friday 29th November at 9.00am and then regularly from Thursdays to Sundays every weekend. There can be no better place for your morning coffee.
Meanwhile at Myrtle’s Courtyard on the weekend of 9th and 10th December there is a major Father Christmas themed event all run in aid of the united parish church funds. Father Christmas himself will be there, plus present stalls, children’s activities and best of all, tractor and trailer rides. Please check this link and book your places. Everyone will be thrilled to see you.
Bridget, I and the whole Hampton team will also be thrilled to see you on Friday 8th December when you pick up your order. We will be joined by our old friends from Nibbs Gin, The Cold Pressed Oil Co, Greyfriars Vineyard, Anne-Marie with her lovely cards. The Big Green Egg will be cooking and the special Hampton mulled wine will be gently warming. Fingers crossed for a sunny day!
With very best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Estate Naturally Reared News October 2023
Autumn is enveloping us, colours are changing, those balmy temperatures are dropping, and all beefy thoughts move on to casseroles, slow braised short ribs and smoked brisket oozing with flavour. And we are delighted that at Hampton we can help with all the above plus much more.
Our next beef day will be on FRIDAY 3rd NOVEMBER, and we are already have orders for our Pasture for Life accredited pedigree beef, our wild roe venison including those popular Hampton venison sausages. It’s time to get your order in, especially with firework celebrations so close to our collection day. Perhaps a big stew of shin, braising steak, fresh onions, carrots, celery and a good dosh of red will feed everyone after the rockets and sparklers, or how about Hampton 100% beefburgers before you head off to watch? The possibilities are endless.
Have a look at our beef produce list www.hamptonestate.co.uk/beef/ and our wild roe venison produce list www.hamptonestate.co.uk/game for inspiration and zip your order over to helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk to make sure you are booked in and those critical ingredients are reserved. We would hate anyone to be disappointed.
I have found a fabulous recipe for wild roe deer cassoulet using a shoulder of roe and lots of baked beans plus tomatoes, seasonings and herbs, and it’s dead easy. Another good slow cook meal feeding four adults generously.
Waggoners Campsite, our off grid ecofriendly campsite just off the North Downs Way has now closed for the winter having been run this summer by the brilliant Sophie. It has been an incredibly popular location for hundreds of campers and the reviews have all been five stars. Very happily Sophie now joins our office team here at Hampton helping Helen with estate administration, and getting to grips with beef, wild roe venison, and log orders plus much more.
Followers of our habitat restoration project on Puttenham Common, will be interested to hear the herd, having made a successful common grazing debut have now headed for winter pastures near Shoelands.
We are currently using our new flail collector on the common to clear bracken, focusing on the areas around the Top Car Park to begin with. You may see Rob out and about in his tractor doing this work.
Forestry work will begin on the common next week to remove selected pioneer trees and scrub allowing the creation of new areas of wood pasture, beneficial for species such as Glow Worm and Nightingale. Targeted tree removal will also enable rewetting of the rare boggy mire habitats, increasing climate resilience as well as biodiversity across the common. It’s all about the right tree in the right place on Puttenham Common. For more information on why we are doing this, please see the Puttenham Common page on our website.
We are also very pleased to announce that Father Christmas will be visiting Myrtle’s Courtyard on 9th and 10th December between 11.00am and 4.00pm. This is a fundraising event for the United Parish of Seale, Sands, Puttenham and Wanborough and is a not to be missed opportunity for all children and grandchildren to see the great man himself. For all details follow this link to Father Christmas.
We all look forward to seeing you on Friday 3rd November. As always fresh coffee, cake and tea will be ready for you the minute we open at 10.30am and for the adventurous there is always the opportunity to tour the garden.
Very best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Estate Naturally Reared News Sept 2023
Bridget and I and the Hampton team are really looking forward to seeing you on Friday 29th September for our next Produce Collection Day and we will be open from 10.30am to 3.30pm as usual with fresh coffee, tea, and cake. It’s now time to make those fun decisions about meat, whether to order a 10kg bag with everything, or perhaps a bespoke order of some mince, a joint and a venison fillet (to add a little sparkle to the cooking).
Whatever you need the chances are we have it, including our lipsmackingly good special steak pies which fly off the cold store shelves. Carvery rib joints, steak of every description, prime mince and stewing steak, short ribs, joints including silverside, brisket, and top rump plus loads more are ready and waiting for your order. Simply go to www.hamptonestate.co.uk/beef and check the beef list, then email helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk with your order.
Similarly wild roe venison stocks are good at the moment, with diced, minced, steaks, haunches and fillets all available. Look at our wild meat page on the website and order away. Don’t forget our very popular venison sausages, packed full of meat and great in a sausage sandwich with a dosh of rhubarb chutney (or similar).
Our hop harvest has concluded today, it’s been all go bringing the hops from the hop gardens to the Oast where they are picked and dried. There will definitely be beer this year! We have a few decorative bines remaining and available for sale/collection over the next week. Let Helen know when you order beef or call the office 01483 810 465.
The herd is enjoying grazing the meadows on the south side of the Hogs Back, a new departure for them as normally they spend the summer in the park around the house. But July and August rains meant more grass growth and it was time to take the cows to the food. It’s also great to report that the mob of 12 cows on Puttenham Common are enjoying good grazing in their compartments, and we have had lots of positive feedback about them. The NoFence technology is holding up well (to date) and it’s amazing that we can plot the daily movement of the cows on our phones. Do check the QR codes on the signs if you are up on the Common, they lead you straight to them.
I have always wanted to visit Meatopia, a celebration of meat cooking over coals, held annually at Tobacco Docks in the East End. As we delayed hop picking by a week this year (the hops needed a little extra time to mature) I was able to pop along to Shadwell and find some fabulous cooking set ups and some delicious meats. Feather steak cooked for five hours over ash logs and served with a watermelon salad was a real favourite. As a result of my visit to the capital my Big Green Egg is up and running again and Meatopia has inspired me to try new recipes and styles. More to report on this in due course.
Friday 29th September is not far away, and we all look forward to seeing you for a catch up, some late summer culinary chat and I’m sure that there will be a table of extras just in case you forgot an item in your order.
With best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Estate Naturally Reared News August 2023
Happy August from us all at Hampton Estate and an update for you of goings on and events at Hampton over the summer, some have happened, and some are planned. As always, we love your support and interest.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our Puttenham Common drop in events, as it was great to meet so many who use this wonderfully diverse piece of Hampton landscape and explain our 100-year vision for its heathland restoration. The introduction of our cows has been key, and the feedback has been extremely positive and if you haven’t met them yet do join us as below;
Meet The Cows On Puttenham Common:
When: Tuesday 15th August 2023 at 6:30pm
Where: Meet in the Puttenham Common Top Car Park, Suffield Lane, GU3 1BG (///inform.pegs.holly)
What: A walk and talk on Puttenham Common. This is an opportunity for you to learn more about our 100-year vision and exciting nature restoration project on Puttenham Common. We will head out and find the cows using our new NoFence system and then will talk through why the cows are our new ecological engineers on the common and how we can interact with them. Bring shoes suitable for walking, dogs on leads are welcome. You can read more about the project here.
We have decided to postpone our Venison Tasting Evening we had scheduled for 24th August as annual holidays have depleted our brilliant venison team, but also because we are concentrating on our decorative hop bines which are always so popular at this time of year and we have planned a new event around them;
Pick Your Own Hop Bine at Hampton:
When: Sunday 3rd September 10am – 3pm
Where: In the Hampton Hop Garden, Seale Lane, Puttenham (///hoot.bribing.pats)
What: Our beautiful Hop Bines are the perfect decoration for your home/pub/wedding venue, providing a year-round dry flower display. Bought fresh the hops dry naturally in situ and can either be augmented with other dried flowers or used by themselves. The hop bine has a string running through the centre for easy fixing but needs to be put in place as soon as possible after purchase to avoid deterioration. The aroma of a freshly strung hop is intoxicating, and gently fades over the first month. Come and join us in the Hop Garden at Hampton to see how the hops grow, learn about how they are made into beer, and pick your own 12-foot bine. £35 per bine.
If you can’t join us on 3rd September, we will also be selling our hop bines at the Alresford Show on 2nd September.
Also on the hop front we are looking forward to Ed Brydon’s photography exhibition titled Hampton Hops at the Riverside Cafe in Farnham Maltings. Ed has visited us throughout the hop growing year to capture the various processes involved in producing a crop of Hampton Fuggles. The show runs between 18th August and 15th September with a private viewing 6-8pm on the 23rd August. You can find out more here.
The beef herd is slowly munching its way through the species rich herbal paddocks around Shoelands Farm, giving the parkland grazing plenty of time to recover. The calves are doing well, enjoying their mother’s milk and Petworth Major our pedigree bull is having the time of his life. Hopefully the cows will all be in calf by the end of the summer.
Our next beef day will be on Friday 29th September, when we will have good stocks of all cuts, joints, and prime mince, lots of special Hampton Steak Pies and a variety of venison joints and cuts and of course our popular venison sausages. We are taking orders now for September 29th and do contact Helen to book; helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk.
Our new permissive footpath at Hampton Downs which starts at the top of Wood Lane in Seale (behind The Manor Farm Craft Centre) and continues parallel with the Hogs Back to our newly planted wood (Queen Elizabeth’s Wood) was officially opened at a ceremony last week. Representatives from The Forestry Commission, Natural England, Surrey Hills AONB and many more walked the walk and admired the biggest benches in Surrey (made from Hampton Monterey Pine) and the fabulous view looking south to Hindhead, Blackdown and beyond. It is open for everyone to enjoy, and the views really are stunning. Find out more here.
Waggoners Campsite is having its best year ever, with most weekends full, and the off grid eco friendly vibe with great local walks and lots of space per pitch is proving popular with families, cyclists, groups of friends and anyone with a tent wanting to camp in the locality. Bookings can be made via Waggoners website and it is well worth a visit.
Do join us to meet the cows or to pick a hop bine, try the new footpath above Seale, or dust down the tent and head to Waggoners Campsite. Pop your order for beef and venison over to Helen for September 29th and we hope that the rest of your summer goes really well.
With best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Estate Naturally Reared News June 2023
The dust is still settling from our Open Farm Sunday the weekend before last when we welcomed over 2000 visitors to Hampton and we hopefully gave insights and lessons into all the workings of the farm and its landscape. It was a fabulously sunny day and the power of the ancient parkland oak trees providing shade was much appreciated. The variety of what the day encompassed was staggering, and as we said to all our amazing 140 volunteers ‘it is all completely thanks to you, whether you were driving tractors, ringing birds, planting trees, frying burgers, catching newts, stringing hops, brushing goats, pouring pints, butchering venison, parking cars, digging soil or one of the myriad other activities on offer, we absolutely could not have done any of it without you!’ Fabulous photography of the day can be viewed on Jon Hawkins’, Surrey Hills Photography website.
We were also delighted to welcome HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh to Open Farm Sunday and the royal tour was as varied as possible, but saw her try Longdog Brewery beer brewed with Hampton Fuggles hops, and Hampton wild roe venison sausages.
Thus, you are in good company when you order naturally reared Hampton produce which is all available at our next collection day on FRIDAY 7th JULY. We have excellent supplies of Hampton Pasture for Life beef, wild roe venison and our special Hampton Special Steak Pies.
Our 100% beefburgers were especially popular at the open day, but so too were our cold beef rolls complete with Hampton salad and a touch of pickle, so will your order be a delicious joint or will it be our 100% beef burgers or will it be a variety of joints, cuts, mince and braising? Have a look at our website page which has everything available and a price list, have a think and then email Helen (helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk) with your order. It’s just so simple.
You will also notice our Special Steak Pies which are on the menu for July and will be snapped up quickly by the pie cognoscenti so do put in your order as soon as possible. They are full of Hampton steak, ooze flavour and are a meal in themselves.
The Duchess sampled our new wild roe venison sausages and was very complimentary. They are ready for you to order along with haunches, steaks, fillets, minced and diced roe venison, all listed on our wild meat web page. HRH commented on the need for us all as a country to eat more wild roe venison, and congratulated Hampton on its proactive deer management programme which revolves around selling the highest quality venison meat. Quite a compliment.
Elsewhere around Hampton, the hops are retaining their dark green colour but need some water at this critical stage of their growing pattern. Haymaking has been a delight with some unseasonably early hay already baled and stored and other fields coming on stream as the hot weather holds. We’ve held some enlightening drop in mornings on Puttenham Common to engage with everyone using the common and draw attention to our plans for cattle grazing on the common in due course. And finally the plants growing in the field next to the North Downs Way on the edge of Seale are raspberries and are being propagated for fruit production in 2024.
We will be open from 10.30am on FRIDAY 7th JULY and are looking forward to lots of foody chat ,to dispensing fresh coffee and cake and to seeing you when you pick up your order.
With best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Estate Naturally Reared News May 2023
With hints of early summer amidst the showers, with cacophonous birdsong morning and night and with grass growing all over the farm, it’s time to invite everyone back to Hampton for our MAY Produce Collection Day on Friday 26th MAY and we have plentiful supplies of all beef and venison for your order.
Plentiful beef from large joints to small joints, steaks of all description, prime mince, stewing and braising, delicious liver and kidney, and made-up bags of 10KG or 4KG if needed. Have a look at our beef page, www.hamptonestate.co.uk/beef and select just what you need and please zip your order over to Helen, helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk. The beef list also includes everything extra you need for a Hampton barbeque of Hampton 100%beefburgers and Hampton Herby sausages. We also have our very popular beef sausages, and all snorkers come in packs of six. And the eagle eyed will have spotted our special Steak Pies, which I’m delighted to report are on the May menu, will be as delicious as always and I really recommend ordering as soon as you can because once they’ve gone, they’ve gone. You will notice that we have increased our prices modestly this month, as every cost involved in the production of our top quality beef has risen over the past year.
We also have really good supplies of Hampton wild roe venison, the most mouth watering of meat, normally cooked fast over a high heat, and often accompanied by redcurrant jelly, although last week I used raspberry jam, and it was spot on. Fillets, haunches, steaks, diced and mince are available, plus our new recipe wild roe venison sausages, which are packed with flavour and are proving extremely popular with all ages. Have a look at our wild meat page and again, send over your order to Helen.
Just a thought, wild roe steaks on the barbeque are complete winners and cook just the same way as sirloin steaks. You will be very pleased with the result.
Open Farm Sunday is our annual open day for the farm, and part of LEAF’s national open day for farms across the country. Come and visit us on SUNDAY 11th JUNE when almost 100 volunteers will be helping us spread the Hampton story. There will be tractor and trailer rides, meet the cows and calves, dig for worms and learn about healthy soils, check out the woodland trail and forestry demos, identify woodland birds with Tices Meadow bird experts, watch the gundogs, plant a tree, look at hop growing techniques, enjoy a freshly barbequed Hampton beefburger or wild roe venison sausage, jump around on the straw bales park, picnic in the hay field or sit in a tractor. This is a day to enjoy, to learn more about the farm and estate in a holistic way and to soak up the very natural environment. To book your place please go to the Open Farm Sunday website or direct to our Try Booking event webpage and we are all keeping our fingers and toes crossed for some sun.
We will be open on FRIDAY 26th May from 10.30am and fresh coffee, tea and cake will be ready for you. If you have time, the garden will be open for you to walk around and enjoy.
Please have a look at our website for all beef and wild roe venison details, email us your order and we really look forward to seeing you on the 26th for coffee and a chat when you collect your order.
Very best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Naturally Reared Newsletter April 2023
The most important April date for your diary will be FRIDAY 21st APRIL as this is our next Hampton Produce Collection Day. Please add it to your diary now and underline it twice as we would hate to miss you. Our beef will be lip smackingly fresh, our wild roe venison utterly delicious, our Hampton Herby sausages will be oozing with flavour and our special steak pies will be freshly baked.
We will be opening as usual at 10.30 am with fresh coffee, tea and cake, and it will be an opportunity to have a look around the garden and have a chat with Cornelia and Kathy who will be being green fingered and creative.
We have a great choice of the best possible beef for you for April. Every cut, joint, steak, stewing and braising steak, prime minced beef, and lots lots more are all available for your order. Please take a moment to look at our price list, decide what you need, and wing it through to Helen here in the Hampton nerve centre. Our webpage for beef is www.hamptonestate.co.uk/beef and Helen’s email is helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk.
My top tip this month is to check out the delicious offal list. Bear Grylls recently endorsed all types of offal in a fascinating article in The Times where the Chief Scout declared, ‘I’m an offal man. Veganism was not working for me’ and he goes on to extoll all the nutritional and taste qualities of pasture fed beef offal. I am in complete agreement and would recommend our beef liver to everyone, fried lightly in butter and added to fresh pasta with a little cream, pepper, and with all the juices incorporated. Just a thought.
Our wild roe venison sausages have proved a huge hit and we will have lots on sale but its best to book early to avoid disappointment. The same goes for our favourite Hampton Herby sausages and Beef Bangers, and all of them are great either piping hot, or next day as part of your first picnic of 2023. Food always tastes 100% better outside. Wild roe venison haunches, fillets, minced and diced are also available and our venison page is found here www.hamptonestate.co.uk/game.
Keeping the very best to last our wonderful chef Robyn will be baking furiously for a couple of days before the big event on 21st April and the product of her labours will be Hampton Special Beef pies, filled to the brim with glorious Hampton steak and topped with her special home made pastry. It’s pretty sensible to order these immediately as once they’ve gone, they’ve gone.
Our cows are in the middle of calving and we check them regularly during this time just to see if any need a hand or a gentle coax. After a really useful calving workshop with the vet I am delighted to report that Will introduced a 3.00am check to maintain our 6 hour observations. We take this shift in turn, and it’s amazing how quiet and still it can be in the middle of the night, as torch in hand you sweep round the field to pick out the cudding cows and check for calves.
We have hosted a great school from Paddington for two recent visits. 45 six-year-olds on each occasion who emerge from the bus wide eyed and get back on four hours later with drooping eyelids utterly exhausted. We show them cows and calves, we dig for worms, our new pond comes into play for pond dipping and a woodland walk takes them to learn about trees. It’s relaxed and informal and there has to be time for the kids to just enjoy the outdoors and the space.
Hopefully by 21st April we will be outdoors for our beef day and everyone can enjoy a bit of space. We will be brimming with foodie talk and ready with tea, coffee and cakes but do send over your order as soon as possible and we really look forward to seeing you.
With very best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Estate Naturally Reared News February/March 2023
Our next beef collection day is on FRIDAY 10th MARCH and this will also be our EASTER beef day. We like to be ahead of the game here at Hampton, and 10th March sits nicely after our last day (end of January, chilly, braziers going well) and Easter on the 9th April (hopefully spring like, sunny and family and friends arriving). So this gives everyone a chance to plan ahead for Easter, to decide on recipes and quantities and to send over your order as soon as possible to helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk for picking up on 10th March.
We have really good supplies of tender, well hung lipsmackingly delicious beef, excellent amounts of wild roe venison, stacks of sausages, oodles of offal and a pile of very special steak pies all awaiting your order.
Have a look at our website for joints, cuts and prices www.hamptonestate.co.uk/beef/
We would also welcome any Hampton bags you may have not in use for other things. We are always happy to put your order into a new bag, but the real virtuous circle would see your last bag being refilled at a beef day. It makes so much sense and is a small Hampton step to reducing our consumption of more materials, labour, and shipping. Bring back as many as you like, with no questions asked!
Easter could well be the time for a carvery rib, topside, top rump or silverside joint to roast. I follow Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s advice on all things roasting, starting by lightly salting the meat and then giving the joint a good hot sizzle for twenty to thirty minutes to develop that flavoursome crust before turning the heat down for the rest of the time. My two critical tips are firstly a meat thermometer, which means I’m on top of the internal temperature of the meat, and secondly a good resting period at room temperature, or just above, allowing the moisture to settle back into the meat. Finally a really good sharp carving knife, but now I really am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs. Apologies.
Our stalkers continue to be on the look out for our wild roe deer across the estate, and we will have good supplies of wild roe fillets, haunches (another great roasting option) and some minced and diced, together with our outstandingly popular wild roe sausages.
Talking of sausages don’t forget our Hampton Herbies which are always available and are very traditional pork sausages made to our special local recipe, and our Hampton Beef Bangers, packed with flavour, and so good either hot or cold.
We will also have good supplies of delicious liver, heart, oxtail, and tongue, and I like the American euphemism for offal, being ‘variety meats’ as this has the merit of expressing the sheer diversity of the offal eating experience. Grab a recipe and have a go.
The beef herd is enjoying last year’s hay crop and with last year’s calves now weaned the cows are having a quiet time before calving starts. The first calving date is the 6th March but this is where theory and practice rarely coincide, so around the 6th March would be more accurate. We will all have more news for you on March 10th.
Elsewhere at Hampton hop stringing has started in the hop gardens, trees have been planted in our new wood on the Hogs Back and in the park, chestnut coppicing is taking place in Binton Wood to give us hop poles and fencing stakes for the year, and the apple trees are being expertly pruned in the orchard. This is all good winter work which only gets better as the spring arrives.
Come and see us on FRIDAY 10th MARCH and please place your order as soon as you can to avoid any disappointment (especially when it comes to pies).
Bring back your Hampton bags for the refill, and fresh coffee, tea and cake will be ready from 10.30am.
With best wishes
Bill and Bridget
Hampton Naturally Reared Newsletter January 2023
Very Happy New Year to everyone, and just when the January blues could kick in, I’m delighted to report that our first Collection Day of 2023 will be on FRIDAY 27th JANUARY. This gives everyone time to finish the remnants of the turkey soup, start making the new season Seville orange marmalade and get ready with an order for Hampton produce.
January is also a month to focus on regenerative farming (also known as Regenuary as opposed to Veganuary) which is always our goal at Hampton. The basic tenants of regen ag are to promote biodiversity, through cover crops and crop rotation, to eliminate or decrease tillage, to reduce the use of artificial fertilizers and to use regenerative grazing management for livestock. I’m pleased to say that we can put a big tick against all of the above, and it’s fundamentally our pedigree beef herd which is the catalyst for this. Add our Pasture for Life accreditation and Hampton beef is the best choice for anyone wanting the best beef.
Please check through our beef price list and we have everything available at the moment. January brings to mind hearty stews and casseroles and I’m experimenting with the most delicious looking Osso Bucco which comes on the bone, and I will cook for about six hours surrounded by herbs, spices, onions, parsnips and carrots and a dosh of red. Imagine lifting the lid on that!
There are steaks galore to order plus delicious roasting joints, which gives everyone the chance to show off those crisp golden roast potatoes. Prime mince comes in half kilo bags and transforms into bolognaise and lasagne so easily, and lovely liver, heart , kidney and oxtail are full of flavour and goodness. Don’t forget them.
We have Hampton Special Beef Steak Pies on the menu once again and these incredibly popular culinary delights will disappear very quickly so do order now to avoid disappointment.
Similarly, we have good supplies of mouth-watering Hampton wild roe venison and venison sausages, which last month were an absolute hit. Please follow the link here to check what’s available. It’s hard work stalking deer in January and every body is hard won, but the result is always the same, fabulous tasty meat which is 100% naturally reared.
Hampton Herby sausages and Hampton Beef Bangers will be made for 27th January and make the best of breakfasts, with a fried egg and a rasher of bacon, or are excellent cold slotted between fresh brown bread with just a hint of mustard. The possibilities are endless.
All the cows are now eating Hampton hay and are settled in their winter fields which means we take the food to them, rather than the rest of the year when they help themselves. Their annual foot trimming takes place this month when a specialist foot trimmer will give their toe nails a clip and a buff, and we are starting to wean the calves from their mums to give the cows some good down time before calving starts again in March.
As with all businesses we are making plans for the year, and looking ahead we will be advertising for a new Waggoners Campsite Manager to look after our off grid incredibly popular campsite for the season. The campsite opens at Easter and we are looking for an enthusiastic person to run it through to October. A fabulous temporary job.
We have one state of the art office available to let at Shoelands Farm Offices comprising just over 1000 square feet with excellent broadband and parking, and continuing on the property theme, a lovely three bedroom lake side cottage will be ready to let in the early spring. Do get in touch if you need a change of scene.
We look forward to seeing you on Friday 27th January when fresh coffee and tea and those all important freshly baked biscuits will be ready for you from 10.30am. In the meantime please email your order over to Helen helenjackson@hamptonestate.co.uk to ensure we have everything ready.
Best wishes
Bill and Bridget