Farm shop’s cutting food miles and supporting the local economy
Growing consumer demand for quality local produce persuaded Andy and Debbie Eastwood to swap their jobs in Oxfordshire for a small farm and farm shop in Pembrokeshire.
They became farmers and shopkeepers and trained in butchery, food hygiene and a host of other new skills, and they haven't looked back.
Earlier this month they took home six gold awards, six silver and a bronze, and the Category Championship Cup for barbecue products from the South Wales heats of the annual awards for butchers organised by the Welsh meat promotion authority Hybu Cig Cymru.
And now they are planning to expand their enterprise at Yerbeston Gate Farm Shop with a larger shop and cafe, a new cutting room and a bigger packing area for their expanding mail order business.
"I was in the catering and hospitality industry but I was working as an accounts assistant when I met Debbie, who was working in the bank where I used to take the money," said Andy.
"I took a degree in catering and tourism management and, after our son Ben was born and we had another child on the way, we decided it would be nice to bring them up in the countryside."
They settled on the farm shop, set up by Ray and Chris Hughes in 2000, which was attached to a farm of 66 acres accommodating a herd of Welsh Black cattle.
"I have always felt that we could be reducing food miles and supporting the local economy and Debbie and I always used to dip into farmers' markets and delicatessens in Oxfordshire," said Andy.
"We'd never done any farming before but Ray spent a lot of time with us and our neighbours were a great help."
The couple moved in 2004 with their children Ben, now six, and Sophie, four, and went back to college, with courses at Coleg Sir Gâr in Gelli Aur and at the Food Centre in Horeb. They decided to stop breeding Welsh Blacks and developed a herd of Saddleback pigs and a flock of 100 hens. The land is now used to finish Welsh Blacks from neighbouring farms, which are also sold through the business.
