Ashfold is a 190-acre upland holding on the eastern flank of the Forest of Bowland. Esther runs 42 Belted Galloway suckler cows on a mixture of rough grazing, regenerated hay meadow and a 12-acre woodland enclosure planted by her father in the late 1970s.
Belted Galloways are slow to mature and famously hardy. Esther outwinters her herd on standing hay and brassicas, which means no housing, no concentrates and a much smaller infrastructure footprint than a conventional beef system.
The herd is finished at 30 to 34 months and slaughtered at a small local abattoir 14 miles from the farm. Carcasses are then dry-aged for a minimum of 28 days before they reach a single one of our boxes.
“We are a small farm doing one thing properly. There is dignity in that.”