Hillside Farm
Depending on what time of year you visit you may well see our freerange chickens (and enjoy an egg or two). We also have pigs at the moment.Gloucester Oldspots which do a great job of clearing overgrown land -- and providing delicious bacon and sausages.
A short distance from the Chicken Shed, tucked into the woods, are our beehives. These are cared for by one of the greatest characters in our village. Jimmy is 80 years young, an country man of the old school. Ask him nicely and he'll provide you with a jar of the most "local" honey you'll ever taste. Made by bees just a few meters from where you will be sleeping.
Hillside Farm covers about 20 acres of land sloping down side of the Wye Valley towards the river below. Quite a bit of it is woodland which we are managing to provide a sustainable source of firewood. There is plenty of silver birch but also oak, ash, sycamore and larch. A herd of fallow deer can often be seen in the glades and the whole ecosystem is thriving with a great variety of birdlife. Recently it has been great to see lesser spotted woodpeckers and goshawks in our woods. It s rare to look out across the valley and not see a buzzard soaring over the woodland below.
In addition to the woods we have more than ten acres of "unimproved grassland" which has been identified as being important to local flora and fauna.
To call ourselves "farmers" would do a great disservice to the guys who do the job for real. But we do have a go, and consider the stewardship of the land a responsibility as well as a privilege.
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