We are celebrating another win at the Organic Food Awards-this year for our organic South Devon beef which is a great honour. We’ve been farming our pedigree South Devons here at Higher Hacknell since 1985 and do our very best from start to finish, rearing all the animals ourselves to the final preparation in our farm butchery, so it’s amazing to receive this recognition and reassuring that the trust you put in us by buying from Higher Hacknell is well deserved! We are really proud that our meat is winning these awards year on year, our lamb was overall winner in 2010 and the Cottage Pie winner of best Ready Prepared Meal in 2011.

We are also celebrating the arrival of the sun here in Devon after the wettest summer we have ever known. The cattle have been hoof deep in mud for weeks, poaching up the fields, but today their golden coats are gleaming. The spring born calves are really quite butch and chunky looking now, expert at feeding from their mothers to the extent that their whole heads get covered with milk! The new grass seeds which Tim planted a couple of weeks ago, are coming up well so will be established before the first frosts arrive. They say round here that you need to get the grass seed in by Barnstaple Fair which is on 19th September. September is a great month, getting back to routines again and hopefully having enough time to pick a few blackberries from the hedgerows for a nice crumble, a perfect pudding to follow the roast beef on a Sunday!

If you you’ve forgotten how good Higher Hacknell beef tastes, which was described by the judges as ‘Lovely, very good quality with an explosion of flavour’, then do remind yourself by making the most of our September offer of 10% off our sirloin steaks and joints. If the weather holds then we might be in for some late summer barbecuing. Hope you’re enjoying the sunshine too.

Best wishes

From Jo and Tim and all at Higher Hacknell Farm