Our story
We (Matthew and Katie) started our path together in 1998 while at university. Back then we dreamed of living in the countryside in a little cottage, with peeling paint on the shutters and farmyard animals. We always have loved nature, music, and creating beauty, and wanted to wrap our lives around these common interests. “Life happened” however, and our initial ventures after moving to France in 2004 saw us drifting far away from our visions of life together.
A few years ago, we realised we needed to reorient our life journey, which by now included our two sons, Jude and Isaac. We decided to start over based on our shared love of the natural world and farm animals. We learned that it is possible in France to become a farmer without as many financial challenges that we would have faced to set up in the UK. After several years of searching, we were fortunate to acquire almost 30 hectares near our home in 2015, and a flock of Hampshire Down sheep arrived soon after.
Initially Matthew worked on the farm alone, and having completed a Permaculture Design Course with Geoff Lawton, in 2017 he started to develop a water capture system of swales, coupled with planting up a future food forest. A lot of thought and work went (and is still going) into setting up a resilient ecosystem that is fit for the future risks we face here, such as worsening drought conditions (source: MeteoFrance).
The actual farm production has been developing more slowly intentionally, as we felt we needed to grapple with the bigger question of “why”, rather that “what and how much”. In fact, slow is an excellent adjective for our ethos. Little by little, as this ecosystem develops, new activities and products will follow.
We've noticed that in our system, sheep play a key role. In times gone by, wool was highly valued and locally processed, and mutton was king of the table. We wanted to explore that notion to its full extent, so here we are today: all our sheep live several years grazing the meadows, fertilising the soil ready for cereal crops, and a few of them are eventually consumed as very fine mutton. The sheep contribute their fleeces each year which are painstakingly sorted into yarn versus fibres for felt and bedding. The wool is washed, carded and spun by some of the few remaining scourers and mills in France. This « wool project » created the opening for me (Katie) to rediscover my own creative roots that I’ve kept buried for an extremely long time. Not only can I now delight in sharing with you our yarn for your own fabulous creations, but wool also allows me to dream: to imagine, and then craft, beautiful felt items and cosy, stylish and functional knitted designs for you to love. I've also taken professional training in natural dyeing in order to unlocking the doors to the incredible world of colours hidden within plant.
We still have a way to go on these personal journeys and to fully realise our dreams and goals for the farm. Your support and encouragement as our customers are truly precious and inspirational to us: a heartfelt thank you to you all.
P.s. As a friend once told me: be careful what you wish for. Not only do we have our cottage in the countryside and farm animals... but also the peeling paint on the shutters!
A few years ago, we realised we needed to reorient our life journey, which by now included our two sons, Jude and Isaac. We decided to start over based on our shared love of the natural world and farm animals. We learned that it is possible in France to become a farmer without as many financial challenges that we would have faced to set up in the UK. After several years of searching, we were fortunate to acquire almost 30 hectares near our home in 2015, and a flock of Hampshire Down sheep arrived soon after.
Initially Matthew worked on the farm alone, and having completed a Permaculture Design Course with Geoff Lawton, in 2017 he started to develop a water capture system of swales, coupled with planting up a future food forest. A lot of thought and work went (and is still going) into setting up a resilient ecosystem that is fit for the future risks we face here, such as worsening drought conditions (source: MeteoFrance).
The actual farm production has been developing more slowly intentionally, as we felt we needed to grapple with the bigger question of “why”, rather that “what and how much”. In fact, slow is an excellent adjective for our ethos. Little by little, as this ecosystem develops, new activities and products will follow.
We've noticed that in our system, sheep play a key role. In times gone by, wool was highly valued and locally processed, and mutton was king of the table. We wanted to explore that notion to its full extent, so here we are today: all our sheep live several years grazing the meadows, fertilising the soil ready for cereal crops, and a few of them are eventually consumed as very fine mutton. The sheep contribute their fleeces each year which are painstakingly sorted into yarn versus fibres for felt and bedding. The wool is washed, carded and spun by some of the few remaining scourers and mills in France. This « wool project » created the opening for me (Katie) to rediscover my own creative roots that I’ve kept buried for an extremely long time. Not only can I now delight in sharing with you our yarn for your own fabulous creations, but wool also allows me to dream: to imagine, and then craft, beautiful felt items and cosy, stylish and functional knitted designs for you to love. I've also taken professional training in natural dyeing in order to unlocking the doors to the incredible world of colours hidden within plant.
We still have a way to go on these personal journeys and to fully realise our dreams and goals for the farm. Your support and encouragement as our customers are truly precious and inspirational to us: a heartfelt thank you to you all.
P.s. As a friend once told me: be careful what you wish for. Not only do we have our cottage in the countryside and farm animals... but also the peeling paint on the shutters!