Hi there,
In June 2019 we bought a farm! Having only been married for a month at the time, and running our own security company, we thought we could do with another challenge in life to keep us on our toes…
If you fancy keeping up to date with our lives, then feel free to follow us on Instagram and Facebook @huglettsfarm. We will also be posting the odd blog on our website about topics that we are passionate about and that we think need a deeper description then the likes of social media.
Enjoy x
Lucy
“So, where to begin? I have always been brought up involved in the countryside from a young age. The countryside and wildlife management have always been passions and treating the animals and our surroundings with respect and consideration. This then flowed quite naturally into spending time at Cirencester RAC studying rural land management. Pretty much straight away after uni I bought my spaniel, Fly, and then a few years later met Doug while at work. I suppose the rest is history, so to speak, and here we are finding ourselves living our very own dream and aspirations to be Tom and Barbra Good.”
Doug
“I suppose that I have always been around farming in some way, whether that may have been at college when I spent a large majority of my time there working with a dairy herd, or whether it be just helping out friends and family with their farms. I then spent time in the police and army and came out with running my own security company for the past few years. We’re both pretty practical people and felt like this new challenge of the farm would be a great step for us. Lets see what happens!.”
Hugletts Farm – Located south of Tunbridge Wells in East Sussex, the farm dates to around circa 1600’s and provides us with 75 acres of grazing surrounded by woodland. Situated on top of a hill in the High Weald AONB we are spoilt with the views of the sea to the south and the undulating hills down the Dudwell Valley to the east. The farmhouse is a little tired in places but will be a labour of love and is one of the main factors that drew us to buy the farm, the character is fascinating and it just feels right for us!
Our animals consist of obviously our 3 dogs, who we would not be able to be without, a few chickens with Blue the cockerel who likes to crow in the middle of the night. 16 Runner Ducks which provide us with constant entertainment and the most delish eggs as well as one pet pheasant that we saved from a ransacked nest and incubated the egg… We also have a couple of hives of bees, one of which Lucy’s dad has managed to breed to be the perfect combination of calm and good honey producers and the other is a swarm that landed on our farm.
Our sheep. This was by no means a direction we thought we would take the farm in, but here we are, 6 years after buying the farm and we currently have between 150 - 200 sheep at any one time including Hebridean, Jacob and Kerry Hill x breeding ewes. Jacob and Shetland rams and a selection of their offspring for our lamb and hogget meat. We love our quirky breeds and they are most definitely the heart of the farm with Stan, our big Jacob Ram, taking front and centre.
We are also both experienced deer stalkers and manage the herd that stretches onto the farm. We use all the meat we can and love experimenting with different flavours and techniques. Our strong favourite though is still our home made venison biltong and harissa venison burgers.
I guess our passion is a sustainable way of farming, with slow growing meat to enhance meat flavour and as little intervention as possible with the sheep being out on the grass all year round (unless they need a little help lambing). Then to pay homage to the animal we use as much it as we can. This is where we have found a good relationship with a couple of tanneries. Our deer and sheep skin rugs are really popular, as well as the felted rugs, which we get each time we shear the sheep.
As any farm would probably agree, we’re constantly looking for ways we can improve and keep up with the ever changing times, so keep an eye out… we don’t sit still for long.
