Meet Our Goose Producer...
Higher Fingle Farm, Dartmoor, Devon
Our History
After working for other organic farmers and training in agriculture at Harper Adams Agricultural college, Rona and Nevil Amiss secured the tenancy on a high wet Exmoor beef and sheep farm in 1999.
By diversifying into bed and breakfast they managed to make a start in farming. With foot and mouth disease affecting the countryside in 2001 and the subsequent loss of any income from sheep sales and B&B, they choose organic Christmas geese as a way of surviving. That first year, with little experience, they produced and sold 75 geese, keeping them cold in their dining room with the windows open!
As luck would have it, in 2002 Duchy Originals were looking to sell Organic Geese, so with their encouragement a fully licensed poultry abattoir was built and the first Duchy Originals Organic Geese were sold that Christmas.
In 2005 Rona and Nevil moved to the lower and less wet Higher Fingle Farm which is on the Edge of Dartmoor. Taking some sheep, cows and building a much smarter poultry plant they continue to grow the business. With their five young children they also host visits by Schoolchildren and other groups to learn about organic farming, food and the environment.
Our Ingredients
Day old goslings are bought in from John Burns who runs a small dedicated organic hatchery just up the road in North Devon, and the goslings are then reared to fully grown geese at Higher Fingle Farm.
Our Production Methods
Geese are by nature difficult to intensify and these geese are truly free range. They enjoy waddling across the steep fields around the farm, grazing on pastures planted with organic clover, which are surrounded by wildlife rich hedges.
The geese are herded each morning onto fresh pasture, taking shelter in bad weather behind the old Beech hedges that border the fields. They are free to roam the organic pastures during the day and have swimming pools to paddle in. At night they are safely shut into straw bedded barns to keep them from foxes.
The geese are hatched and reared on organic cereal based feed. They lay in late spring and early summer and six months later these slow growing geese are ready for the Christmas market.
In December, when they reach eight months of age they are processed in a high welfare abbatoir located on the farm, where they are dry plucked and hung for at least seven days, before being carefully prepared and packed for delivery.
Our Awards
This year Higher Fingle Farm was proud to be declared the overall winner of the Waitrose / Country Living 'Made in Britain' Food Champion Awards.
Click here to visit the website of Higher Fingle Farm.
