A family farm

Who are we? Alison Thomson with her son Ross and his wife Ginny, manage Smallacombe.

Our history In 1990, Alison and her husband Simon, became tenants of this small piece of natural beauty. It quickly became clear that they needed to do something different to thrive in the ever evolving world of agriculture and support their young family. The options for farming back then were to scale up, or go bust. However, Alison and Simon made the choice to carve out their own niche.

Becoming organic In 2003 they became Organic Certified. This means that not a single pesticide, synthetic fertiliser or non-emergency antibiotic have been used anywhere on the farm or on any of the animals since. We are inspected annually to ensure we are adhering to some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. We have now been certified for over 20 years and pride ourselves on our commitment to animal welfare and sustainable agriculture.

What we do Still a family business, we produce a range of organic food including organic goats milk, chicken and lamb.

Holistic

Situated at the apex of a small valley, Smallacombe Farm is very steep and stony with a small access lane. It is not suitable for growing crops or building houses. However, we are surrounded by woodland and heathland which makes for incredible biodiversity of species of flora and fauna. Otherwise known as weeds and pests!

We welcome these on our farm! No herbicides here!

Each species, either farmed or environmental, has its own intrinsic value and nature definitely knows best when it comes to what can thrive here. Goats can produce good quality milk for us from the meadows created by sheep and chickens. The chickens keep the parasite burden low for our sheep and create areas of biodiverse plants for the goats to enjoy. All of the animals produce a natural fertiliser (manure) which when spread over the meadows encourages the plants that grow naturally here to flourish. The goats and sheep eat the plants and the cycle continues. All the while providing delicious food for us humans to enjoy.

All of the animals we farm link to each other and form a symbiotic relationship throughout the whole farm. If we look to what nature can share with us, rather than what we can strip from it, all of us will thrive.
Free range goats

Organic Goats Milk

The girls have year round outdoor access where they can behave as nature intended by eating the scrub and brambles that over flow from the heathland at the top of the farm. This means they have a very diverse diet which gives their milk a delicious, clean taste.

Both our raw milk and our gently pasteurised milk have been awarded "Gold" by Taste of The West

 Shop Our Goats Milk >

Organic high welfare poultry

We run the farm on solar panels, spring water and a biomass boiler with plans for a hydro-electric system in the pipeline (no pun intended!) 

We farm chicken for the table, under soil association standards. Our chickens have a natural life, with a huge free-ranging area full of plants and insects so they can forage and behave in a natural way.
Organic Dorset ewe and lamb

Slow grown, pasture reared sheep

Our Dorset sheep provide our customers with delicious grass fed lamb and hogget, we have meat available in Spring and Autumn via pre-order only.

We keep our lambs a little longer than normal as they take more time to grow and mature on our low input system. Like all our animals, the natural life is key to welfare and taste. Our lamb only ever eat organic pasture and their mothers milk. We move them around the farm as part of our rotational grazing schedule, they are hardy and free. As sheep should be!

We only sell our lamb as boxes rather than specific cuts. This means the whole animal can be used and also gives you variety in your freezer.

Step behind the gate

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