Address:
Balliemore, Kerrera,Oban

Email:
gillvollum77@gmail.com

Phone:
07734084366

Description:

We are a small family run farm on the isle of Kerrera, just off Oban on the West coast of Scotland The farm was run by my father for 40 years and my husband and I have been lucky enough to take it over and develop it ourselves for the past 6 years. We have a long way to go to reach his 40 but hopefully our 2 boys will be keen to carry on the tradition. They already show a keen interest so fingers crossed! We farm 500 sheep - a mix of 200 blackface which are out on the hill year round, with 300 llyn and texel crosses in bye. We lamb outside and tend to either sell for store or slowly fatten up our lambs until they are year old hoggetts. One food writer sums the flavour up beautifully ""Hogget is simply lamb with wanderlust and a decent education. Its killed when its between twelve and eighteen months old, so it knows a thing or two about flavour. It doesnt overwhelm like old mutton, yet still bleats with ovine delight. I have to be honest and agree with him! Nothing makes me prouder than serving our own hoggett leg roast or a plate of chops for for dinner and watching it just disappear. Left overs are slim but its worth it! We also have 12 Dexter cows and Jerusalem, an Aberdeen Angus bull whom I tend to refer to as the other wife due to the fact he is madly in love with Tim and given the chance would follow him everywhere. The cows are kept out on the hill year round, they are a hardy native breed and require very little extra feed throughout the winter. We keep our steers till they are 28 - 34 months so they are much slower growing than other more commercial herds and of course they are a lot smaller but hey, diamonds don't come in the size of bricks! The meat is very intense and sweet and is a lot darker than other commercial breeds. It is never around for very long so I think other people agree with us when we say it is delicious! We are looking forward to tasting the Aberdeen Angus cross Dexter steers this time next year and will keep you posted! We also keep a few Tamworth cross weaner's and Pietrian weaner's which we fatten on grass, a few pig rolls and they have the run of the vegetable gardens and orchard so the meat is very sweet. It also helps that the boys love feeding them extra apples and carrots on their way to school in the mornings!"