We have been listed as one of the best 50 food shops in the Independent Magazine which came out on Saturday 21st November

We have some lovely snowdrops for sale £4.00 per pot plus raspberry canes at £6.50 per pot

Compare our prices with your local supermarkets and you will find that we are very competitive.  We do not do special offers as we sell a far superior product which is ethical and sustainable.  Our animals are not shipped half way across the country to slaughter. Sometimes supermarket meat is reduced to such a low price it is below wholesale prices but you will find the cost hidden in other products so you may end up paying more in the long run.

Blog by Helen Graves for Real Food Festival

We had a foraging day last year with Miles Irving here are some picturesFORAGING

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We are took part in the Thames Festival on Saturday 12th September which was a fantastic day and provided our organic eggs for the Sacred Mayonnaise ritual.  The public had the opportunity to make their own mayonnaise by hand.  We took 3 of our laying hens for people to see and 2 of them actually laid an egg on the bridge!

Hazeldene Native Rare Breeds Farm nestles in the folds of Asheridge Vale barely a mile from Chesham. The 70 acre farm is run by Liz and Steve Bateman who were new to farming.   Liz, Steve & their daughter Charlotte moved to the farm in 2006 with the aim of breeding native organic rare breed animals. .These animals are slow maturing which adds to the flavour. All the livestock is free range and fed on a non-gm natural diet.. The land was certified organic in June 2008 and all livestock born after this date would have been organic. 

Unfortunately we recently parted from the Soil Association and have been told we can no longer sell any of our meat/eggs as organic.  The name 'organic' is owned and unless you pay to be with an organic body you cannot label it as organic.  Nothing will change we will raise the animals in the same way as we have always done.

Having no time for gardening we recently dug up our front garden and have just started making some raised beds.. The vegetables will be grown to without pesticides and artificial fertilisers. 

We are planning on providing educational visits for schools, any school interested in visiting the farm should contact liz, her email is liz@hazeldenefarm.com

The Open Farm Sunday was a great success, despite the weather!  We had a great turn out and hope everyone enjoyed the day.

We had a mention by Market Kitchen on UKTVFOOD channel recommending the meat from our British Lop pigs.  This is all thanks to Cyrus Todiwala from Cafe Spice Namaste, London.  Hopefully people saw Cyrus cooking pork on Saturday Kitchen last Saturday 4th, he mentioned the pork was from a small farm in Chesham but as it was the BBC was unable to give the name of the farm.

We supply the Drawing Room, a lovely cafe in Chesham, with our eggs.  Take a look at their website as they are always having gigs, have a look to see what is happening this Saturday night.

The Drawing Room - what's happening

Our orphan lamb Lottie was born spring 2007 which was our first experience of lambing, she lived in our house for 3 months!  She thought she was a dog rather than a sheep as she spent much of her time with Nelson our labrador.  Her nickname is 'houdini' as she was always escaping and ending up at our back door.  Consequently Liz is very attached to her and she will live out her days on the farm.

 Lottie September 07 she is an Oxford Down/Suffolk cross

May 08 Where's my wool gone!

At our Open Day August 2008

Lottie's Sire 'Rodney' (Twinwood Frodo) one of  our Oxford Down Rams with Charlotte at the Thame Show in 2006

Lottie was put to one of our rams ('Rambo') last November so should be expecting her first lamb in April - we will keep you posted!

At last she had her lamb at 7.00 am this morning (23rd April 09) a nice ewe lamb.  Here they are both doing very well and she has been a fantastic mother.