A family-run farm and farm shop is based on the coast of the East Neuk of Fife overlooking the Firth of Forth, on the east coast of Scotland. They grow and sell fresh beef, lamb, mutton and vegetables daily from the farm shop just outside Elie, along with an abundance of other local produce.
They are passionate about helping people connect with their food again. Whether it's grass-fed meat and veg or the hundreds of other small suppliers they support. Encouraging people to get back in the kitchen and cook with real ingredients, made by real people, is what they are care about. Looking after the environment and regenerative agriculture is a key part of this. Their story starts before local food became ‘popular’ again. They have come a long way since the shop started in 2005. Faced with rising fuel costs and under huge pressure from supermarkets they made the hard decision to diversify and find a different way to make a living out of agriculture. Having found a local abattoir and butcher to hang their beef beef, they decided to try and sell meat directly to the public.
All of the family were drafted in to strip wood and paint the walls of a beautiful cart shed they had on the farm and a couple of weeks later had the start of Ardross Farm Shop. With one chest freezer, a calculator and a lot of enthusiasm, they then delivered leaflets to every home in the East Neuk hoping that some people would be interested in what they were doing. The response was amazing, local food was just coming into its own at that point and their traditionally reared beef seemed to be just what people were looking for. They also grew a small amount of veg on the farm and decided to put freshly picked seasonal vegetables in the shop. Having never dealt with the public before, they relied solely on what they thought of products and on customer’s recommendations. As a result, everything in the shop has been tried and tasted by themselves or their customers, creating stock of which they are very proud.
Their aim is to promote British agriculture and 90% of the items in the shop are produced by farming families who diversify with other products made by small craft businesses. Although the shop is not what it was when they first started, it is still family run and you will always find a member of the family nearby. Always conscious of ensuring that the food they produce at Ardross is as healthy and sustainable as possible for both the consumer and the animals, they became Pasture for Life assured. The animals were grass-fed for many years before they realised it was important for their customers to know they were accredited. They are audited every year to ensure that the animals are 100% grass fed. The life and meat produced by a grass-fed animal is completely different to that of a grain-fed animal.