Our farms

Dotted across East Yorkshire, Anna Longthorps drove of free-range pigs can be found happily wallowing, sunbathing, and foraging as they please, while slowly laying down natural layers of fat at their own pace. Founded over 30 years ago, Anna took over the reins of her mother's business and continues to rear some of the finest free-range pork across Yorkshire. Anna's drove thrives on the sandy, free-draining land, which is essential for rearing fully free-range hogs to the highest of welfare standards, of which only 1-2% of farms in the UK can do. Compared to industrialised farming, these pigs have had the freedom to roam and the time to grow, which is reflected in the quality of the meat. Expect proper, traditional pork with seams of marbling that can't be matched by supermarkets, something Anna prides herself on - and rightly so.

Ed and Nicola Duggleby of Beswick Hall farm specialise in rearing grass-fed Belted Galloway beef and Oxford Down sheep, just north of the ancient minster town of Beverly in East Yorkshire. The family has farmed at Beswick for around 400 years, and their livestock graze in the River Hull Valley, on wetland that cannot be used for growing any crops or vegetables. The River Hull is a major migratory route used by birds for centuries and the area periodically floods. While grazing the wetland areas, the cattle feet create small divots in the soil, encouraging a whole new eco-system of invertebrates to become active and breed in the wet ground, hence creating a food source for many local breeding birds and also migrating birds passing through the farm and stopping by the nature reserves to re-fuel.

Studley Royal Deer Park is a grand place, dotted with follies and ancient trees. A high stone gate leads to an avenue flanked by giant lime trees. At the top of the avenue is a Victorian church, which commands the landscape and offers a clear view to Ripon Cathedral some miles away, and beyond that, the North York Moors. The deer park is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, of which the ruins Fountains Abbey is also part. This was once one of the most powerful monasteries in England before Henry VIII ordered it to be pillaged. Deer have been kept here since medieval times and roam the grounds in tight herds. Today there are around 300 to 350 deer from three different breeds: fallow, red, and sika. Red are the indigenous species - fallow deer arrived around the Norman conquest, and sika were introduced in the nineteenth century. The National Trust manages the numbers through culling, the most humane method to ensure a healthy herd size, especially without any natural apex predators - such as wolves - left in this country. Deer numbers would rapidly exceed the capacity of the park if numbers weren't controlled, and the National Trust look to maintain a ratio of males and females so that it doesn't lead to unnatural levels of fighting.