Egg-ceptional MULTI-AWARD-WINNING, high welfare free range eggs!
Owners Sharon and Andrew Jeffery photographed with late Poultry Industry Hero Winston Westcott
Sharon and Andrew Jeffery, owners of Little Hollacombe Farm, pride themselves in raising their hens to lay only the best eggs. Following excellent welfare practices, the Jefferys have been awarded a string of the Taste of the West gold awards for their egg-cellent eggs over the past two years and now have been awarded the title of Taste of the West Egg Champions. They are now set to enter the prestigious Champion of Champions final next month across all food and drink categories!
Taste of the West judges hold Devon-based Little Hollacombe Farm in such high regard as a producer, that they have now awarded the family business the Taste of the West Egg Champion award 2021!
Sharon said
“We are overjoyed to have been awarded the Taste of the West Egg Champion award 2021 and this has further-inspired me to invest in distribution and infrastructure so we can sell and pack our eggs here and sell them to both the retail and wholesale market. We are pictured above with Winston Westcott, who sadly passed away earlier this year. We would like to celebrate his life as a poultry industry hero and mentor to us over the years – He sold us our first hen in 2010 and has been instrumental in helping us to create our award-winning eggs, we owe much of our success to Winston and are truly grateful for him for helping us build the business into what it is today.”
Not only do Little Hollacombe Farm’s free-range eggs taste delicious, but the Jefferys are proud to champion the highest welfare standards imaginableon their family-run farm in Bideford, Devon.
Andrew Jeffery added
“We walk through and check on all of our chickens three times a day to monitor flock health. We feed our layers with an enhanced nutrition diet that reinforces their natural foraging activity when out in the field. I may be biased, but I think we have created the perfect egg with beautiful rich golden yolks and the Taste of the West judges seem to agree. We are absolutely delighted to have now been asked to enter the Champion of Champions for all categories which will take place next month.”
Chickens are social animals; they are reared in small batches where they are free to express their natural habits of sunbathing, dust washing, scratching around for bugs or just sitting gossiping in social groups.
Shut away at night in their fresh straw houses to keep them hidden from predators, by day they are free to graze on herbal leys, this gives them the highest welfare standards possible, whilst they remain protected at night.
Little Hollacombe Farm’s flock of 29,000 hens are lovingly-raised with love and care. Since 2010, Sharon has proudly raised her hens from small, fluffy chicks into becoming the egg-laying superstars that they are to this day.
Having gone from 4000 birds to 2,9000 birds over the past ten years, Sharon and Andrew have successfully met the increasing demand for high welfare free-range eggs.
The farm has now heavily invested in marketing their own eggs with Little Hollacombe Farm having its own packing line with branded egg boxes. Since establishing their own on-site packing line, 40% of the eggs are now sold to wholesalers under their own Little Hollacombe Farm free range brand with the balance going to other wholesalers. All eggs are graded to A class standard, sized and packed to match the customers requirement.
Sharon continued
‘ I am passionate about producing the best quality product. My hens are lovingly raised, their eggs are rich and nutritious and can be enjoyed on their own or are so versatile that they can be used in a plethora of recipes to make a variety of different dishes. After winning four gold awards for the quality of my eggs, I want to share the importance of following good animal welfare practice in order to create the optimum environment for my hens to thrive in. All of my eggs are part of the Laid in Britain scheme and my hens are tested for salmonella every 14 weeks meaning that they not only taste delicious, but are safe and free from disease too.’
Supporting local British farmers has never been more important and Little Hollacombe Farm is no exception.