30/08/2026
August this year marks 9 years since we started The Free Co.
Back in 2017, one of the things we wanted to achieve was to ‘revive a forgotten farm’. It sounded a bit lofty back then and we definitely didn’t know how we were going to do it.
Before The Free Co, our Dad ran a dairy farm here. He worked alongside 29 other people before it was no longer viable and had to shut in 2002. Today, 30 people bring the farm to life each week.
9 years is almost a decade and that sounds like a really long time. The thing is, we feel like we’ve only just started.
We didn’t know much back in 2017 and we don’t claim to have all the answers yet but here are a few things that we have learned:
- Mixed, nature friendly farming is the way forward & and we now have a biodiverse farm that’s getting biodiverser - it’s really resilient, productive and cool
- Our team are very talented & very good people
- We have the most supportive customers that a small business could hope for
- If we remove honey butter from our menu people think the sky is going to fall
- Angus will still start a new project before he’s finished the last one
- We have the best job in the world
If you’ve got this far, you might sense that we are excited for what’s ahead.
See you soon, Angus and Charlie ###
Photos by Christian + Amelia Masters and an old one from 2001 by unknown.
