Bearded Farmers

Shaun, a born and bred Cornishman, met Pete, while he was living in the Cotswolds and working as a herd manager on an organic dairy farm. Pete, was a ‘dyed in the wool’ city dweller, and at the time worked for a leading car manufacturer in Birmingham as a process and quality engineer. But it seems that you can take the man out of the city and the city out of the man, because in 2019 they made the move to Cornwall with the aim of having their own farm (The only problem was, they didn’t have the funds to do so!) Shaun had secured a great job as a herdsman on a local farm and Pete had found one of the extremely rare engineering positions available in Cornwall. They felt they were destined to remain working for others. However, with sheer hard work and graft, they formed a cleaning company, cleaning holiday lets and soon found themselves employing over 30 people. Then, quite by chance, the opportunity of a small farm came up on the outskirts of Redruth, and The Bearded Farmers legend began.

Their ethos with the farm is to provide affordable and ethical produce using regenerative farming principles for the local area. They feel you shouldn’t have to be rich to be able to buy local, healthy produce. They combined their cleaning company interests with the farm to maximise the hours they could offer their employees in the team. Many of the team had additional skill sets from previous jobs, which were used to offer “additional services” such as painting and decorating and handyman work. They even had and member of the team that used to be a mechanic and was able to work on their vehicles. Others were able to help run the farm and its shop. Team members even bake cakes for the farm shop and make scotch eggs, and homemade jams. They even employed someone who used to work in a circus and has a great rapport with all the animals, and they help out on the farm.

Pete and Shaun feel tourism industry is an important part of the local economy and feel lucky that they have been able to combine tourism and agriculture, enabling them to employ a lot of people. They are able to offer them great wages, job prospects, contracts and holiday pay. We couldn’t have started this farm without the success of the cleaning business. Thanks to our customers in both businesses, we have made a difference to the community and plan to continue doing what we’re doing and develop our ethical methods to produce even more good quality food.