These last few weeks have seen the winter blues and browns make way for the greens and pinks of spring. Suddenly it feels more like where we want to be – animals are back in the landscape, lambs are skipping, swallows swooping and the tree blossom is humming overhead. It’s what we’ve all been waiting […]

Stories from the old farmyard – Podcast A few weeks ago Steve caught up with Molly from Curated Spaces Club and discussed the transformation of our family farm. Steve chats about Pete’s move to Organic Farming & farmers’ markets as well as farming stories from years gone by from Gordon, and how this provided the platform to […]

A super seasonal recipe to try at home but may also feature at forthcoming Farm Feasts.. Perfect timing as we’ve been busy with our squash harvest and there’s still a glut of greens in our Veg Garden. We would highly recommend smoking your squashes, but if you haven’t got a lidded BBQ (or have packed […]

Autumn is just around the corner and to celebrate we’ve released our October and November Sunday Lunch dates. We’re also sharing our beloved Truffled Garden Greens recipe for you to try and share with your friends and family alongside a hearty roast! Ingredients 300g Kale 300g Cavolo nero 50g Butter 50g Plain flour 500ml Milk […]

Our blog has been a little neglected in recent times but we’re relaunching it with renewed gusto! We will be using it to delve deeper into life at Nancarrow, sharing favourite recipes, cuts & produce, and providing insight into how the farm works, the goings on, and introduce you to some of the characters involved! […]

We have been delighted with the response to our farm and woodfired kitchen being featured on the current series of ‘Rick Stein’s Cornwall’. Many have asked for the recipe’s so here is the first – we hope you enjoy giving it a go at home! You will need:  50g Cooked Borlotti beans (our Head Chef […]

We have been delighted with the response to our farm and woodfired kitchen being featured on the current series of ‘Rick Stein’s Cornwall’. Many have asked for the recipe’s so here is the second – Ember Baked Squash, Kale, Hazelnut and Gouda. We hope you enjoy giving it a go at home! You will need:  […]

We’re giving away a bundle of our ‘Wilder Woods Charcoal’ – that’s 9kg of fantastic sustainable, chef-grade charcoal delivered to your door anywhere in the UK! Perfect for that long awaited gathering with your friends and family! A collaboration with Cornwall Wildlife Trust, our hardwood charcoal is made using wood sourced from sustainably managed woodlands […]

MEAT TO PLEASE YOU (we are) Have you ever seen a pair of hares boxing in the spring? March is the month of mad spring boxing. How apt then, that we began this thing, Wedding restricted, in March! It’s not all that foxing. The weather was fine but the atmosphere threatening. On farm, preparing for […]

Everyone is getting really stuck in to producing all sorts of treats from their kitchen during isolation. We think it’s great and what’s even better is when you can pick the ingredients while on your daily walk! It’s the perfect time of year for Wild Garlic, you can smell it everywhere so here’s two recipes […]

We all know it: food waste is bad. According to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 30 per cent of all food produced for our consumption – around the world – is lost or wasted somewhere along the food supply chain. And here in the UK, 4.5 […]

We’re giving away Dinner Bed and Breakfast for 2 lucky guests at our Farm Feast on Saturday February 8th! Join us for a Feast in the Oak Barn, followed by a comfortable stay in one of our lovely ensuite bedrooms.. Wake up to farm views, (possibly) our first lambs and a hearty, communal breakfast! Sorry, […]

1000 Mouths What an incredible weekend of feasts and festivities on the farm! Thank you so much to everyone involved and thanks to Adam Sargent and Ross Talling for capturing the wonderful memories shown here in our gallery!

Based in Penryn, Cornwall, Cool Earth has spent the last 12 years working with rainforest communities to stop deforestation and its impact on climate change – putting local people back in control of their forest. With our 1000 Mouths festival raising funds for the non-profit – as well as Cornwall Wildlife Trust – we caught […]

In 1999, farms were growing – fast. And they weren’t just getting bigger; they were becoming more intensive in their methods too. Here at Nancarrow, we decided to tread a different path, adopting a more ecological approach to the way we farmed. Skip forward 20 years, and those principles are more important to us than […]

In the true spirit of nose to tail and ensuring that absolutely nothing from our 1000 Mouths bullock goes to waste, we have teamed up with our friends at Hog & Tallow who are going to take the excess waste fat and using traditional methods turn it into our very own soap! Along with the […]

Next spring we are really excited to have our good friend Debbie from Wild Wine Club launch her new Wild Wine School, taking wine education out of the traditional classroom & into the wild here on the farm! We are delighted for Debbie as Wild Wine School is now an accredited program provider for the […]

So far July has provided us with plenty of lovely sunshine & warm balmy evenings. Summer was in full swing as we enjoyed 3 really special evenings for our Midsummer Feasts. We managed to dine al fresco in our sunshine speckled courtyard & enjoyed summer fare, straight from the farm & kitchen garden with our […]

Right now Elderflower is in full bloom in the hedgerows all over the farm. Yesterday morning the team were out picking and we’ll soon have homemade Cordial, Fizz and Liquer to serve at the bar. Our queen of the tipples Eavan has put together a recipe for Elderflower Liqueur & our much loved Elderflower Spritz […]

We’ve been longing for some rain for week’s now and this week its finally arrived in buckets! Our deep-rooted herbal leys have stood up well in the early summer drought, but the newly sown seeds can finally get going to all our relief. Suddenly there are weeds everywhere! With only 3 cows left to calve, […]

Help us celebrate 20 years of organic farming with a weekend of feasts and festivities this October. Over the course of the weekend of 4th-6thOctober, we’ll be welcoming 1000 guests to the farm for a festival of traditional crafts, activities, music and of course, food. We’ll be serving street food from our woodfired courtyard kitchens […]

With so much going on we didn’t really have time to sow seeds for our kitchen garden this season, so we turned to our friends at Rocket Gardens based near Helston for some of their brilliant organic veg plug plants. The team at Rocket Gardens sow and grow thousands and thousands of seedlings in their polytunnels, and […]

With the final days of the wild garlic season approaching, we are in the process of stocking the larder with our own wild garlic capers. Now that the flowers have died back and the seed head is left we gather the seeds, picking them individually which is a nightmare job! We generously salt them using […]

A dry spring and many hands on deck has meant that things are looking pretty decent on the farm as the summer arrives on a cool breeze. Our ewes and their lambs are settling in well at the top of the hill. Meanwhile, the cattle remain in the valley where they love to shelter under […]

This Smoked Pork Tenderloin recipe is one that we covered on our Smoking & Curing Workshop with Steve Lamb earlier in the month, and we can testify that it’s seriously tasty! It’s also a very easy introduction to the art of smoking meat and you don’t need any fancy kit. Ingredients (serves 3) 1x Pork […]

Our Spring Gathering is just one week away, and it looks set to be glorious weather so we are all in for a treat! There’s loads going on, and you can find all the info on food, drink and activities on our website. Below is some of the key information that you might need to […]

We’ve been foraging wild garlic for a couple of weeks now, and it’s coming through thick and fast now. It’s so abundant in woodlands, easy to identify and great tasting that we really like to make the most of it whilst it’s in season. Here are a few recipes for using it in the kitchen. […]

After months of hard work (as well as the consumption of many pasties and countless games of football over lunch breaks) the new butchery and larder space is nearly complete. It’ll be ready just in the nick of time too, as we’re hosting our Smoking & Curing Workshop in it next week! We can already […]

We’re taking a new ‘no-dig’ approach to growing our own vegetables this season. With less soil disturbance, the soil structure should significantly improve within a year or so, and in the meantime we’ll benefit from fewer weeds, fewer pests and, hopefully, a better crop. ‘No-Dig’ gardening is exactly what it implies: gardening without digging. The […]

This wild leafy plant is succulent, crisp & refreshing.  It’s very easy to identify and most likely that you’ve already seen it! Pennywort loves to grow on stony walls, and in marshy, damp areas, anchoring itself between the stones and growing in a crown like shape.  I’d describe them as lily pad shaped, round with a long, […]

Our chef, Jack, is an endless bank of knowledge when it comes to the different cuts of meat. Here he shares 3 of his favourite steaks…  Denver SteakThe Denver Steak is taken from the chuck (shoulder of the animal) behind the shoulder blade. It’s a relatively underused, little known cut that is usually put into […]

We’re very excited to be hosting our Spring Gathering again this year. It will kick off with a Feast on Friday 5th April (and another on Saturday 6th) with loads of daytime events happening on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets will be available very soon (make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter so that you […]

We have always looked at our processes, food waste and the impact of what we do on the environment and our farm.  Burning wood to make charcoal has seemed to be a bit of a taboo subject and something that Darren and Jack are often asked about when they are cooking over the fire.  This […]

Anyone and everyone can produce smoked and cured products at home, and they offer so much value to the keen cook. It’s a skill that enables you to take good ingredients and turn them into great ingredients with minimum effort. Getting to grips with the basics of smoking and curing will really expand your knowledge […]

Following its popularity at our December Feast last month, we wanted to take the time to explain a little more about the concept of a verjus, and of course share the recipe with you too so that you can try it at home. Verjus is the unripe and sour juice from acidic fruits (and some […]

Head Chef, Darren, gives the low down on these stunning wild mushrooms… Scarlet Elf Cups are, for me, one of winter’s most exciting ingredients.  They offer such an impact of colour in the hungry gap.  Winter greens and mushrooms are a staple in colder times but the colours feel fresh and light and can be […]

20 years after Pete started converting the farm to organic, 2018 ended with us hosting a two day Soil Health conference with many of the big conventional farms from the South West in attendance. The speaker, who had flown in from Oz for the occasion, implored the room to end their reliance on chemicals and […]

2018 has been yet another year to remember on the farm, for all sorts of reasons.. It started to rain cats and dogs in November 2017 and rain seamlessly turned to snow as the beast from the east passed through Cornwall in early March. Somehow we managed to make it through lambing season relatively unscathed […]

Cooking your turkey I always cook the legs and breast separately as I’ve found that cooking a turkey this way gives you the best results without overcooking the breast.  On Christmas Eve, remove the legs and lay them in a dish covered with a thin layer of sea salt and sprinkle sea salt over the […]

How does shredded sprouts with pancetta, cider brandy and a creamy tarragon sauce sound? This is how Darren cooks his Brussels Sprouts… Shred the sprouts through a food processor (or very finely slice them). Melt a little duck fat in a pan & crisp up some chopped pancetta. Once the pancetta is nicely browned add […]

This is our twist on the ultimate comfort food. We roast the cauliflower in rendered beef fat from our organic red Devon Cows, keeping a little of the fat for the sauce itself in place of the butter. It’s unbelievably good and just the thing for a Christmas roast. By roasting the cauliflower you concentrate the […]

Darren goes against the grain a bit when it comes to cooking his roast potatoes. Contrary to popular opinion, he actually prefers to cook his potatoes the day before, whole and in the skins.  This locks in the starch (which will help them become crispy and golden) and has the added benefit of saving a bit […]

Whether you’re cooking turkey as your main dish, or something a bit different like rolled pork or something else, Jack’s stuffing is delicious and has a nice, festive twist with the pannetone.   Ingredients (serves 8-12): 4 shallots, 2 celery stalks 4 cloves of garlic 500g sausage meat 1 medium pannettone, blitzed into coarse breadcrumbs […]

Who says porridge can’t be festive? Darren’s recipe uses star anise, cinnamon and cardamom along with cranberries and figs. It’s delicious and very easy to make…it’d be a great, fuss-free Christmas breakfast! On the night before, gently warm some milk (approx 1 cup milk per person) with 4-5 cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick, 2-3 star […]

As winter draws nearer, most autumn leaves have now fallen and you’d be surprised at how different the farm looks compared to earlier in the year. The oaks resisted for several weeks longer than the sycamores and ash, but have finally succumbed and dropped their leaves. Only the likes of the hazels and elms still […]

Over the past few weeks we’ve been busy putting together a series of 2019 Farm Workshops and it won’t be long now until we launch them on our website. The workshops are going to be a great way to get the full Nancarrow experience. A typical workshop might include a nose-to-tail butchery class or a larder […]

We had to twist Darren’s arm a bit to get him to share his recipe for Pine Needle Fudge. It is as good as it sounds (i.e ridiculously delicious) and it’s great to have a batch of it on standby as a lovely, homemade gift. It’s also a good reason to go out for a crisp, […]

As we head into the festive season why not make up a batch of preserved clementines to use in your cooking? It’s an easy win as they’re the perfect thing to add to a warming tagine or stew, and particularly great for a leftover turkey curry! You can use them in desserts too. Basically, a […]

Just as you’re thinking about getting friends and family around for a pre-Christmas gathering, and wondering what on earth you can cook, we thought we’d ask our chef, Jack, what 3 things he would recommend cooking over the festive season. Here’s his answer: First off, without hesitation, I’d suggest Beef Short Ribs. They are full […]

Winter is poking its nose through the farm gates with the first few morning frosts and we’re fully embracing the season change! It’s always a surprisingly busy time of year for us as it’s a real opportunity to get projects underway for the following spring. At the moment we’re renovating the old garages next to […]

Nancarrow’s head chef, Darren, has been filling us all with inspiration for winter drinks lately, and this Mulled Cider is a bit of a corker for bonfire night, and so simple to whip up before you head out to gather around the bonfire and watch the fireworks. 1: Roast the Oranges Take 3 small to […]

Last Wednesday’s candlelit feast was a night to remember. A warm, dry evening, lovely people & an incredible Middle Eastern feast delivered by Head Chef Darren and his team. Huge thanks to everyone who helped create another night to remember! Photos by Ross Talling

Winter 2015/2016 was an incredibly busy one on the farm, and following a huge team effort our humble old chicken shed is now officially a very special Bridal Suite. Huge thanks to everyone involved in the project (sorry if I’ve missed anyone) Mat Robinson, Jamie and Richard, Tony, Craig & team, Tom & Jake, Mark, Mark, Andy & George, Ross, […]

A chance Facebook post from a friend, introduced us the fabulous work of illustrator Joe McLaren. //www.joemclaren.com/ We’re delighted with the images of Nancarrow he has created. Visitors to the farm will soon see these images in and around our barns and we hope limited edition prints will be available in our shop soon..