Many a fan of flavoursome, wholesome food has good reason to thank Robin and Penny Calvert for a decision they made more than two decades ago.
They swapped their life in north Yorkshire – Robin’s from Skipton, an area known as the Gateway to the Dales, for a life as crofters in eastern Sutherland. Both were involved in the music industry, but having grown up enjoying a life in the great outdoors, they decided the time was right to try their hand at something new.
“We landed up at Reidchalmai Croft at Rogart some 21 years ago when it was a bit rundown, then took the decision about 14 years ago to regenerate the croft,” said Robin, 58.
“We got into the sheep side of things and in the early days had about 40, but we weren’t happy with the prices we were getting for lambs. In those old days we were only getting around £32 or £33 apiece but it was costing us nearly £30 to produce a lamb.”
Crofting has to pay and this wasn’t a viable way for them to make a living so they looked to diversify by adding extra value to the product.
“Supermarkets had basically killed off the trade for local wet meat sales – trust me, people don’t support local producers as much as they say they do,” said Robin. We were producing good quality lambs so decided to do some direct marketing and began working with local farmers’ markets.”
The result was the birth of the Well-Hung Lamb Company Ltd. Initially they used the services of a butcher to help them but through sheer determination and practice, they developed excellent cutting and butchery skills.
Robin, who Penny says is a brilliant carpenter, built a cutting room and chiller to butcher sheep, poultry and pigs along with locally sourced game.
This also allows them to hang the meat for the optimum amount of time.
“A lot of people are selling quite a good product but what we’ve learned, over time, is what constitutes very good meat,” said Robin. “It’s all to do with the ways it’s grown, handled – we’re looking at compassionate animal handling, growing on a mixture of grass and heather to produce a slow-growing tasting carcase, and hanging for the optimum time for full flavour.”
Their commitment to high-welfare meat production also means their meat is fully traceable.
“Our mantra is ‘birth to plate’ as all our meats are either from the croft, or in the case of wild venison, sourced locally,” said Robin.
“By handling the entire process ourselves, we can always guarantee excellence of quality.
“Keeping the business small ensures overheads are kept to a minimum, making our prices very realistic for premium-quality produce.
“We are also our own middlemen as we prefer to sell direct to customers and like nothing better than chatting to them and negotiating a deal.
“We sell to one or two carefully selected hotels and restaurants, but really don’t encourage that side of the trade.”
The couple, who take great pride in striving to present their meats at their absolute best, are regularly inspected by Quality Meat Scotland, who set the very highest standards for animal welfare. They are also founder members of the Scottish Crofting Federation Croft Brand.
“We diversified again a few years ago when we started making crofters pies,” said Robin.
“The original thinking behind it was as a means to use mutton but now the pies are made from our own Highland Cattle beef and real aged mutton.
“We’ve gone from making around 30 to around 400 a week and can’t knock them out fast enough.”
Again this success was due to their willingness to give everything a go.
“We are very much multi-taskers so if a job needs doing we just get on with it,” said Robin who hand-built a bakery on the croft.
Penny said: “When it’s well cooked, mutton is fabulous with a lovely distinctive taste.”
With sales going through the roof, she’s clearly not the only one who thinks that way as demand for their pies, and other produce, is strong.
Having bought a mobile unit, The Well-Hung Lamb Company visits attends around 50 events a year ranging from specialist food fairs to festivals.
“The increase in produce meant we had to increase the croft to 117 acres, and we now rent another croft for grazing,” said Robin.
“We invest just about everything we make back into the business.
“I’d like to see people supporting their local farmers’ markets as, with one or two exceptions, they’re not being supported which is a real shame. They do good work but we are haemorrhaging sales to the supermarket because of misconceptions, but we offer damned good value for a very high quality product.”