13th January 2016
We were invited down to Brook Farm run by the Fowler family. Allman, the youngest of four brothers, greeted us at their farm shop in Burnham-on-crouch to take us around the Red Tractor assured slaughterhouse. The company has been running for over 50 years, and he tells us the way they do things here on Brook Farm is the same way they would have been doing them 300 years ago. The company employs around 20 people and all the slaughtering, dehiding and breakdown is seamed by hand. Fowler brothers are very different from your standard slaughterhouses, we could really tell the animals (mainly rare breed cattle hand-picked at markets by Allman himself) have lived a truly happy life. He feeds them himself every morning, and when treated to a viewing of some Shorthorn beasts, we were pleasantly surprised when they all got up from the hay and trotted over to say hello. Allman explained that the happier, more relaxed animals make for better beef. Trust us when we say thatÂ’s true!
