Meat with a saltier taste (From Gazette Series)

Meat with a saltier taste

10:15am Friday 9th June 2006 in

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IN PARIS and London the chefs of the capitals' top restaurants love Agneau Pre Sale or "ready salted" Salt Marsh Lamb for its delicate flavour and texture.

When I went to Normandy many years ago the meat of animals that were grazed on an estuary with its aromatic grasses and herbs were highly prized and the flesh was served in reverent tones and was savoured as the best. In Wales too there is a great tradition of putting sheep and cattle out to graze where the tides come in and lap at their feet.

Here in England the benefits of salt marsh grazing have been known since the 13th century but sadly there are only a very few farmers in this country who have embraced this.

John Cullimore and his son Jamie are in the minority but know this practice of using the rich, aromatic pasture produces fantastic meat and word is spreading beyond the top chefs to Gloucestershire people that this beef and lamb is worth having.

"I knew it was special because the chefs love it and my sales have shot up," says John whose family have been farming at Cambridge, Gloucestershire, since 1880. Since he started putting his animals on the marshes of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust on the banks of the Severn he hasn't looked back.

The farm became organic in 1990 and is registered with the Soil Association.

We took a jeep drive from New House Farm across the canal and on to the nature reserve. It was a perfect afternoon as we passed the pasture scattered heavily with wildflowers, the reed-fringed ponds and came down to the sea wall where John's cattle grazed beside the arc of the Severn on whose rich grasslands they thrive with their calves. They posed with the tower of Frampton-on-Severn church in the background with no modern features to bring you into the 21st century.

But John and Jamie are using modern farming ideas to keep their business going. "So many farms are going under because you can't just sell to the supermarkets for peanuts," said John. "Jamie came up with the idea of direct selling so we now sell to the customers at Gloucester, Berkeley and Dursley farmers' market, through home delivery and at our shop here at New House Farm.

"People like to know where their meat comes from these days. Our calves and lambs are suckled on their mothers throughout the summer months and they have low stocking rates so each animal has plenty of room to roam. The lambs are just fattened on grass in the traditional way. There is a unique flavour."

The farm has 200 ewes producing 350 lambs and 40 suckler cows with one calf each. The animals spend some of the time in normal fields up by the farm and some on the marshes.

As we watch the herd of cattle the mothers charge towards us to be inquisitive, and then rush back to collect their young calves. Then they all put their heads down and chew on the rich, salty grasses.

As we arrive back at the farm, Jamie, 20, is in the yard. Did he have to think hard about staying in farming and not going for a more lucrative job in a warm office?

"There would have been no future in staying as we were and lots of farms will go under. But now we are diversifying by selling direct we do have a future. I love what we do here."