Selling your own pork/ham..

[crace]

Has anyone done this with any success as a small/seasonal business? There are only so many times you can sell to friends/people you know and we need to branch out a bit.

We basically have a small holding (in West Kent) on a few acres and grow our own veg and raise pigs and lambs, and soon to be chickens for eating but have some for laying. Hopefully we will have a small business (selling excess that we can't eat really, and hopefully cover the costs!)..

Any ideas?

I should say they are rare breed and free range so hopefully appealing..?

Any farm shops nearby? Or a Farmers Market? Could you work something out with these people? Or these?

Good luck.

That's lovely - I wish we were big enough to do a full year, then it would be worth setting up a shop and a website. I think it will just have to be word of mouth, and as you suggested, fetes/farmers market. We have a village Farm shop that I was going to ring to see if I could sell in their shop but they don't sell any meat at the moment - just cheese, eggs, milk and veg/cakes etc etc.

Your produce sounds good, crace, and is very similar to our friend's business although they are crofters so it is the mainstay of their income.
They began by traipsing around the local butchers, neighbours etc but are now looking for a small refrigerated trailer in order to widen the area to sell their pork and eggs.

The very best of luck to your venture.

A friend of mine just sticks flyers up everywhere and hands them out at school etc

she does lamb and beef, and it's going well

So the tried and true methods just work.. eventually. I have called and waiting for return calls from pubs, will put an ad in our local paper/ad paper, notice in Post Office window and will just leaflet the village.

I am hoping eventually word of mouth will spread and eventually we can deliver around Kent, which we would do now if we had any takers!

Rare breed, free-range pork and sausages tastes like nothing else, it's amazing. Well loved pork really tastes unbelievable, we will never go back to the stuff you buy in the shops!

completely agree with you!

do you sell it in packs of sausages/joints etc?

Could you maybe do some kind of offer like a percentage off for a first time customer/ get a pack of sausages free when you spend so much or something?

When they have tried it they wont want to go back to plastic supermarket meat.

Or supply a local event cheaply for free advertising? Like a cricket match barbecue or local fete?