Game Fair 2024 farming exhibitors head to Blenheim Palace

The farming community is host to a number of brilliant and unique diversifications, and businesses with strong farming roots.

Ahead of this year’s annual Game Fair, Farmers Weekly spoke to some of the exhibitors with connections to farming, before they head to Blenheim Palace later this month.  

See also: Find all our diversification content in one place

Corrymoor Mohair

Based on a farm near Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds, Sarah and Wayne Peachey, alongside their daughter Alice, run a flock of curly fleeced Angora goats which produce mohair for their range of Corrymoor products.

They currently have about 50 goats, which are sheared twice a year for their distinct fleeces. These are used to create a range of quality and durable mohair products, including their best-selling socks, scarves and throws.

The Angora goat breed originally hails from Turkey, where the mohair fibre was prized by the sultans.

Today however, the biggest producers of mohair are South Africa and Texas, and there are only about 2,000 angora goats in the UK, which produce about 4t of mohair each year.

“The mohair is a natural fibre. It is very durable – warm in the winter, and cool in the summer,” explains Sarah. “The socks last forever – we’ve got customers that have been buying socks from Corrymoor for 30 years.”

The entire production process, from shearing the goats through to the knitting of the mohair products, takes place in the UK.

“It is all British made. We use some knitters in Lincolnshire that have been going for generations, and they’re still running now. It’s a very old company, and one of very few remaining,” says Sarah.

The Corrymoor products are shipped all over the world, with two parcels heading out to Australia just this week.

For more information or to purchase Corrymoor products, visit the stand at the Game Fair, or head to corrymoor.com.

© Corrymoor

Country Stitches

Somerset-based countryside lover Rachel Stanton first started Country Stitches during lockdown, making durable clothing for her four boys that could withstand their outdoors lifestyle, wash well, and let them sport beautiful country patterns.

Since then, demand for her handmade children’s clothing has grown drastically, and she now makes a full range of pieces for farming and country children, including rompers, dresses, T-shirts, hats and bibs.

The clothing comes in a range of rural prints, showing tractors, Highland cows, pheasants, and the bestselling Land Rover pattern.

“My main range is the Land Rover range, which I’ve had for about three months now. Everyone loves it, it’s my bestseller. I can’t keep up with it,” Rachel explains. 

“I handmake everything from scratch and I just love it. Seeing children in my clothing is absolutely amazing.”

Rachel is currently busy creating her stock that she will take to the Game Fair, including a new Land Rover blanket which she will launch at the event.

All of the products have been put to the test by Rachel’s four boys, who regularly wear her creations while exploring the countryside.

“My boys are feral boys, they’re always outdoors, so I make sure that it doesn’t just look pretty, but that it’s really durable fabric, and that it washes really well.

“The country and farming children that wear these clothes are outdoors, so you’ve got to make sure that the quality is there,” she says.

Country Stitches will be at the Game Fair later this month, and the full range of products are available at countrystitchessomerset.com.

© Country Stitches

The Cornish Cheese Company

Farming is at the heart of the Cornish Cheese Company’s award-winning “Cornish Blue”, which has been produced on the Stansfield’s family farm on Bodmin Moor since 2001.

After realising that there was no blue cheese being made in Cornwall, the family diversified from dairy farming as a way of combating fluctuating milk prices. 

They wanted to create a British blue cheese that was more mild than traditional stilton, and could rival the many imported products lining supermarket shelves. 

“We are passionate about making it a farmhouse, handmade cheese, so [we do] every element – from when the milk comes in, to moulding up the cheeses, hand-salting them, to piercing and packaging them – there’s a huge labour and human element at every stage,” explains Ben Stansfield, who is the head of sales and marketing.

“Some of those stages don’t actually have a mechanical or a timed factor – it is down to the skill of the cheesemaker and when they think that the time is right,” he says.

After the success of Cornish Blue, the family have more recently launched a Cornish brie and a camembert.

While no longer actively farming, the family rent their farmland to a local farmer, who is currently building up herd numbers to be able to fully supply the dairy for the cheesemaking process.

“We’re now 23 years into the journey, and while we’re not dairy farming anymore, we’re currently buying milk from the local dairy farms,” explains Ben.

The range of cheeses can be purchased directly from the farm at cornishcheese.co.uk.

© Cornish Cheese Company