Born from a passion for food and the very best of British produce. This coupled with a lifelong love of nature and the countryside led to the project that is Telfit Farm and eatTelfit
About Ben
We bought Telfit Farm in 2016, a fulfilment of a lifelong dream of my father to own his own farm, care for his own land and produce his own food. Food has always been deep in the Leatham blood and for me it was no different. Brought up around my father's food business, Leathams, I was fortunate to be immersed in fantastic food and produce from a very young age. That immediately rubbed off on me and for as long as I can remember I have never been happier than when in the kitchen.
I feel very lucky to have been brought up in the magnificent Yorkshire Dales and my childhood was a very happy one of rivers, hills and fields. I always loved being out and about amongst nature and the sounds of the countryside.
Having not been very good at concentrating at school, I then left (realistically not having shined in my A levels) to go straight into the world of professional kitchens. Being thrown straight into the deep end, I got immediately to be exposed to exciting cookery and whizz bangers of fine dining restaurants.
However I longed to be closer to the origins of the ingredients I was cooking with and left to study the making of wine and then on to the big city of London. Covid then hit and put paid to that and I retuned to the Dales. Having been left without a job at 25, I knew I needed some form of income and set upon the idea of selling the produce from our farming at Telfit.
That calm feeling of being amongst nature has been one I have cherished for my whole life. I am always fascinated by the vast array of wildlife and nature we are lucky to have around us. Nothing gives me more pleasure than hearing the cry of the curlew, seeing the diving swallows or walking through a majestic beech wood.
I have also notice more and more the loss of these wonders, the feeling of there being less and less nature surrounding us. There have appeared to be fewer Insects and birds progressively each year and the problem seems to be getting worse.
When we bought Telfit Farm the levels of biodiversity and the depth of the reserves of nature were staggering to me. The bird life, the wonderful flowers, the hares nestled in the fields left all of us with a determination to preserve and enhance the wonderful biodiversity we had.
On the farm we have already planted 18,000 trees to provide a safe haven for nature, as well as digging ponds and working hard on the moorland restoration. Our new orchard of 325 apple trees was planted two years ago which will provide many benefits for pollinators and birdlife. These have had great successes and we have seen such a heart lifting increase in the prevalence of many rare species.
We are passionate that our farm must be the most environmentally beneficial it can possibly be. We aim to integrate our farming practices into the natural order of systems. By doing this our farming can benefit the nature we have on the farm and visa versa.
The mob grazing systems we use for our cattle sequester carbon dioxide and utilise it as carbon in the soil. This in turn increases the water holding capacity low our land, reducing flood risk downstream of us and increasing our drought tolerance as a farm. The rest periods that this also introduces in our grazing ensure that no plant is overgrazed and minimises soil disturbances. This reduces the weed burden on the farm and increases our plant diversity.
Trees integrated into the system increase shelter for our animals whilst providing vital habits throughout the farm. The diversity of these trees and plants feed the soil food web of beneficial bacteria and fungi running through our soils. This in returns feed these plants in a virtuous cycle acting also as if their gut, reducing disease within our farm.
Regenerative agriculture is a remarkable tool that can be used for nature restoration around the UK and globally as well as still providing healthy and bountiful food for us to eat.
At Telfit farm all our breeds are native breeds that produce the very finest slow grown meats. Our cattle are Belted Galloway, one of the smaller breeds in the UK. These beautiful cattle are thrifty and resilient and will survive our cold winters whilst converting our rough pastures.
Our sheep are Swaledales, the local sheep breed to us. They are one of the iconic sights of the Dales and like our cattle they are adapted to our environment and thrive up here in the uplands. The lamb they produce is exceptional.
We also have our Middle White Pigs, these we cross with Berkshire boar, they live outdoors in the summer grazing our pastures. In the winter they come into warm barns, for their comfort but also to protect our land so it's there for them next year. Middle white pork is the very best in the world for raw pork, prized in Japan for being the best in the world.
