Pool Cottage Smallholding
Welcome to Pool Cottage Smallholding
The site is about who we are and what we do on our smallholding at Pool Cottage in North Shropshire. We are continually developing the smallholding and diversifying in an environmentally responsible manner, while remaining pragmatic. We would like to be self sufficient just like Tom and Barbara, but true self sufficiency is probably just a dream. However, we keep striving! More details about our aims can be found on the about us page, and please feel free to look around. Any feedback or genuine enquiries about our smallholding and Pool Cottage activities are most welcome. We introduce just three of the aspects of the smallholding below, but we embrace so much more, so please take time to look at all the other stuff.
17 Sep 2018
The first Pool Cottage Smallholding hop harvest has been successfully gathered in.
14 Aug 2018
Check out our most excellent beer labels.
21 Mar 2018
The Pool Cottage Smallholding Forge is fired up for the first time.
Bespoke farm buildings
We have been designing and building our own farm buildings for a while at Pool Cottage. They include:
Pig arcs
Chicken houses
Duck houses
Goose houses
Quail houses
Field shelters
Food Prep Rooms
Glamping Trailers
They have been so useful around the smallholding, and we now design and build for others. So far we have designed, built and delivered a number of pig arcs and field shelters across the country. We have also converted a Rice horse trailer to a glamping day/bedroom, with the proud name, Myrtle.
Our animals
At Pool Cottage we have a range of animals including:
Oxford Sandy & Black pigs
Shropshire sheep
Savastapol geese
Shropshire Blue chickens
Light Sussex chickens
Welsummer chickens
Ross chickens (table birds)
Aylesbury ducks
Buff Orpington ducks
Kharki Campbell ducks
Indian Runner ducks
Retired Greyhounds
The chickens keep both ourselves and our neighbours stocked with eggs as do the ducks. The pigs entertain and are used in producing our range of charcuterie. The sheep have given us some wonderful cuts of meat and allowed us to make a range of lamb sausages and burgers. The geese are the guards and the greyhounds take retirement very seriously!
Charcuterie
We love food at Pool Cottage and have been experimenting with charcuterie for a number of years. Our creations include:
Pies and pasties
Hams
Bacon (both smoked and unsmoked)
Sausages (so many types)
Pastrami
Burgers
Salt beef
Smokies (a special garlic sausage).
Smoked salmon
Black pudding
Terrines and pate
Air dried Lonza and Coppa
We built and now run our own smokehouse to produce all our own smoked products in-house. We also designed and made our own clay oven for, arguably, the best pizza in Shropshire. Finally, we work closely with the Shropshire based BBQ outfit "Smoked" , who create the finest "low n slow" hot smoked brisket and mutton this side of the Deep South.