Caroline Haddock
Caroline Haddock
“I’m sorry if I look a bit bruised but I’ve been trying to capture a calf, such are the delights of farming!”
Caroline Haddock is a beef, sheep and arable farmer who, with her husband Richard, runs three farms in the countryside surrounding Kingswear – at Colleton Barton, Lupton and Churston.
But she is probably best known for the popular Churston Farm Shop, which she and Richard opened together two and a half years ago, and which they now have plans to expand by adding a garden centre and café.
“Richard and I are real foodies and we always wanted to branch out into food. Being farmers we are always looking for different ways to sell our produce, and anything that is not ours we try to source locally.
“All the beef and lamb in the shop is our own, the pork comes from Blackawton, we make all the pies and quiches for the deli counter in our own kitchen, and as much as we can of everything we buy locally.”
Caroline said the Churston Farm Shop was deliberately not too expensive, going against the reputation of farm shops generally. “We try to keep prices down as much as possible and our milk is cheaper than leading supermarkets. We make constant price comparisons, but our main aim is to stock things that you cannot get in a supermarket.
“We are also seeing a return to old ways of shopping. People want to be able to buy 2oz of cheese or one sausage and not a huge packet. At our shop, they can!”
Anyone who has followed horses, and in particular eventing, will remember Caroline as Caroline Moore, a leading rider in dressage, show jumping and cross country events. With her horse, Saga, she won numerous competitions, travelling the UK and internationally.
“Horses were my life and eventing dominated everything,” Caroline said. “I grew up near Stithians in Cornwall and always had horses. I ran a big event yard there. I did a lot of dressage and rode for England when I was 17 or 18. Then I got the eventing bug and for years it was a way of life. “We had liveries and the owners would come with us, camping all together and joining in the celebrations when their horses did well. We went to Burghley, Badminton, all the big events, until the sport got too competitive and the big money involved pushed people like us out to the side.
“These days I keep three brood mares, and at the moment we have a very lovely foal. I would like to get back into showing but I never ride now. I don’t even have a happy hacker. The traffic is so much busier these days, it puts me off, even in the lanes.
“I’m proud of my success with horses. Myself and a couple of others were responsible for really widening the interest in dressage and eventing across Cornwall and Devon.
“But I am too busy for all that at the moment with all our plans and ideas for developing the Farm Shop.”
First published July 2010 By the Dart