touch & taste & savour
Sussex Breakfast
The Sussex Breakfast is made from quality ingredients sourced direct from Sussex producers or purchased from farm shops that are supplied by local farmers and craft producers. Visitors can enjoy milk from local small dairies, free-range eggs, sausages, dry cured bacon, apple juice, seasonal fruit, and tasty jams, mustards and marmalades. Caring animals husbandry and respect for the Sussex landscape and wildlife is a central part of the ethos of the Sussex Breakfast.
By staying at accommodation that serves a Sussex Breakfast you will enjoy delicious food and support farmers who perserve and maintain the beautiful patchwork of fields and woods that is characteristic of the Sussex countryside.
Items that make up the Sussex Breakfast are in the following list. Some items are seasonal and some may not be available locally to the accommodation - but for many items there will be a story to tell!
- Free range eggs
- Sausages made from free-range pork
- Bacon, dry cured streaky or back made from free-range pork
- Milk from cows grazed outdoors and locally processed
- Yogurt; Cheese
- Bread or rolls
- Seasonal fruit; Apple Juice
- Mushrooms (from West Sussex or Kent)
- Tomatoes (sourced locally when in season)
- Honey/jams/condiments
- Accommodation in 1066 Country who are a Sussex Breakfast provider
- Local Farm Producers
Where can I get a Sussex Breakfast?
The 1066 accommodation providers listed below will serve you with a Sussex Breakfast that is made from at least 60% of local, seasonal ingredients. These would have been sourced direct from the producer or from farm shops that are supplied by local farmers and craft processors. You will taste the difference!
Battle
Bexhill
Hastings
Rye
Surrounding Area
Local Farm Producers
One of the aims of the Sussex Breakfast initiative is to support small farm businesses that are producing to high animal welfare and environmental standards. The following businesses include rearing pigs in the woods, traditional dairy farming and traditional mixed livestock farming methods as daily practice.
Tom and Sams
Upper Wilting Farm near the village of Crowhurst, Battle, is perched on the top of a hill with beautiful views to the sea at St Leonards. The well drained, wooded slopes are ideal for rearing pigs.
Tom and Sam, two young lads from East Sussex, started their own business in 2002 rearing free range turkeys and geese. Tom and Sam's Quality Produce now also supplies Gloucester Old Spot pork and sausages. Tom and Sam have fifteen breeding sows. The pigs farrow (give birth) naturally in an old orchard and when the piglets are weaned they are moved to range freely and root around in large fenced areas in the woods.
Tom and Sam's Quality Produce can be bought direct from the farm (look out for their large pink pig sign) or at Battle Farmer's Market. Deliveries to the local area can also be arranged.
Contact Details:
Upper Wilting Farm, Crowhurst Road, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex TN38 8EG
Saturday and Sundays
Telephone: 01424 830613
E-mail: tomandsamsqp@yahoo.co.uk
Where to buy Redlays Farm dairy produce:
Battle Farmers Market: 3rd Saturday of the month, 10am - 1pm
Redlays Farm
Redlays Farm is situated between the villages of Westfield and Sedlescombe in East Sussex. It is a partnership dairy enterprise owned by Robert Douglas and Alistair and Lesley Byford-Bates. The 82 acre holding has been a dairy farm for over 20 years.
The pedigree milking herd is made up of forty Ayrshire's, a beautiful white and red/brown native breed and ten Guernsey cows, a Channel Island breed that gives a rich golden coloured milk. The cows are out feeding on grass all summer and in winter their feed includes forage grown on the farm.
Redlays farm sells a range of delicious products developed and processed in the dairy. As well as full cream and semi skimmed milk, these include yoghurt, cream, crème fraîche, soft cheese, fudge and cream-based puddings.
If you are passing, you can purchase Redlays Farm produce at any time from the porch fridge. They welcome calls for orders (if possible, please give three days notice as orders are made up as fresh as possible).
Contact Details:
Douglas Partners, Redlays Farm, Cottage Lane, Westfield, Hastings, East Sussex TN35 4RR
Telephone/Fax: 01424 870696
E-mail: redlaysfarm@tiscali.co.uk
Where to buy Redlays Farm dairy produce:
Brede Farmers Market (in the village hall): Fridays, 10am - 12noon.
Edgerton Farmers Market (in the village hall): Fridays, 2pm - 4.30pm.
Blackheath Farmers Market London (Blackheath railway station car park): Sundays, 10am - 2pm.
Buster's Farm Produce
Andrew Hoad's family have farmed at Parsonage Farm, Salehurst, near Robertsbridge for over a hundred years. The beautiful 400 acre farm on the edge of the East Sussex High Weald was traditionally a hop farm. Today, as well as a few acres of hops, the farm rears a single suckler herd of 80 Sussex cattle, a flock of 200 sheep and a small herd of pigs.
The sheep and cattle graze the hilly slopes and in winter are fed on fodder grown on the farm. The pigs are reared on straw, in an open sided barn, with plenty of natural light and air. They are fed on gm-free pigs nuts. The four sows (Berkshires and native cross breeds) make deep nests of straw and farrow (give birth to their young) naturally. The little piglets run freely around their pens and the boar is moved between the families as needed!
Beef, lamb and pork are sold under the name 'Buster's Farm Produce'. Buster is the name that Andrew's father was known by. His tall figure walking across the fields was a familiar sight to many local residents and is silhouetted on the farm shop logo. Buster's Farm Produce sausages and bacon are hand made by a butcher on the farm and sold from the farm or through Ringden Farm Shop in Hurst Green.
Andrew also makes traditional pork pies, sausage rolls, steak and ale pies, and a range of delicious sausages. If you would like a taste of any of these then visit the farm shop or pop into the nearby restaurant in the village pub (the Salehurst Halt) to sample a meal made from Buster's Farm Produce.
Range of sausages produced:
Traditional pork; Breakfast pork; Pork and Apple; Pork and Leek; Chipolatas; Old English Beef; Lamb and Apricot; Venison and Red Wine
Contact details:
Buster's Farm Produce, Salehurst, Robertsbridge, East Sussex TN32 5PJ
Telephone: 01580 882020
Where to buy Redlays Farm dairy produce:
The Salehurst Halt pub and restaurant, Church Lane, Salehurst, nr. Robertsbridge. Telephone 01580 880620
Ringden Farm Shop, London Road, Hurst Green, Etchingham, Sussex. Telephone 01580 879385