When Abby Allen started working at Pipers Farm in Devon in 2012, at the age of 24, its social-media offering was pretty well nonexistent. She immediately recognised the potential of the 50-acre family farm on the edge of Exmoor. “From the office you’d see the Devon red rubies [cattle] grazing on wildflowers, butterflies, hedgerows and, as the seasons changed, I used to think, ‘All we need to do is show people this!’” she exclaims.
“Then there’s the community and characters on the farm, and the trials and tribulations,” Allen continues. “It was a no-brainer that we would use social media as a window into what we do. I sometimes joke that I’ve got the easiest job in the world as marketing director, because all I have to do is point a camera. There’s nothing that needs to be manufactured.”
Pipers Farm was founded in 1989 by Peter and Henri Greig, and Allen’s right, the story is a cracker. Peter Greig’s father was a pioneer of industrial chicken farming, meaning Peter grew up around gigantic sheds housing thousands of birds. He decided he wanted to farm differently: at Pipers, native breeds of cattle, sheep and chickens graze on rich, permanent pasture. The Greigs have also built relationships with 40 local, small-scale farmers whose produce they supply through their website.
Greig admits he is an “IT numpty”, so it’s Allen’s job to showcase what Pipers is doing on its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, where it has 39,000 followers. Judging by the readers’ vote for Best Social Media, the message is getting across. Many posts depict a wholesome bucolic idyll, or Greig’s trademark photos of cowpats, but the pair are adamant that all aspects of farming livestock should be depicted: for example, the crisis facing local abattoirs and what this means for “traceable” meat.
“Traditionally, butchers and farmers, especially in industrialised systems of farming, didn’t want to show people what they were doing,” says Allen. “I feel that Pipers is the antidote of this: we want to be as real as possible. With this whole conscious consuming of meat, you absolutely need to know all of the steps in the chain. You need to know how your food is being produced.”
“It’s exciting, dynamic, real,” adds Greig. “This is an environment where real food is being produced, and shit happens. But magic happens also.”
With regard to the consumption of meat, the Pipers Farm ethos, perhaps counterintuitively, is “less but better”. “Our job isn’t to tell people that they need to eat meat. I’m not a meat lobbyist,” says Allen. “Veganism has actually been an amazing thing for us because it’s made people think about what they’re putting into their body. Why are they buying this thing?”
Pipers Farm has recently published a book, The Sustainable Meat Cookbook, which Greig calls “Instagram with knobs on”. They will continue being a voice for local, small-scale farming on social media. What about TikTok? “I would like to look at TikTok as it potentially brings regenerative agriculture to a younger audience who have the ability to make change,” says Allen. “But there is also something about it that I find challenging, this culture of relentless content that is quickly delivered and then swiped past.
“For us, social is about having a positive impact,” she continues, with clear determination, “but never say never.”
A recipe from the winner of OFM’s Best Social Media
Pot-roast chicken with fennel and cider broth
There are few things in life more welcoming than the scent of a roast chicken – it has to be the ultimate comfort food, the sort of dish that brings people together around the kitchen table. This recipe is good-mood food, and good-mood cooking, too. You just throw everything in the pot and let it roast away merrily. A wonderfully simple way to honour a whole bird.
Serves 4
free-range chicken 1.5kg
olive oil
fennel bulbs 2, quartered
shallots 4, halved
garlic 4 cloves, bashed
bay leaves a small handful
sage leaves a small handful
rosemary 2 sprigs
dry cider 400ml
chicken stock 500ml
pure sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 160C fan/gas mark 4.
Take a solid, lidded casserole dish and place it over a high heat. Generously oil and season the chicken with salt and pepper, making sure you also season the inside of the cavity.
Place into the smoking hot casserole dish and carefully fry the chicken, moving it around in the dish with a pair of tongs. You want to get the outside of the skin lovely and brown – this will take 7-8 minutes.
To the casserole dish, add the fennel, shallots, garlic and herbs. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove the casserole dish from the oven and add the cider and chicken stock, put the lid on and return to the oven for a further 45 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and carefully remove the whole chicken using a pair of tongs. Leave the bird to rest for 10 minutes. Taste the chicken and cider broth and adjust the seasoning as required.
Carve the chicken and serve with the braised fennel and broth. Enjoy with aioli and a slice of sourdough bread.
From Pipers Farm: The Sustainable Meat Cookbook by Abby Allen & Rachel Lovell (Kyle Books, £30). To buy a copy for £26.10, go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
