Tom and his wife, Bethan, farm in partnership on their family farm in rural mid Wales, running a flock of over 500 ewes. Together, they share three children; Meia, 12, Elsa, 10 and Emrys, 5, who the couple are passionate about involving in every aspect of their family business. Both Tom and Bethan work part time off farm, with Bethan teaching at a local primary school and Tom working in Quality Assurance.
The couple have been farming their upland farm just outside of Aberystwyth since 2010, and have been involved in a number of projects to improve soil health, to increase grass utilisation and to improve forage quality over the years. As a result, the farm now adopts a rotational grazing system, which has significantly increased stock as well as greatly improving the grassland.
In addition to all of the investment and improvements made on farm to increase efficiency and reduce input costs, the family have also been busy diversifying the farm, involving their children and the local community as much as possible along the way. In the autumn of 2021, Bethan and a friend visited a pumpkin patch with their children and returned to the family farm full of exciting ideas to replicate a similar venture on their land.
Tom recalls,
“I thought they were bonkers at the time! But, we went with it and did a lot of research that winter. Nowhere around us had a pumpkin patch so there was potential there. We planted around 7,000 plants in the May of 2022 and opened the pumpkin patch in October 2022.”
The planting process was highly labour intensive, with each seed being hand-sewn – but the whole family got stuck in, including the couple’s two eldest children. This family working ethos has continued over the past three years, with the children being involved in the running of the pumpkin patch; from offering lucky dips and face painting to manning the payment kiosk. It is this ethos of working together as a family, and supporting the local community that resulted in the family being named winners of the Royal Countryside Fund’s Family Farm Award for England and Wales in the annual M&S Select Farm Awards in the summer of 2024. The judges admired Tom and Bethan’s enthusiasm for involving the whole family in their farming business as well as their support for the local community.
Speaking about receiving this huge accolade, Tom commented:
“From a farming perspective, we really appreciate it when the retailers who are buying the stock off us acknowledge what we’re doing – we’re not just a number, they show an interest in what we are trying to do.”
Tom and Bethan made a conscious effort to use resources from the local community when setting up the pumpkin patch, with a local catering van and staff sourced from within a short distance of the farm. This ethos also extends to their second diversification project – a trio of luxury glamping pods.
The couple were committed to only using local contractors, plumbers and electricians to construct the glamping pods and now involve their two daughters in maintaining the pods, cleaning the hot tubs and changing the linen. A luxury getaway at the farm’s glamping pods also includes a breakfast box of local produce, which includes milk from a dairy farm and meat from a local butcher – again highlighting the family’s passion for supporting the local rural economy. The glamping pods have been hugely successful, exceeding the couple’s expectations and have even recently been awarded ‘Best Property in Mid and South Wales’ and received a bronze award for the Best UK Newcomer through Sykes.
All of this alongside producing some of the very best Welsh Lamb – we can’t wait to see what’s next for the Evans family!