our story

We are a young family who slowly and unintentionally started up a smallholding on an unlikely patch of unused land, here in the Rossendale Valley. 

This land was mistreated for many years and its only use was for local fly tipping, it had a low grazing yield and was over grown with reeds and strangled with deep moss. At the heart of this patch of forgotten hillside is an Elder tree, covered in moss and leaning over ill from neglect. 

Our family sought a better way of living, a healthier way to grow, rear and eat our own food and produce. 

In this neglected land we saw our opportunity. This led to leasing the land and starting our learning journey on how best to care for it. We wanted to breathe life back into the forgotten soil. 

We used pigs and hens to turn the land and planted a herbal mix of native grasses and wild flowers suitable for grazing. We planted a native and edible hedge along the boarders, providing much need shade, wind shelter and a wildlife friendly route to the boarding woodland. It took a few years to get it going, and eventually we started to keep goats here in late 2019. They graze the hillside and hedges we've planted and we harvest our own willow and trees from surrounding woodland for them. They are also pretty good at devouring the unwanted greens from our vegetable patch and the wilted nettles from other parts of the land.  

They produce the beautiful milk that goes into making our goat milk soap and cosmetics that is enriched by this environment. 

All the activity from our chickens, ducks, goats and composting added permaculture to the land, so the health of the soil improved vastly. We are always learning and growing with the land. You can follow our journey - and meet the Goats over on our Instagram page. 

The Elder tree has bounced back, it provides us with flowers in Spring and ample berries in Autumn. Elder is the tree that symbolizes healing and regrowth and that is the story about how Herd & Elder was born.