Sam’s Meat Roasts is a family run business founded in 1998 by Simon Greenhalgh (pictured on left, known to all as Sam).
The business was born when Sam was unable to sell his rare breed pigs at Hereford Market & noticed a banner advertising a Medieval Festival. He booked a stall, returned to the farm & built his first Hog Roast oven.
He attended the festival that weekend & his very first customer was Prince Charles!
Sam subsequently saw the gap in the mobile catering market – a specialist hog roast business. He used his own naturally-reared, free range, rare breed Iron Age pigs (crossed from wild boar and Tamworth pigs) to give a sensational old-fashioned flavour. He was at the fore front of Farmers Markets in Wales.
Sam provided the hog roast mobile catering across a number of market segments: farmers markets, food fairs and festivals, private functions, corporate events and music festivals for the last 22 years.
The passion & mission of the family is to make great tasting natural meat available & accessible for all.
Sam’s family also has a history of owning & supplying their own butchers shops – hence moving into raw meat sales was a natural progression.
Sam & his wife Sarah developed a range of gourmet burgers to sell along side the roast meats. These are no ordinary burgers – they are made using prime cuts from their 100% pasture-fed, free range, hand bred & reared, Water Buffalo & Torwen Badger Face Mountain Lamb.
In addition the range includes Wild Fallow Venison that runs through their other small farm woods at Golden Grove & Wild Pheasant from the Talley Shoot next to the farm near LLandeilo.
The farm today
In 2005 Sam introduced a small herd of Romanian Water Buffalo to the farm, later followed by Italian Water Buffalo. This, alongside the slow roasted pork, provided another rare breed choice for consumers.
The farm is now around 65 acres with a mixture of woodland, rush fields and clover rich meadows. No fertilizers have been used for over 2 decades! We meet the criteria for organic certification although we haven’t applied.
We have the Romanian water buffalo herd and they’ve had their calves. Both the water buffalo and the Iron Age pigs are considered rare breeds. Another unusual breed we have is is the Torwen Badger Face Sheep!
Whilst not rare, fortunately, these are one of the most ancient breeds of Welsh Mountain Sheep. They are renowned for their sweet flavor & lean fine grain meat. They were awarded the much-coveted Great Taste Award for their lamb meat in August 2017.
Other really Wild Meats locally sourced by us
Wild game meats have a number of health benefits when compared to meats from domesticated or farm-raised animals.
Wild animals eat their natural diet and live active lives so their meat tends to have a lower fat content. Eating greens in the wild means the meat contains lower levels of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids, as well as higher levels of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids.
So it’s a win-win for the customer – healthy animals make healthy meat!
The wild meats we source are local Welsh wild venison and pheasants.
The venison comes from fallow deer. We source from Golden Grove; a woodland area including our woods on the farm there. The local wild pheasants are sourced from Edwinsford Estate Shoot in Talley.
Our ethos
We are passionate people who care deeply about the quality of food we produce. Our thinking is
“If we wouldn’t eat it why should anyone else?
All our meat is butchered here on the farm and is packed and prepared by us. We have a comprehensive range of raw meat – all bred, reared, butchered and packed on our farm.
All our meat is free from Gluten, Nitrates, Growth Hormones, Anti-Biotics, artificial flavours, colours or any other “nasty’s” – the meat is totally “clean” & consequently all that is added is fresh seasoning – nothing else at all!
Water Buffalo meat is the Number 1 healthiest red meat (even healthier than Wild Venison) with 50% less fat, 50% more protein & 148 less calories per 3oz serving than beef. This can be even higher when 100% grass fed (as ours are).
The welfare of our animals is absolutely our first priority. As they are born on our farm we know them their whole lives – everything is fully traceable. Provenance guaranteed!
There is no food chain involved as the animals roam wild across the meadows. The abattoir is only 28 miles away so there is minimal transport involved.