About Us
John Ridout & Lizzie Myers joined forces in 2004 and now Huntstile is their joint family home. John has farming roots in his family going down so deep - he doesn't know if his ancestors were ever not farming! Lizzie is a keen organic gardener and loves to cook, and used to breed chickens and keep goats on the Someret Levels.
We have our own Stone Circle, spring-fed lake & woods to explore. At Huntstile we grow a variety of organic vegetables, soft fruit, herbs, flowers and combinable crops like wheat, barley, oats, and peas on over 650 acres of organic land. We also grow a small amount of organic medicinal herbs for Neals Yard and Rutand Bio-Dynamic. This year we are growing organic spelt for Sharpham Park , a Somerset producer of delicious spelt goodies such as biscuits, granola and porridge. John has small herd of British White Cattle that produce very good beef & a flock of organic chickens that lay the most delicious free-range eggs in the world - probably!
John’s father Frank began farming at Huntstile in 1951 when the Halswell Estate was dispersed. There was no electricity here at the time, so it was back to gaslights and generators for Frank. He kept chicken in the hay loft above the cafe and a mixed farm of dairy cows, sheep, pigs and arable crops. John was born in this very farmhouse (the Cream Room was the nursery then) along with 3 of his 4 sisters, and he soon became involved with every aspect of the farm.
Huntstile is the family home of John and Lizzie and all the boys – Nathaniel & Joe still live here and Richard, Tom and George come back home to visit.
Parts of the farmhouse date back to 1430, the reign of Henry VI the ‘child king’. We are rumoured to have our very own resident lady ghost, Susanna, although we have never seen her ourselves. There are some wonderful original features around Huntstile including the massive Tudor doorways, the original carvings across the main door (now the back door), the huge stone fireplace that once housed a ‘dog-wheel‘ for turning the spit and roasting a pig, and the beautiful wide exposed elms beams and floor boards (more History of Huntstile)
Eating together is important! We are both passionate about locally grown, well-produced, quality food – our lives revolve around it. Preparing, cooking and sharing good food with our friends and family is one of our favourite ways to spend time. We enjoy sourcing good food and serving it to guests, friends, family – we don’t go looking for special ‘awards’ but we do spend time making sure that what we eat is good for us.
Come to one of our Open Days in the summer and try one of Lizzie’s delicious cream teas, made with our own homegrown organic strawberries – they actually taste of strawberries! Huntstile is one of 5 local organic food producers – we try and grow all our salad and vegetables here and source all other produce in the vicinity, organically grown and local. Real food produced by real people.
Huntstile has become a popular B&B and is a lovely place for hosting parties and wedding receptions. The 14th century farmhouse and pretty gardens provide the perfect setting for an English country wedding. We can have bunting in the garden, fairylights in the trees and wooden tressles to serve afternoon tea among the flowers. Huntstile has an excellent team and we do all our catering in-house – apart from the incredibly good organic cheesecakes that David & Isobel Shute (the Organic Patisserie in Bridgwater) provide - tasting is believing! If you’re very lucky you can sample these on our open Farm Sundays, the second Sunday of June each year, or come along to one of our local food events where local produce, such as these wonderful desserts, are highlighted at their best.
We cater for all sorts of events and have robust and tasty menus for all occasions from huge medieval banquets to hog roasts, bar-b-que grilles, vegetarian feasts to the beautiful afternoon teas with exquisite little cakes and superb scones, warm from the oven with sweet homemade jam and fresh cream. We try and buy from other local organic farms where possible, Stream Farm in Broomfield provide the organic pork for our marvellous breakfast sausages, Plowright Organic (Richard Plowright) at Over Stowey, is a fabulous organic veg grower who tirelessly turns over the soil and produces the most flavoursome carrots and kale that John and I have ever eaten. Our delicious eggs are home-grown of course – as are most of the salad, calabrese, potatoes and all the pretty edible flowers that adorn our dishes.
Recently we have incorporated fully vegan options into our menus. See these beautiful little cakes below ? 100% vegan and utterly delicous!
We have also increased our vegetarian menus over the last few years as more and more guests are leaning towards veggie options. Speaking of which, there is an excellent book called “Stuffed” published by Sawday’s and the Soil Association, all about a low meat consumption economy – if you haven’t read it – do, it’s a very interesting read. Having said all that, neither John or I, or the boys are veggie yet, but we do really enjoy good vegetarian food.
Although we are not open to the public on a daily basis, you can book in for lunch or supper with a small party of 10 or more guests and we love children and dogs-on-leads coming to visit us to have a picnic and see the animals – so why not Get In Touch?
