Bramshaw butchery and farm shop The Farmers Butcher has won this year’s New Forest National Park Award for Best Supporter of Local Produce, recognising owners Mike and Sarah Alexander for their work championing small producers across the area.
Now in their 13th year, the annual awards, run by the New Forest National Park Authority and Country Land and Business Association (CLA), celebrate the people whose dedication helps keep the New Forest thriving, from conservationists and businesses to Commoners, volunteers and young people making a difference.
The couple took over the business in 2018. At the time, it was a wholesale butcher supplying local hotels and restaurants. Since then, Mike and Sarah have transformed it into a retail butcher and a full farm shop stocking the best local produce the New Forest has to offer.
Supporting the wider rural economy sits at the centre of the business. Mike Alexander said: ‘Without our small local artisan producers there would be fewer jobs in the countryside for local people, less money going into the local communities, less choice for the individual, and a decline in countryside heritage.’
Mike and Sarah have built close, personal relationships with the farmers and producers they work with and regularly invite them into the shop to meet customers directly. Discussing how the shop chooses suppliers, Mike said: ‘Personal contact with our suppliers is very important to us, a name, a face, a story… it creates communities within business.’
The shop’s calendar reflects that ethos, with regular markets, pop-up cafes, tasting sessions and ‘Meet the Producer’ days putting individual suppliers in the spotlight.
On the shelves, shoppers will find New Forest beef, lamb, seasonal wild venison and pannage pork, alongside honey, wine, baked goods and condiments from other local makers.
Mike said: ‘The search for new suppliers never stops. We are always looking to connect with like-minded smaller businesses throughout the New Forest and beyond. When we are out and about, we are on the lookout for products we feel would fit with us and our ethos.’