Meet the chicken farmers

Since 1939, six generations of the Tuft family have been farming 230 acres, keeping 14,000 organic and free range chickens as well as beef cattle and sheep.

John Tuft has been a Waitrose Duchy Organic chicken farmer since 2011: “We wanted to grow the business, so we went into poultry. Not putting all our eggs in one basket, you might say! And I love the variety of life.”

From 8am to 10pm, the Tuft chickens are let out to roam. There are four square metres of land per bird outside, and plenty of space to behave as nature intended inside, too.

“We want to get the word out that [organic produce] is on your doorstep and it’s worth the money – our approach is as natural as it possibly can be,” says John’s son, Jonathan.

And as a proud father of four, with a daughter who wants to be a farmer or vet, he promises: “Generation to generation, we’ll be keeping the business in the family.”