Call in at Blackberry Lane Farm Shop and

you are likely to find Stephen Brooks watering his fruit garden

or picking pesky snails from his vegetable patch.

Happy to help you find what you need, Stephen encourages his

customers to choose their own fruit and vegetables straight

from the field, and he will even keep youngsters occupied by

offering them a handful of corn to feed the hens.Within the

confines of just four acres of sloping land on the edge of

Lapford, Stephen and his wife Lin have done wonders with the

smallholding, which was partially overgrown when they moved in

just before Christmas last year. They are hoping to make a

living selling their own produce.

Runner beans, peppers, cucumber, herbs, watermelon,

strawberries, carrots, parsnips, blackberries - the

mouthwatering list of freshly grown grub is extensive. Stephen

also sells eggs from his own hens and locally made clotted

cream and milk, and Lin makes delicious breads, cakes, scones,

jams and chutneys using her grandmother's heavily guarded

recipes.

"main2">But Stephen, who has been in farming all of his working

life, said that several years ago he swore he would never work

for himself again.

"I came to Devon seven years ago with nothing, having just lost

everything in farming," he said. "I just picked up and carried

on, doing various jobs in agriculture. And now here I am

working for myself again!

"Lin and I wanted a smallholding and we came to look at this

one on a very wet and windy day and we fell in love with

it."

Stephen gets up at 6am every day to let out the hens and water

the greenhouses, and works late into the evening.

"There is always something to do, but I love working for myself

because I'm doing it for me and no one else," he said. "It is

that sense of achieving something all the time.

"I know it is a business, but it is also a labour of love, and

you get enthused by it. It is nice when people come back and

say how much they enjoyed something, it's a great feeling."

Some of Stephen's chickens may look as if they are suffering

from the poultry equivalent of alopecia but actually, they are

probably healthier than they have ever been before.

The birds are ex-battery hens otherwise destined for dog food.

They arrive completely bald, and though many grow full coats of

feathers, some retain odd patches of skin.

"It was sad really," said Stephen. "We got them in late at

night and the next day we let them out and all these little

bald things came out. They looked more like oven-ready chickens

with legs.

"They didn't know what they were standing on, they had never

experienced grass before, and they did not know how to roost

either, they were all sitting on the floor."

Stephen could buy normal chickens, but he says that if these

can feel the grass under their feet before they die, having

hens who don't necessarily lay as effectively is well worth

it.

"These chickens are in these big houses of maybe 12,000 and

don't see any daylight and have nothing to scratch in," he

said. "So we just think if we are going to have chickens, this

is a nicer way to do it.

"Now they like to fly off from their perches and come out of

the house like lightning. They really make a noise if I'm

late!

"I just love to watch them scratching. I have grown very

attached to them."

Stephen is hoping to buy a few more hens, along with turkeys

and geese to fatten for meat.

He said: "The idea is that people can come here and pick the

bird they want, and we'll have it slaughtered for them."

Soon the strawberries at Blackberry Lane will be ripening, and

over the summer there will be an abundance of berries and

vegetables for sale.

"With our vegetables we have stuck to a good mix of

old-fashioned varieties," said Stephen. "We find that, although

they may not look as nice and are a pain to grow, they are much

more flavoursome than the newer ones which have been bred to be

resistant and to look good.

"We are interested in taste because at the end of the day we

are going to eat it too."

Eventually, Stephen and Lin would like to get a few sheep and

cattle, but that depends on whether on not they can get more

ground.

For now, the couple are focusing on bringing the remaining two

acres into cultivation and are considering the possibility of

turning the bottom field into a pick-your-own area.

"This year is trial and error because you don't know what

people want," said Stephen. "We are trying to make it so that

people who come can get everything they need."

The shop is open nearly every day, but even if the sign reads

closed, Stephen doesn't mind customers popping in.

"We tell people to call in anyway, because if one of us is

here, they can have what they want," he said. "Quite often

locals will turn up at 7.30pm and I just tell them to pick a

knife and take what they want themselves!"

Details: Blackberry Lane Farm Shop, Lapford, EX17 6LY, 01363

83389. Box schemes are available.