Jim is the oldest of the family and his real name is Ronald but everybody calls him 'Jim'.
Jim learnt his farming as a youngster in Bedfordshire working on a local farm. He did not stay in farming but became a teacher specialising in Biology.
After a period of time running Trinity FE Centre in Carlisle, Jim finally retired from teaching, came to Cornwall and bought Pengoon Farm.
He had to learn how to milk again and how to survive on the minimal income of a small holding. The mere existence of Pengoon is proof of lessons well learnt even if they were sometimes very hard.
Following an illness a few of years ago, Jim has had to 'take things a bit easier' - not that you would notice much difference. As part of taking it easier, the dairy herd has been slightly reduced and more emphasis put on to the caravan side.
Edna is Jim's wife and the organiser of the family. She has many important responsibilities including running the farm shop and keeping up to date with all the accounts and paperwork - both for the farm and the caravan site.
Edna helps with grading and packing the eggs ready for the next day's deliveries.
Mike is the son of Jim & Edna. He left a job in the motor trade in Carlisle to come to Cornwall with his parents. In the early days he worked in a local garage as well as maintaining the farm vehicles.
Since leaving the garage Mike has been a full time farmhand and the delivery driver for the eggs, cream and butter. Mike also helps out with the collection of the eggs (twice a day), milking the cows (twice a day) and the grading and packing. Mike married Stephanie (Steph) in September 2004.
Marianne is the daughter of Jim & Edna and Mike's older sister. She has never lived at Pengoon as she came to Cornwall a year before her parents to work in the Civil Service at St Austell. She married a Cornishman, Alan Dowling, in 1986 and in 1993 they moved to West Sussex, still in the Civil Service. Alan maintains the web pages for the farm, which he does as part of his
web design business.
They try to get down to Cornwall at least once every year.
As so many school holidays had been spent in a touring caravan, mainly in parts of Cornwall, it seemed right to make use of part of the farmland as a Caravan Club Certified Location with permission to take up to 5 caravans at a time.
The original livestock comprised about 500 free range chickens, a few dairy cows and a couple of pigs. After a few years it became evident that there was no money in pigs on a small scale and so they had to go.
After a few disasters with egg wholesale firms, it was decided to try their own marketing locally. After canvassing some local shops, restaurants and guesthouses the weekly delivery rounds were started.
As the reputation of Pengoon Farm Free Range Eggs grew, so did the delivery round. Today that weekly round has become a different round on each of six days every week. Regular customers are spread from Truro across to Newquay and down to Lands End.
The 5 pitch caravan site has now become a 25 pitch caravan site and a new shower block was completed at the end of 1999 ready for the 2000 season.
