Fancy living the Good Life in Cornwall? Here's how.....

If there’s one thing that defines a Cornish summer, it is the thought of a cream tea with lashings of fresh clotted cream and a large bowl of ripe local strawberries to tuck into.  If your cream tea was enjoyed near the Lizard Peninsula, it may well be that those strawberries were grown at Grange Farm

Fernly and Maralyn Curnow have lived near Gweek all of their lives and decided, in 1992, to build a home and plant a few strawberries on the land.  With a background in agriculture and a love of the land, Fernly was perfectly placed to start his enterprise. Over the years, they have run a B&B, served cream teas on the lawn and established a local restaurant. 

Their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit has paid off and today they run a successful business which sells strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries to a wholesaler for distribution in local shops. “We have a number of polytunnels which keeps everything dry and a watering system which saves us watering by hand” says Maralyn.  Despite the poor weather at the beginning of this year, they are looking at a bumper crop this season “I’ve got so many raspberries, I’m not sure how I’m going to pick them all!” says Fernly.  “We planted apple, plum and pear trees recently and last year, Fernly made 54 bottles of wine from our own vines” continues Maralyn

Now the Curnow’s would like to enjoy the fruits of their labours and spend more time with their family. “It’s time to move on and hand the business over to someone else” Maralyn explained “We’ve enjoyed it so much and met many lovely, friendly people over the years” Fernly concludes “We are so grateful to everyone who has supported us and we want to say a big ‘Thank you’.  However I’m looking forward to having a bit more time with my grandchildren”.  They have joined the National Trust and are relishing the prospect of spending more time visiting gardens and on Coverack Beach, perhaps even enjoying a cream tea.