Karl Franklin

Karl left school at 16, going straight into an apprenticeship training to become a fully qualified chef. He worked in various sectors of the catering industry full time until he was 23, being in the position of head chef for the last 12 months at a local two rosette restaurant.

Alongside his passion for cooking and food, Karl has a love of animals and the great outdoors. In 2016, whilst still working as a chef, Karl set up his own business KF Produce, Gardening and Catering. The main aim was to provide local people with locally reared and sourced produce.

Karl purchased his first flock of 12 store lambs in late 2015 to do just that. He reared the lambs over the next 6 months, then sold off their meat to neighbours, family and friends.

Each year Karl still purchases a flock of store lambs to rear for meat but the number has now increased to 40 as of 2019. Karl has fully thrown himself into the farming side of the business, now looking after 60 acres of fields for various local individuals year-round, hand rearing orphaned lambs for a near-by farmer and making hay in all his fields in the summer. He likes to share his day-to-day work and fun on his Instagram, going by the name The Pretend Farmer!

Having grown up with little to no farming knowledge this has been a great learning process for Karl, full of brilliant experiences and many hurdles!

Karl lives in the small village of Hailey, near Oxford on the outskirts of the Cotswolds with his parents, younger sister and Jack Russells, Tippy and Bramble.