Our Story

The farm is owned by Ollie, Nikki and their 2 children Emilija and Tobias Lake. We have next to none farming background but have always loved animals and this is our story

Starting Small …

June 1, 2015

Moved into Dallas village and rented a local 3 acre field for 2 horses, a couple pigs to rear for meat for ourselves and family, ducks and chickens for eggs and then a couple of goats. Soon realised we wanted to own 10-15 acres to be self-sufficient as much as possible.

We buy our own Farm

April 7, 2017

After long searches and a bit of luck we heard that Blackmyre farm was going to be going onto the market very soon, so begged and borrowed from banks and family to purchase Blackmyre farm which had 47acres of land and various outbuilding. A lot more than we could ever of hoped for.

Sheep for a Wedding Present

May 1, 2017

We got married in Dallas and bought a flock of sheep as a wedding present ready for moving into the farm in July

Decisions, decisions!

July 31, 2017

We had too much land to be just self-sufficient so we decided to sell our produce to the public but what animal do we get?? Ollie remembered having a buffalo burger when he was a child and decided to search for buffalo in Scotland. He contacted Steve Mitchell from Kirckcaldy who has about 200 buffalo and got a personal response from him and he invited Ollie down to see the buffalo.

Buffalo Farm Visit

August 31, 2017

We visit the Buffalo Farm and fell in love with buffalo, their personalities, affection, and just how amazing they are in every way. Ollie returned home with 3 pregnant cows and a young bull which were delivered a week later.

What do we call our new business?

November 1, 2017

We need a name! If our youngest child Tobias was a girl he would have been named Thora after my Granny and Nikki’s maiden name before we married was Bell. So …. we decided to put both together and came up THORABELLA. Our business was born!

And we grow!

December 1, 2017

We now have pigs, sheep, goats and chickens on the farm as well as our buffalo!

It’s coming together!

January 4, 2018

A lot of time spent learning and building our business and what worked for us and what didn’t. We got lots of help from local farmers which was invaluable information as we are always learning.

And we start selling!

January 8, 2018

We have started selling mainly buffalo meat from the farm with the help of Facebook and word of mouth, while customers have come to collect their produce from the farm we offer them the opportunity to come see the buffalo.

Thorabella improvements

January 3, 2019

We applied for funding from the Forestry Commission and PUR Funding to plant 1200m of hedgerows and 4500 native tree planation on site to help with shelter, forage and soil stability for our animals and all creatures large and small. Couldn’t have done it without our army of volunteers!

Straw Bale Farm House

January 9, 2019

Planning permission obtained to build a straw bale farm house on the farm on old ruins from the 1800’s which Ollie will be planning to build majority of it himself.