The idea for Padstow Pasta came about in quite a funny way. We’ve always grown cereals and reared sheep, but when we opened the farm shop 15 years ago, we decided to rear cattle and pigs, too.



From there, we started making our own sausages, which we call Padstow Porkers. We liked the alliterative name so when we started thinking of other fine products which would sit within our range, we hit upon the idea of Padstow Pasta…



As a farmer, Charlie was always looking for a new challenge and, in spite of knowing nothing about pasta, he decided to buy some Durum wheat seeds.



That first year, we approached pasta like any other commercial crop and focused on quantity. The yield was great, but the quality was poor. The following year, we planted the seed much more thinly so the grains saw lots more sun – the results were fantastic, and have been ever since.



Another local farm agreed to help us with the milling. Initially, we ground the first batch really fine, and it just didn’t work – if the flour is too fine, it doesn’t bind properly when water is added.



Subsequent batches of flour were milled at a variety of different grades which, when combined, worked beautifully; we invested in a small-scale pasta machine high quality brass dies to cut the pasta.



Trying hard not to mimic mass produced supermarket pasta, ours is like proper Italian pasta which has a rough finish – just perfect for ensuring the sauce sticks to it!