EP79 | Helen Stewart | Pigs, Poultry & Produce | Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan are joined by farmer and trained shepherdess Helen Stewart for a conversation about farming, food, family heritage and what it really takes to get something from farm to fork.

Helen’s family have been farming on Lizard Lane since 1965, on land that once housed hundreds of soldiers during the Second World War. From her grandfather delivering milk around South Shields by horse and cart to Helen now running livestock, selling eggs and building the next chapter of the farm, it’s a story rooted deeply in place.

We talk about growing up around agriculture, training as a shepherdess, taking on her own flock and the reality of running a farm where there are no days off and you only get paid when you actually produce something.

Helen takes us inside the world most of us never see — lambing, vaccinating, fly strike, shearing, fluctuating livestock prices, abattoirs, local butchers and why keeping a short, traceable food chain matters.

There’s also the story of Alan, the farm’s much-loved and completely uneconomical sheep, pigs called Sharon and Tracy, 280 eggs a day, why fresh eggs really are different and Helen’s passion for helping people understand where their food actually comes from.

And unsurprisingly, eggs take over a large portion of the conversation.

There are boiled egg WhatsApp groups, egg decorating competitions, poaching techniques, double yolkers, egg facts, 84-egg stockpiles and some surprisingly detailed debate about exactly how many fried eggs is too many.

Add in pig facts, black pudding, sausages, farmyard mishaps, Greggs orders and plans to bring sheep into South Shields Market, and it’s Local Heroes at its most gloriously unpredictable.

Funny, fascinating and full of things you probably never knew about the food on your plate — a conversation about farming, heritage, animal welfare, local food and keeping generations of knowledge alive.