Even on the hottest of days as the sun beats down on the rolling hills of Monmouthshire the sizzling burgers are flying out at The Pig and Apple, a modest restaurant on Kate Humble’s 117-acre farm. The idyllic sea of green a stone’s throw from the sleepy village of Penallt is home to 200 breeding ewes, a suckler herd of cattle, native breed sheep, donkeys, goats, pigs, and chickens, and now some of the most popular independent locally-sourced patties in Wales.
Nestled in the country lanes beside the border it isn’t really the sort of place you stumble on – but young couple Jake Feakins and Jess Stephens have worked hard to get the word out here of their meaty creations. Not that they needed to worry – their talking has been done in the kitchen and people have noticed.
The pair, who met while cooking at nearby Haberdashers’ School for Boys in 2016, didn’t like each other at first. Working together for two years they laugh while remembering how they hardly spoke to each other before Jess left for Camp America and Jake travelled for a year in Australia but on their return to Monmouth all of that changed.
