From Scissors to Shears: One Woman’s Journey From Hairdressing to Farming

Zoë Colville, better known as The Chief Shepherdess, left her life as a London hairdresser to become a farmer in 2018. Zoë is now passionate about using her platform to encourage people to think a little bit more about where their food is coming from. This sounds like the classic story of the life-changing moment when a woman abandoned city life to live at one with nature and escape the rat race, but that is far from the truth.

Words by Occy Carr

It was initially Zoë’s partner, Kriss, who was interested in livestock, buying 32 ewes (female sheep) at auction. “I know a lot of people want to romanticise that and say it was when our farming journey began,” Zoe tells me, “But actually, it didn’t affect my life. It was just a hobby he was doing”.

As Kriss moved to farming full-time, Zoë stayed in hairdressing. She had struggled with her mental health previously, but following the death of her father in 2018, she found herself unable to go back to work. “I had saved £10k for a house deposit, and I blew it all on animals. I spent a whole year where I didn’t earn a penny. I just grieved, and I healed… What made me feel less pain was being with the animals and farming, so I just did what caused me the least pain”. It was at this point that the pair decided to try and find a way for the farm to support them both financially.

Zoë used Instagram to document the steep learning curve as she swapped Soho for straw bales. “It was very much me making a tit of myself. I was a London girl. I wore nice clothes, nice trainers…We took the dog out training, and I took a handbag.” Now with over 37K followers, Zoë’s page combines humour and sharing the animals’ characters with straight-talking insights into farming – the births, the deaths and everything in between. Zoë is honest about the challenges they face: “We are so at the mercy of Mother Nature… Every farmer that you talk to, the Beast from the East tested them to the point of giving up – picking up dead lambs that had been born and couldn’t get up because it was too cold.” Alongside the weather is the issue of money, Zoë states “I don’t know a single farmer who isn’t in debt”. With low food prices and high fertiliser costs, farmers are often forced to rely on subsidies for their income.

However, with the challenges come huge rewards. When asked about the biggest lesson Zoë has learnt, she says, “I have a greater belief in myself now than I ever did before I got into farming…There are times when, after the adrenalin has worn off, I’ve thought, ‘Where’s my cape? I’m superhuman?” In one instance, Zoë was checking a field of sheep on her own at night during a storm when she found a ewe was lambing. Zoë helped the ewe give birth before carrying them both down the valley in a howling gale, lifting them over the gate and into the car. She took them back to the farm and ensured they were penned in and warm.  Zoë explains, “At that point in my life, I felt like the sexiest, most independent, incredible woman”.

As with many businesses, the pandemic forced Zoë and Kriss to adapt. They watched butchery videos on YouTube and used a loan to build The Little Farm Fridge, which is now their butchery business, selling meat directly from the farm. “We became so proud of what we were producing… We know we could charge so much more… But we want it to be accessible to a single mum with three kids so that once a week they have good quality, high welfare meat. We want us to be an option”. Kriss and Zoë became passionate about their product, explaining the farming process to people and ensuring their meat was accessible.

Zoë recognises that there are common misconceptions about farmers. One of the biggest is that farmers are numb to death, seeing their animals purely as a source of income: “People think farmers don’t care about their animals but in actual fact, it’s not all financial… Why would you want to be surrounded by miserable animals every day for the money?”. Zoë’s social media emphasises how farmers can work with the realities of death whilst ensuring their livestock has the best possible life.

We discussed this in relation to the conversation around sustainability and food production: “I feel that farmers have a lot in common with vegans and vegetarians… Obviously, the end goal is very different, but in terms of working with the land, the environment, and nature, a lot of their beliefs are very much in line with one another. Farming is very much going down the route now where that industrial side of farming is dying out in a big way in the UK.” In its place are more and more farmers like Zoë and Kriss, farming on a small scale and as sustainably as possible to ensure animal welfare and transparency of the process are at the forefront for consumers. They believe in respecting the animal from field to plate and have specifically chosen an abattoir that is aligned with their beliefs.

I asked Zoë what she felt is the best way to eat sustainably. “I think we should be buying ethically, making sure it’s high welfare, making sure we know where the produce is coming from, and British if nothing else. Just spare a thought whilst you’re cooking it and eating it about where it’s come from. That’s what I think is so important”.

Alongside her social channels, Zoë helps her landlady with school farm visits. On one occasion, Zoë was introducing a group of primary school children to the animals. “l said ‘Who likes McDonald's here?’, then ‘Who orders a burger?’, then I asked them to point at the animal that their burger came from. Out of sixty kids, not one of them pointed at the cow… So many adults either buy processed food or go the opposite way and feed their children a vegetarian or vegan diet, but the kids don’t know why they’re doing it, and the parents don’t know why they’re doing it… I want them to know when they’re eating a chicken nugget what a chicken looks like… All I want is for kids to question things.”

During lockdown, Zoë started doing Instagram Lives called Farm School with the intention of helping parents with homeschooling, giving them twenty minutes where she could take over and teach the children about farming. This has since developed into her YouTube channel, Flock School, where she posts videos aimed at children to teach them about farming and food production.

Zoë is passionate about demystifying the production process and engaging consumers with farming. Flock School may be designed for children, but the reality is that as adults, we could all learn from Zoë and think a little more about where our food comes from.

Read the other stories in our FOOD edition.