"We had been invited to join the Celyn market and thought we would give it a few months to see how it went. After all it's a 45 minute drive for us," explains Tudor taking a brief break from lambing to show me round his beautifully kept farm where chickens, dogs and cats roam.
"That was four years ago and if you want to join any farmers market now you will have to go on a waiting list first."

Six years selling direct to the public has renewed their optimism and control over their product. They can answer the public's questions, tell them the animals travel just eight miles to the slaughterhouse, how they are raised, what they are fed on.

Tudor also cuts the meat on the stall meaning the shopper gets exactly what they want. And he and Mona are open to suggestions from their customers. "One is a travel agent and he asked us for some mutton," explains Tudor. "He wanted it to make a curry and came back and said it was fantastic, just as curry should taste."

Mutton, from sheep aged two years old, is growing in popularity thanks to a public keen to revive traditional foods. "But don't ask me what it tastes like," says Tudor, "because we've sold out every time!"
The same client's travels to Zimbabwe left him with a taste for salted beef so that too is now on the expanding Cefn Fran produce list.

But farming itself itself is still hard and despite the success he has had, Tudor still fears for its future. "I can make more from a 10 metre square shop, than on 200 acres of farmland," he says with some sadness.