Name: Trina and Taylor Lloyd

Business name: Tomtree Farm

Opening hours: Wednesday and Saturday from 8.30am until 3pm at Oswestry Market. Thursday from 8am until 1pm at Llanfyllin Market

When did you open your business and why?

About three years ago, I started selling some cheese from the Weird and Wonderful Cheese Company, but I was also selling my own free-range eggs at the time – chicken, goose, guineafowl etc. I got more and more of them so I started to take it to a market. But I wanted to fill a stall with something else as well as eggs, so I took on some cheese, and then started making my own jams and chutneys, and it’s just progressed from there really.

Why in this location?

Initially we started in Oswestry Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays,but then we started doing the Artisan and Produce markets as well, before starting at Llanfyllin Workhouse and then the Christmas Market there – that has also now progressed to each week.

We started at Oswestry initially just because there was a slot there and we just decided to give it a go. We became quite popular there and we have a lot of regular customers. And then Llanfyllin we went to because word had got around about our stall. The people at both markets are really lovely and really accepting and want to support you.

Tell us about your business

It’s run by myself and my daughter, Taylor, who underwent a 12-month apprenticeship with me and sometimes runs the stall on her own.

We sell free-range eggs from my own poultry which I look after. We sell chicken eggs, duck eggs, turkey eggs up until recently, goose eggs, guineafowl eggs and quail.

We have a variety of cheeses, some of it we get from Belton Farm in Whitchurch which is a national award-winning place.

There are some unusual flavours we have like the scorpion which is really spicy, we have onion cheeses, sheep’s milk cheese and anything people want we will always try to order in.

Then the jams and chutneys are all homemade and they have gone down really well – people like the different flavours we offer.

People seem to like it as we have a lot of compliments from customers which is really nice.

We try to source locally where possible, in particular with our cheese.

We have a fantastic reputation for our eggs – our poultry live on two acres and free-range all day and have a fantastic life, that’s important for us.

What is your proudest moment?

We TRADED at Stafford County Show and we got a third prize for the best presented stall which was a fantastic achievement for us because there was hundreds of stalls there.

I think in general, any phone call or message of people complimenting us for something they have bought off us – it gives you a massive boost. Word of mouth reputation means a lot.

Any strange requests?

We GET a lot of people asking for quite unique things, but I can’t think of anything too strange.