Success story: Nant Helyg Farm
Background
Based near Crickhowell in Powys, Nant Helyg Farm is a family-owned and run business, which sells eight different varieties of seasonal garlics as well as ethically reared quail eggs from free to fly birds. They sell their products direct via their website as well as at local farmers markets.
Using regenerative and sustainable farming principles, Nant Helyg Farm never use herbicides, pesticides or synthetic fertilisers. In addition, they are totally off-grid; their electricity comes from onsite solar panels, and they aim to become a zero-waste business.
Co-owners Christopher and Nicola Duffy contacted ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre in 2025 when they were in process of developing a new range of dried garlic.
Support from ZERO2FIVE
A proportion of Nant Helyg Farm’s garlic bulbs do not meet the necessary visual standards to be sold as they are. So, Christopher and Nicola decided to desiccate them and sell them as dried garlic. They planned to do the same with the flowering stalks of their garlic, also known as scapes.
As neither Christopher nor Nicola are from food manufacturing backgrounds, they turned to ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre for support with their HACCP food safety management plan.
A ZERO2FIVE technologist initially reviewed Nant Helyg Farm’s food safety management paperwork and processes and provided guidance on improvements that could be made. Secondly, ZERO2FIVE carried out water activity testing on their dried garlic products to verify that they were food safe and to support the determination of an appropriate shelf- life. Finally, ZERO2FIVE provided mentoring on labelling requirements and guidance on allergen testing.
Benefits of the support
As a result of the support from ZERO2FIVE, Nant Helyg Farm successfully passed their environmental health inspection and received a food hygiene rating scheme score of five.
Following on from their successful environmental health visit, Nant Helyg Farm have now launched six new products. They were named runners-up in the ‘Best in Show 2025’ awards at Abergavenny Festival and their dried garlic cloves also won a bronze award at Ludlow Food Festival.
Selling dried garlic products will help the farm to achieve their zero-waste target and it will also provide an additional revenue stream in the months when there is no longer any cured garlic available until the following harvest. This will enable the farm to maintain a market presence for business continuity, which is important with a nine-month maturation seasonal crop.
ZERO2FIVE plans to provide additional bespoke HACCP support to Nant Helyg Farm to further embed prerequisite food hygiene procedures into their operations and to develop their food safety management systems, supporting the further development of new product ranges from their garlic crop.
Nicola Duffy, Co-owner, Nant Helyg Farm:
“Nant Helyg Farm Garlics is incredibly grateful for the outstanding support provided by ZERO2FIVE. As a niche, off-grid sustainable business, navigating HACCP and food safety compliance requirements felt daunting. Their guidance not only ensured compliance, it enabled us to achieve our aspiration of zero waste through product innovation. Professional, knowledgeable and deeply supportive, they have been, instrumental in our product development and business growth. We couldn’t recommend them more highly.”
Get in touch with us
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help your business or have any questions about the support we can offer, then please get in touch.
