BEEF, CAMBRIDGE: Angelika does not own a farm, but instead grazes Red Poll cattle on Midsummer Common in the centre of the city of Cambridge. She also keeps other herds on the Fens, and on a County Council-owned farm on the outskirts of the city.

Born and raised in Germany, Angelika is not from a farming background but wanted to be a farmer since she was 12. After leaving school, she studied agriculture. She then took a degree in veterinary medicine which took her to the UK to work as a vet.

She moved to Cambridge and still recalls clearly the moment when she decided to keep cattle. “It was after Foot and Mouth and I was walking on Midsummer Common. I met a man who said what a shame it was that the common was no longer grazed. That was a eureka moment – here was land looking for a grazier, and here was me who wanted to keep livestock but had no land. It was meant to be. I realised that by grazing on common land, I could farm without owning land. I bought eight Red Poll beef cattle and started grazing them on the Common.”

She now keeps ten Red Polls on Midsummer Common, chosen for their small, unintimidating size and the eating quality of their meat. Red Polls are a hornless native cattle breed that’s local to East Anglia. Angelika is one of four graziers in the city, each with their own common, part of a tradition that goes back centuries.

As well as grazing cows in central Cambridge, Angelika grazes around 30 on Holme Fen, a National Nature Reserve that’s part of the Great Fen, between Peterborough and Huntingdon.

In addition, Angelika has taken on a tenancy at Lower Valley Farm, in Fulbourn, just outside Cambridge, a “biodiversity net gain” initiative set up by the County Council. The land, formerly an arable farm, is divided into “biodiversity units” which developers buy to offset the environmental impact of their building projects. Angelika grazes around 30 cattle there, helped by her daughter who is studying agriculture in Munich.

Angelika’s cows are ‘conservation grazed’ which means they are moved regularly to prevent impacting the soil. Being a hardy breed, they do not need any feed in addition to the grass they graze on.

Their meat – branded under the name of Cam Cattle – is dry aged for 21 days to ensure flavour and marbling. It’s then sold at Cambridge’s Sunday market, through a meat box scheme, and at Flourish farmshop in Linton, near the city. The meat is also sold through Plumb’s Dairy as part of a milk door step delivery.

When she is not caring for her cattle, Angelika works for the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts as ‘Beaver Reintroduction Manager for England and Wales’. In 2022, when she was managing an organic farm in London, she helped re-introduce beavers to London. The farm ran its own veg box scheme and kept rare breeds whose meat was sold in its farmshop.