OUR STORY

So who are we?  

Since making the move back to Dorset from the Big Smoke in 2014, James and Lucy have grown The Real Cure from a single workshop and team of two, to a 12 strong team of passionate foodies with one mission – to make the exceptional charcuterie using high welfare meat and quality ingredients, using traditional curing, fermenting and smoking techniques.

After meeting at university and enjoying a few years working in ski resorts in Austria and Switzerland, James and Lucy were in their early twenties and living with friends in a Camberwell flat in South East London. Lucy started out London life in a PR agency working on food and drink brands like Bottlegreen, Magimix and Burts Chips and naturally James found the most rural job he could – working at the iconic shooting and fishing shop, Farlows in Pall Mall. It’s safe to say city life wasn’t quite for them however and they enjoyed weekends escaping to the rolling hills of Dorset where James grew up. 

Having spent several months conducting ecological surveys on deer in the Scottish Highlands in 2011, James had developed a passion for venison and began experimenting with curing using a double door fridge in the small garden of their Camberwell flat. This sparked the idea that perhaps the charcuterie could be more than just a hobby and he began thinking of ways to diversify the family farm back in Dorset, as city life wasn’t quite what they wanted. 

After a rudimentary renovation of James’ father’s workshop on the farm, they set to work with a tiny smoker (literally a repurposed garden shed) tabletop sausage stuffer, converted double door fridge and plenty of trial and error! Weekends were spent on the South West Rail train to Gillingham in Dorset and when they weren’t making salami, they were selling it at local farmers markets and Country Shows come rain or shine (but more often the former!).  

The old cattle buildings on James’ parent’s farm meant there was genuine scope to diversify the farm (previously dairy) and potentially start seriously producing charcuterie on a small scale. 

Fast forward a year, after plenty of research and development, and we were ready to start making enough cured meat to stock our first few stores – the first of this was Goldhill Organic Farm Shop in nearby Child Okeford. We’re forever grateful they took a chance on us, and fortunately more farm shops followed suit. 

Our ethos for sustainability has never wavered even as we expanded the range from wild venison into pork and beef. It was imperative to us that we only use free-range, sustainably reared and wild meat. We were also keen to showcase Dorset’s best producers in our products, like Dorset Blue Vinny Cheese and Purbeck Cider. We are constantly evolving our packaging, which has been quite a journey in itself, we are now proudly able to offer a fully recyclable range of shelf ready products. We thank you all for the amazing feedback we have received about it, we are delighted it has been so well received.

Since 2014, our family has grown with the addition of Tabitha, 3, and Fred, 6 months, and not forgetting Betty, our beloved Springer cross Labrador. Tabitha fortunately has a passion for charcuterie are regularly asks to visit ‘the lami shop’ aka the store room, to pick up a few packs of her favourites (Wild Venison Beersticks and Coppa if you were wondering). Betty is of course delighted with our choice of career and subsequent life as a ‘butcher’s dog’. She can usually be found sitting next to the production room door hoping for offcuts and titbits or greeting the delivery drivers for her daily tummy rubs. 

Flash forward to 2024 and you can now find us in lots of small independent shops and delis, including The Newt, Darts Farm and Fortnum & Mason, as well as pubs, restaurants and online.

Our mission is to be one of the best British Charcuterie producers, and the 15 Great Taste Awards we have acquired over the past half a decade have put us well on our way to being so. Discover more about our range here.