AGA_Stories
 

Owner: Jo and David Lowe
Model: Black 2-door
Vintage: c1950s
Location: Lincolnshire
Snapshot: Jo and David moved to their idyllic country farmhouse in 2001. The house is set in four acres of land and is surrounded by cornfields. “We’ve lived here for eight years and I still feel like I’m on holiday,” Jo says. The AGA – named Martha – dates from around 1950 and was in the house when the couple moved in. “We’d had an electric hob and oven before we moved in, so we started practising with AGA cooking by trying to use the oven more and doing things from Mary Berry’s books,” says Jo. Embarking on a hobby and wanting to do something that got them “out of the office,” says Jo, the couple eventually found themselves the proud owners of 55 sheep and numerous cattle. “We used to keep livestock, longhorn cattle, Jacob sheep and Hampshire sheep – Martha cooked some of them!” Sadly, Jo then became ill and was unable to work, so the farm had to be scaled down for David to manage. “All the sheep went off to good homes, though; we made sure of that,” says Jo. The couple still have four dogs to take care of – three Bichon Frises and one German Shepherd – and a Land Rover called Dora.
Finest Hour: Achieving the perfect roast lamb. David, with Martha’s help, does all the cooking and does a particularly good roast. Jo says her mother called it “pre-war lamb, because it tasted so untouched and good… you can just pop it in and leave it to Martha!”