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Couple set up food export business in Spanish cave

Mar 29 2009 by Vicky Robson, Sunday Sun

Gayle Hartley, partner Iain MacDonald and their son Joshua

WHEN teacher Gayle Hartley was made redundant she quit the rat race . . . and set up shop in a Spanish cave.

She and partner Iain MacDonald, 35, gave up life in the North and went back to basics in an empty stone home.

Without water, electricity and central heating they spent four months in a caravan while they dug out and renovated the des-res cave in Andalucia . . . with toddler Joshua in tow.

Five years on, the couple have spiced up their life immersing themselves so much in the Spanish way of life they now make their own local delicacies.

And their company Orce Serrano Hams is now selling authentic paella and chorizo back to their native Newcastle.

Gayle, 32, said: “When I was a student I lived in Malaga for six months and got a feel for it then.

“And when I got made redundant we just thought we would try something new and if it worked it worked.”

“We had lots of problems to start with but we had to get on with it and after the initial shock of settling in, we got known in the village.”

The couple, formerly of Lemington, in Newcastle, moved to southern Andalucia in 2004. They enlisted the help of the local Mayor and received a grant to help them set up their business.

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