There was a pot of hulled strawberries sitting on the counter of The Old Farm Shop, in Milton Hill, when I called last week. "What are they for?" I asked with genuine curiosity, as I didn't think the Tyler family sold things out of season. On discovering that the multi-tasking Caroline Tyler uses any spare time she has - when she is not with the lambing-ewes, or serving in the shop - to turn frozen strawberries and other berry fruits from last year's crop into jam, I had nothing but admiration for her ingenuity.

You will find the shop on the A4130, close to the Pack Horse Inn, beyond the A34 Milton interchange. Don't expect a large, spacious shop, but be prepared to be surprised - delighted even - because virtually everything on sale has been produced by the Tylers. Even the home-made cakes, greetings cards and large recyclable jars of pickled onions have been made by the family.

Caroline, her husband Tony and their three adult children, Tony, Kirsteen and Dean, work together as a family, each doing what they like best to bring together a range of free-range meats, as well as fruit and vegetables that have not been subjected to chemical sprays. They are not registered organic because they have just never jumped through the hoops required by the Soil Association, to become registered.

Nevertheless, the 70 acres behind the shop are farmed without the aid of modern chemicals. In fact, the crops and livestock are tended just as they were when Tony senior trained to be a farmer. He began his farming career in the 1960s working for Hedges, in South Morton, where everything was raised naturally. He said this meant that crops didn't always come good. As he showed me the leeks, curly kale, purple sprouting and other vegetables they grow, displayed in front of the shop, he admitted that by farming naturally, there were times when for no apparent reason a crop would come to nothing, seedlings would fail to mature and the vegetables didn't always look quite as perfect as those sold in the supermarkets. But what they lack in appearance, they make up for in flavour. By growing a wide diversity of crops and using every single inch of land at their disposal, the family didn't lose everything if one crops failed.

And if a particular crop gave them an excess, the area was roped off once they had harvested everything they needed and the pigs were allowed to forage until there was nothing left. Obviously, by utilising unwanted produce this way, they can cut down on feed bills.

The highlight of my visit was the newborn lambs. And by newborn I really do mean newborn! I was privileged to see two little lambs that emerged from the womb just an hour before my visit. They were still struggling to get to their feet and suckle for milk as the proud mother began the process of licking away the afterbirth. It was a heart-warming sight.

The family have 40 ewes, which are lambing now. Visitors will find them comfortably confined in a polytunnel close to the shop, waiting to give birth or tending their newborn. Once the lambs are strong enough to cope with the elements, they are returned to the fields. I was impressed by the chickens, too. The family has just 250 chickens in an area behind the shop, which could legally take up to 5,000 and still be classified as free-range. The chickens also get fed on excess fruits and vegetables, which is probably why the yolks are a golden yellow and the shells so sturdy.

The enclosed polytunnel where the ewes are lambing will be cleared of straw and prepared ready for more seeds to be potted out in a month's time. At the moment, Tonys senior and junior are planting out rhubarb crowns, cauliflowers and leeks in another polytunnel. The broad beans, which they propagated late last year, are already out in the field, and main crop potatoes will have been planted by the time this article appears.

There was a time when members of the Tyler family would be found selling their produce at most South Oxfordshire farmers' markets. Now they are putting all their energies into delivering reusable veggie boxes filled with free-range eggs, potatoes, carrots and onions, plus five other seasonal vegetables and two fruits. They put together meat boxes, too, using only lamb, beef and pork raised on the farm. Their meat is slaughtered and butchered for them 38 miles away at Long Compton, and then frozen.

Caroline explained that given the size of their enterprise, it wouldn't be possible to sell meat any other way without building a butcher's shop. By freezing the joints, and the sausages and hamburgers that are made from their meat, they can provide the customer with a wide choice - even rabbits, pigeon and pheasants which once roamed the farm can be bought frozen. Less popular cuts of meat are cooked into delicious shepherd's pies and stews by Debbie Grant, from Thame, who specialises in creating ready frozen home-cooked meals for farm shops.

With the asparagus season almost upon us, the Tylers' busy season begins. British asparagus really temps the public into shops like theirs; as most of us know, asparagus is sweetest when cooked just hours after it is cropped. By buying from a shop close to the soil in which the asparagus grows, sweetness and added flavour is assured.

Talking to 20-year-old Tony junior as he showed me the seedlings he was tending, I asked what it was about working on a mixed farm like this that appealed to a young man - for he had already admitted they all worked from dawn to dusk during the summer months. He smiled, looked about him proudly and admitted he was working for his future and the future of his family. "That's worth getting up for," he said.