Sowing Seeds

And then…

FarmEd Podcast

I always assume everyone knows about FarmEd and then I find someone who hasn’t. So I’m posting about it here in case this is you, and you’ve not yet discovered their huge line up of courses, talks, films and more which they have built around the transformation of an old conventional arable farm in the Cotswolds to showcase what agro-ecological growing can do, not just for the soil and biodiversity but the local and wider community.

I first visited FarmEd a year before it had been officially opened (by, well, The King) in June 2021. I tracked down its co-founder Ian Wilkinson through his company Cotswolds Seeds, after they supplied me with the ultimate herbal ley mix based on the one designed by Newman Turner which transforms soils from - in our case - blackgrass-weed-infested compacted-clay to something which looked more like chocolate cake. This picture shows how: deep and diverse roots.

They have kept one field in a three-crop rotation and farm it using tillage, artificial fertiliser and pesticide sprays. This means there is a real like-for-like control comparable to show how soil in conventional field compares to soil in the regeneratively farmed fields.

I’ve since been back many times as both paid punter, speaker and guest.

Each time there is a new enterprise beginning or expanding, from a micro-dairy to agroforestry to a bountiful market garden supplying vegetable and fruit boxes locally as part of a Community Supported Agriculture project.

When Kew Gardens asked me to be part of their podcast about the wonders (and economic opportunities) of soil I suggested we record it at FarmEd. I went with Andy Cato to talk to Ian about how changing the way food is grown changes what is both above the ground and below it. We got into it. You can listen to the whole podcast here.

Now, above their design-award winning restaurant, FarmEd have built a podcast studio (of course). Their new series is dropping soon and they asked me to be on it. So I trooped off wearing my warmest Herdwear to record an episode. I’ll let you know when it’s out in case you want to hear.

Also - fun fact for you - Fiona Mountain (in the blurry background) as well as being part of the FarmEd team is also a story advisor on the iconic BBC Radio 4 farming drama, The Archers. Legend.

As I left I thought about a conversation I had just had with someone for a piece I am working on. She used to be in tech start ups and is now rewilding land and she said something that chimed with all I have seen FarmEd do. Start Ups she said, require more than knowledge and skills. In the end, you just have to take a leap of faith into the dark.

It must have felt transgressive at the beginning for FarmEd to focus itself around regenerative farming when, back then, so many conventional farmers believed it nothing more than a fad. This leap of faith in the dark has ended up doing more than regenerating soils and biodiversity: it has sown seeds that have reached far beyond it.

If you ever get the chance to go, take it.

Sarah x

p.s. for the avoidance of doubt, this is not a paid post (even if it reads like one). Promise. I just think what they are doing is pretty great and deserves some airtime.