My family have been farming here since the 1940s. It was once a dairy farm and the marshes provided grazing for the cattle.

 

My father later transitioned to arable farming in the 1980s. Isabella Tree in her book ‘Wilding’ gives an impressive historical timeline of the shifts and changes that have accompanied farming over the last 70 years. 

​

In 2009 my brother Tom and I took over the farm. With the help of Anthony Curwen and David Whitehead of Quex Park, who farmed the land for us over  a 12 year period and Dan Tuson, the Natural England advisor for this area, we were able to take part in the Countryside Stewardship schemes and began to set aside small areas dedicated to wildlife with the awareness that this would also help restore the soil. 

​

As Masanobu Fukuoka of the natural farming movement said “instead of thinking that grasses and trees grow in the soil, it is actually the grasses and trees, other plants, animals, microorganisms, and water that create the soil and give it life. (pg. 108, ‘Sowing Seeds in the desert’, Fukukoka,2012). 

​

Since that time we have gradually implemented different wildlife schemes like many farms in the local area and in 2022 we began our rewilding project. I have personally been inspired by the farms of Richard Perkins at Ridgedale Farm, the books of Masanobu Fukuoka, ‘Wilding” by Isabella Tree and the Nepp Estate, and ‘Six Steps Back to the Land’ by Colin Tudge to name a few. What these authors have in common, is a passion to restore and improve the countryside to a more beautiful place than perhaps all of us have known and offer practical ways to do that.

​

By choosing to be part of our veg box scheme (otherwise known as CSA - community supported agriculture) you will be valuably contributing to our project to bring back more wildlife to the area and create a farm that can produce fruit, vegetables flowers and herbs for the local community.

​

Many thanks for reading,

louise