I’ve heard several people say they love going to the Oxford Real Farming Conference because it fires them up for the farming year, and I couldn’t agree more. ORFC is so inspiring to people like us because it was set up by a group frustrated at the lack of representation for organic and small-scale producers… Continue reading My reflections on the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2018 Read more

All over Europe, for a long time there has been a trend towards larger, monoculture farms and industrial agriculture. Smaller farms have been swallowed up and farmers have been leaving the land in their millions. Read more

I guess most people wonder what showers and compost have to do with each other, being showered with compost is probably not anyone’s idea of being cleaned. However there is a perfectly valid connection and it’s one we have been exploiting now for four years and to good effect. Read more

The Ecological Land Cooperative (ELC) is a social enterprise based in Brighton, East Sussex. They exist to create affordable access to land for new entrants to ecological agriculture and mixed farming. Read more

I prefer to keep my animals as naturally as possible to allow them to express their natural behaviour and reduce stress, so I have always kept a rooster with my hens. It is true that you do not need a cockerel or a rooster in your flock for your hens to lay eggs. So why… Continue reading Should you keep a rooster with your hens? (and how to deal with a problem rooster) Read more

Something special is happening in Wales. The country is using legislation to shift itself into a very different direction from England. It wants to be more sustainable. It wants to reduce its ‘ecological footprint’ to a level that’s fair compared to the rest of the planet’s population and resources. Read more

There are 7 acres on offer with this rental rent or organic cropshare opportunity in Sussex (postcode TN35 4AP). It’s across the road from the village of Fairlight and a 5 minute drive to Hastings. Read more

In The Wool Journey Part 5, Sue Blacker of Blacker Yarns and The Natural Fibre Company explains the process of harvesting wool with an in-depth look at sheep shearing. Read more

In The Wool Journey Part 4, Sonja Bargielowska of Blacker Yarns at The Natural Fibre Company considers wool attributes amongst breeds, natural colour and the importance of a healthy flock. Read more

In the third of The Wool Journey installments based on an original post by Sonja Bargielowska at Blacker Yarns, The Natural Fibre Company leads us to consider length, crimp and lustre. Read more

In the second installment of The Wool Journey guest blog posts from Sue Blacker and colleagues at The Natural Fibre Company, we learn about a key attribute: thickness. Read more

Linda Kaucher of Stop TTIP UK recently alerted us to the fact that the US government is determined to go into battle with any country that tries to restrict imports of its genetically-modified food. Read more

In the first of a series of guest blog posts from Sue Blacker and colleagues at The Natural Fibre Company, we invite you to embark upon The Wool Journey, exploring the what, how and why of all things wool. Read more

How about a human-powered tool that allows you to plant out 264 young plants per minute (!) without bending over? The paperpot transplanter, developed in Japan, allows you to do just that (if 264 seems a bit precise, it’s because each little paper chain contains 264 pots). Read more

Recently The Guardian ran an article by John Harris called “They say after Brexit there’ll be food rotting in the fields. It’s already started.” To summarise, John is saying Brexit has made the UK look an unfriendly place to our European neighbours and with the increasing financial fortunes of eastern European nations, farm workers are… Continue reading Should we be reliant on cheap foreign labour to work on our farms, or is there a better way to feed ourselves? Read more

In this post based on an original at Small Farm Future, farmer Chris Smaje relates words of wisdom curated as part of a talk he gave at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in 2016. Read more

“Many sheep farmers waste more than a third of the grass on their farm because they do not plan grazing wisely.” This is according to Susan Buckingham, extension officer at the Institute of Biological, Environment and Rural Sciences’ Grassland Development Centre Read more

This week our friends at Indie Farmer shared with us their how-to guide to haymaking by hand, in which founder and editor-in-chief Nigel Akehurst collaborated with small-scale farmer Simon Fairlie, co-editor of The Land Magazine. Read more

Our new report, “A Matter of Scale”, highlights how a diverse and vibrant sector of small farms is providing employment, attracting new entrants and incubating entrepreneurs. Read more

The year’s sheep shearing season is almost at an end. This week, our friends at Indie Farmer shared with us their sheep shearing photo story and interview with Ed Gingell, the so-called ‘Lewis Hamilton’ of sheep shearing, who visited Hockham Farm in 2015 to shear the flock and returned again to do the same just… Continue reading The sheep shearing season: an interview and photo story Read more