Open Farm Sunday

We had such an incredible time on Open Farm Sunday back in June, over nine months ago now and I was asked by LEAF to put a video together about the day. This is our video of how we prepared and undertook the farm walk. We are blessed to live is such a beautiful part of the world and the video shows some of our hidden corners on the farm. Open Farm Sunday is all about explaining what you do on your farm, how food is produced and the different jobs that are done in the cycle of producing food each year. The conversation points are endless.

Every farm is different some are huge multi-million pound farming businesses, others smallholdings that are managed before and after work and at the weekends and many other farms are family farms. This is what makes our landscape so unique and special.

Wiggly wigglers Podcast

As I have written many times before on this blog in 2007 I was awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust Scholarship to study water issues. We has our conference a couple of weeks ago in Exeter where all the 2007 scholars returned and presented their findings.
One of my fellow 2007 scholars is Heather Gorringe, founder of Wiggly Wigglers a mail order eco gardening products company. Those six words to not begin to express the scope and breadth of the business so do check out the website. The company is also the first ever winner of the Global Dell Small Business Excellence Award. They received their award because of their pioneering work using social media to extend the success of their business and also to communicate the essence of their business mission and their shared, and opposing, hopes and opinions on environmental an sustainability issues through blogging and their podcasts.
Heather's study was how rural businesses and farmers can benefit from social media. At the conference Heather captured some of our conversation that we had over a cup of tea and has broadcast it as part of her latest podcast - number 0158 to be precise. We were musing over why water is important globally and locally, why should we care, whether we coerce or enable people to have less of an impact on the environment and many other things, plus I tell a joke at the end which is most uncharacteristic.
Do check it out and let me know what you think.

Autumn Time at Benbow Pond

Autumn has really come to the farm now and here are some photos of the Benbow Pond. We don't get as many visitors at this time of year so I thought I would post some photos.

Nuffield Conference 2008

This weekend (31st October/1st November) I spoke at the Annual Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust Conference for returning scholars. Twenty-two scholars presented on a range of topics from Care Farming (farming supporting vulnerable individuals in society), to carbon footprint, farmers and social media, farming techniques, soil biology, marketing, seasonality and my topic .. water security.

It was a fabulous weekend and it was great to see my year group shine through with their knowledge, their discoveries and their enthusiasm. It was a fascinating insight into new technologies, new approaches and a positive future for the UK agricultural industry.

First posted at The Human Imprint