Honeydale farm in the Cotswolds is a 107-acre mixed farm which includes – amongst other initiatives – grassland mob-grazed by sheep and cows, a heritage orchard with over 250 varieties of fruit trees, a natural flood management scheme, a community-supported kitchen garden, a sainfoin plot producing ‘healthy hay’, an apiary, and FarmEd; a not-for-profit organisation which seeks to be at the heart of local, regional and global agroecological transition.
On the site you can find three eco-buildings housing educational, meeting and conference space, a farm-to-fork kitchen, a demo area a micro-dairy and an operations room. FarmEd run regular events to encourage the public to visit, and their intention is to reach everyone: the local community, farmers, growers, advisers, foodies, policy makers, students and researchers.
This May sees the return of the Farm & Food Literature Festival (co-curated with Chelsea Green Publishing). A celebration of agroecology, regenerative farming and sustainable food, the event will include a keynote speech from Sunday Times best-selling author, Helen Rebanks. Her book The Farmer’s Wife: My Life in Days (Harper Horizon, 2023), has been described as “Full of gentle wisdom, this book is an honest portrait of rural life and an authentic exploration of both the hard work and reward of keeping a home and raising a family”.
Independent publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing, specialises in books on regenerative food and farming. Together with FarmED they have created the first ever literature festival focused on sustainable food and farming, now in its third year. Other speakers include Derek Gow, on the history of wolves in Britain; Robin Hartford on edible and medicinal wild plants; Alice Robinson, author of Field Fork Fashion; Sally Morgan on creating resilient gardens and allotments; and environmental detective Sophie Yeo, who, in Nature’s Ghosts, looks to history for pointers on how to avoid ecological catastrophe. As well as inspiring talks, the event also promises the opportunity for interesting debate and nuanced discussion about the future of the UK’s food and farming systems.
The Farm & Food Literature Festival takes place on 11 May. For tickets and more information visit farm-ed.co.uk