Day two of Procurement for Good’s field trip to our Welsh food hub began with a visit to Ash and Elm Horticulture, a five-acre CSA.

Day two of Procurement for Good’s field trip to our Welsh food hub began with a visit to Ash and Elm Horticulture, a five-acre CSA run by Emma and Dave, which produces around 40 veg boxes a week and serves as a teaching space for Pathways to Farming. The day began with an exceptional chocolate and blackberry cake in the sunshine at the top of the farm and some practical discussion of the realities of running a small farm reliant on the natural world and local weather around them, the advantages of Mulberry trees over Walnut Trees and the practicalities of creating a nut market in Wales.

We visited the new polytunnels and heard of the challenges of various storms last season as the team worked to make the structure weatherproof, and the group got to see first hand some of the practical considerations of introducing bigger machinery into a farm context: “If you’ve got the kit you’ve got to have the compost. If you’ve got the compost you’ve got to have the irrigation” reflected Emma as she considered the pros and cons of some of the new equipment they had received.

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We talked and walked as we passed a Comfrey patch (planted and then mown to add a potassium boost to the plants) until we reached Mother Willow and her 150 “baby” willow trees, which provide a seasonal supply of willow for the farm to sell.

The 150 coppiced willow trees at the far end of the farm were a great example of the ability of the farmers on the site to respond to their land and their customers. The willows are now sold for willow baskets and local schools come to do workshops, whilst the coppiced trees also provide some natural cover as the farm blends into the wider unfarmed landscape.

For lunch we visited Fran at the Hanging Gardens in Llanidloes, a project led by the Wilderness Trust that provides a café and arts space which plays host to range of workshops, entertainment and other services. Fran’s energy and enthusiasm for community to thrive in harmony with nature is infectious and the speed with which projects are developing at the Hanging Gardens is impressive.

We took a stroll across the site and were shown into an old church which was being developed into a market hall for local growers and other artisan traders in the community. The quality of the work and the attention to detail are impressive both in the craftmanship of the market hall but also in Fran’s attention to achieving the vision for the project. She seems to model the entrepreneurial spirit we had encountered over the past two days – relentless, not afraid to take risk, but treading carefully in order to add social value slowly and intentionally.

Next we set off to Future Farm, the last stop on our tour. For Cultivate Food Hub this project is very much where the world of policy and ideas meets the practical reality of production and livelihood.

Future Farm is quite an achievement. It is part experiment, part proof of concept of a wider strategy towards local farming and crop production in Wales. The 36 acre site is split between three growers who each have a house on the site, a shared storage barn and shared water harvesting facilities.

Ground was being broken on the site when we visited. The barn had just been put in and the foundations for the three Log Cabins were being laid. Colleagues from Town and County Councils had discussed the Future Farm with us during the roundtable so we understood a little of the vision and strategy behind the project.

We had already met Lydia, one of the growers during the roundtable on the first day, but we also got to meet Tilly, the second of the trio of growers on the site of her new farm.  

Tilly explained how she was excited to be doing the project despite the risks involved. She explained that all the growers are in the 20s, that the group got along well, and that they were working on a collaborative veg box.

Again it seems appropriate to use the word entrepreneurial as we observed growers taking on projects supported in intelligent ways by the local community. As we left the field in Sarn I wondered a great deal about entrepreneurship and the everyday problem solving we saw amongst colleagues working on food systems change Wales.

I also wondered how I would manage the production of 5,000 litres of cider and the battery storage for the growing fleet of vans and minibuses at Sustain Cambridge this season and was pleased there were brighter minds on the case than mine.

Thanks again to colleagues for hosting us so delightfully. The food and the company were wonderful. Thanks to all those who did the catering and logistics. We seem to eat well on our trips.

 Until the next visit… May your crops grow well and your dinner plate be local.    

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