Worthy Earth, Blenheim

Story of Self

When I had just finished uni, I went home for a bit to Hampshire to think about what to do. With a few other “lost boys” including my brother, we decided we wanted to cultivate a deeper sense of attachment to our area and our community. We wanted nature to be a vital part of life. In the area where we grew up the farming was very extractive, and it was clear it couldn’t really progress any further as the soil was depleted. There was also an alienation from food. We didn’t know where our food came from. There were just mono-culture crops and intensive agriculture. So we wanted to see if we could do more ‘human scale’ farming. I wanted to do something physical and practical that would have an impact. 

Many farms have marginal land around the edges. We were lucky that we got to rent a small piece of marginal land cheaply. Lots of landowners could be doing this- to support start ups and encourage crop diversity. On this land we set up a small market garden business. Then we got an offer to do it on another farm. Later, I had moved back to Oxford and was walking around Blenheim palace and saw their walled garden was not used. So I asked them if they wanted a market garden - it was quite serendipitous. They now contract us to run the vegetable market garden and all the food we produce is used by them in their restaurants and cafes. We currently run 5 market gardens and we have 6 workers, 5 of whom are full time One is in Bletchington and one at Blenheim. The food we grow at Bletchington is sold to Oxford University colleges through the farm to fork scheme. 

Worthy Earth is about regenerative farming. It's about giving back fertility to the soil, to the ecosystems that live on top of and beneath the soil. It's about restoring soil that is being depleted. It's also about creating farming at a more human scale. The name for this is agro-ecological farming. When we started there were not really any other regenerative market gardens nearby to learn from. We learnt it all from books and the internet. 

When we started we convinced a farmer to just give us half an acre of land on the edge of his farm. We got £5,000 from the Hampshire council and invested £5,000 of our own money and from that we were able to start up. After a year we were able to start breaking even. We have a mixed model. All farms need to diversify. As such we sell our vegetables, but we also supply the colleges and have a contracted arrangement with Blenheim where they pay one of our growers. 

Story of Us

We have set up a sister organisation called Worthy Earth Education. Through that we are working in schools, teaching the year 6s, 7s and 8s how to grow organically. We’ve also been making a series of films that will support other people to set up their own farms. 

On our land at Blenheim we get volunteers once a week, mostly people who have been referred to us through ‘socially prescribing’ to join some gardening activities for their health. It's a sort of neat project because it offers lots of benefits: social, physical, mental. People are referred to us via Blenheim palace, or through our own partnerships. For example we’re just starting a partnership with Ophelia House which is a therapeutic community for women recovering from substance abuse. One woman who had been referred to us said to me recently that being on the farm and having a stake in where the food comes from was ‘ the most human’ she had ever felt.

The allies who have really helped us realise our aims are quite a few. The Good Food Oxford ‘farm to fork’ scheme has been really important. We can basically ensure that everything we grow will be sold. That is a huge relief to any company, especially a really small one with margins like ours. It created collaborators who we would not have had. Of course sometimes you lose out to the other members. I was under-cut on my rainbow chard this year, but overall you can guarantee that a large portion of your food will be sold. That is so important for a small, environmentally impactful organization. 

Blenheim palace has been an important partner. They contract us to maintain the market garden and that helps us to pay for wages. It's quite an unusual model because Blenheim is such a famous place that they do have a lot of tourism and restaurants/ cafes to supply, which they choose to supply with vegetables from their estate. Most other stately homes in the UK don’t have as big a catering output or vegetable need. Maintaining a wage through the winter if you’re relying on the sale of vegetables is hard. Ongoing maintenance models, such as the one we have at Blenheim, have worked best so far. But overall we do manage it for most staff. As the weather changes, growing food will become harder due to unforeseen weather and soil conditions. 

The Real Farming conference is a big inspiration for us - it makes you feel like you are part of an ongoing movement. I also have a mentor at Daylesford - he’s a great grower who helps me. There are not many grants or loans available - and competition is very high. Back in Hampshire we had support from the Rural Enterprise Scheme. I don’t know if that exists in Oxfordshire, but it's from the local council. 

Story of Now: Calls to Action

Human scale farming

We need to re-humanise small-scale farming. We need to create a million small farms. We want to see a world where people can meet the needs of their area through farming, whilst having a minimal or positive environmental impact. Small local farms have the potential to be carbon negative. They store carbon and they reduce the need for long haul transport.

Better land sharing arrangements 

The shortage is not in demand or enthusiasm for better environment farming - awareness has really been raised. It's not in skills as there is now a lot of information out there on how to farm ecologically - nor is there a shortage of people willing to do it. It's the shortage of affordable, available land. We need more landowners to make small pieces of land available - for example a matching scheme between farmers and new entrants to be able to more easily share land would be powerful. 

Support new-entrant farmers 

We need to provide opportunities for new entrants farmers to join the sector. Even just a loan of between £5,000 to £15,000 would make a really big difference to start-up costs and help people start growing. It would not be that hard or cost that much money to have 1000s of small agro-ecological units popping up. It could be a spiralling effect.