Farmerama

Shelley Spruit from Against the Grain Farm just outside Ottawa, talks to Abi Aspen from Future Farm Lab about the Blue Corn the grow in contrast with the more traditional GM grains favoured by their neighbours. Some additional content from our feature in the farm from episode 21

Spoils, written at Romshed Farm in Kent, Feb 2017 by Pasture for Life poet in residence Adam Horovitz and recorded at the Oxford Real Farming conference 2017

This month we hear about an amazing variety of Care Farming projects from around the world, we catch up with a La Via Campesina member from Berlin and we speak to a chef about the unusual dish he put together for the recent Dan Barber food-waste restaurant in London. We hear from a Canadian farm going against the grain and putting purple corn on the map and we have a special treat – some poetry written at this year’s Oxford Real Farming Conference by Pasture for Life poet in residence – perfectly highlighting the culture in agri-culture.

This month we celebrate the dawn of Spring as we bring you stories from many different communities across the UK: Abraham Organics gives us the low-down on halal and the meat they supply to the Muslim community in London. We hear how the Open Food Network works and one farmer tells us how they are using OFN to expand their business whilst reducing waste from surplus crops. We have some clever tips from Chagfood market garden about growing great veg on the wild exposed moors (and more generally growing great veg in the face of unpredictable British weather). And Plotgate CSA growers tell us about the human-scale tools they are crafting to support people caring for the land.

This is a special field report for Farmerama, we dig into Urban Food Fortnight which descends on London from 9th - 25th of September. Urban Food Fortnight is London Food Link’s celebration of the fantastic amount of food being grown, made, cooked and saved in London and the amazing stories behind it. We teamed up with London Food Link to weave together tips, tricks and ideas from some of the people and projects involved: GrowUp Aquaponics farm, Dusty Knuckles Bakery, Plan Zheroes waste food savers and seasonal chef Oliver Rowe.

From time to time we get in a story that’s deserves a bit more attention to than we are able give in our regular monthly episode. And here one of those. A field report from Farmeramra reporter Camilla Williamson at Castello di Potentino, a small-scale sustainable vineyard in Italy.

As spring draws nearer we bring you Joel Salatin talking traditional methods and modern tools, with a great example from Angus, Scotland. We begin to unpick the world of rewilding which is something that has caused much debate and upset amongst farmers, conservationists and wildlife fans alike. Next up are a collection of despatches from the Soil Association Future Growers apprenticeship and finally we hear from Cambodian farmers and teachers about their experience of learning to grow organically thanks to the Green Shoots Foundation.

We have a few stories from the Oxford Real Farming Conference to share with you this month, firstly market gardener Rebecca Laughton from the Landworkers Alliance tells us about her investigations into the productivity of small-scale producers. We get stuck into no-dig experiments with Charles Dowding, learning about soil biology and the intriguing results from his latest forking trials. And we hear from Ashwini Shannikodi about Street play as tool to tackle social problems in rural farming communities in India, as well as the importance of women in farming. Abby also reports from Chile where she is currently evacuated from her family’s farm, vidacycle, as some of the largest forest fires in Chile’s history surround them.

This is a special edition of Farmerama recorded with a guest host, eco-chef Doug, from Silo restaurant in Brighton. He tells us how his zero-waste philosophy has transformed what it means to serve food, and a local pig-farmer tells us what it’s like to work with a zero-waste chef. In Norfolk we learn all about the craft of managing ancient woodland sustainably and profitably, now and for many generations to come. Finally farming celebrity Joel Salatin tells us about respecting the pigness of the pig and what future technology he hopes to see.

Farmerama have learnt that farming’s best economic models mimic nature’s clever ways and make many things from the same piece of land. Farmer Stephen Briggs tells us about one of these clever models. He fills us in on his agroforestry setup or ‘3D farming’, where he grows organic apples and cereals on his 150 acres in Cambridgeshire. We also hear a few thoughts from Ben Raskin, head of horticulture at the Soil Association, who is just starting a new agroforestry project in Wiltshire at Helen Browning’s Organic Farm. Our co-host Abby shares a tool she initially created for her family’s farm to help them build a more resilient business using ‘small data’. Now other farmers are using it in the UK and Chile, in particular we hear from Davenport Vineyards about how they have used it to help their vineyard prosper. We finish with a bit of a food sovereignty focus – two reports from different ends of Britain both building people’s food policies: in Scotland we hear about the ‘Good Food Nation Bill’ and Dee Butte

After last month’s words from farmers around the world, we are now back on British soil. We have stories from Perthshire to Devon but we start on the west coast, with Patrick Holden from the Sustainable Food Trust. Patrick tells us about how he makes the most of the by-products from his dairy farm, and what a positive effect transparent pricing could have on farmers. We hear about a great little trick for soil testing on the cheap, the TBI – And then we are in Shropshire to find out about some of the ups and downs of Woofing. Finally, we get a collection of dispatches from the first Scottish Farmhack, an experience that had many people excited to share ideas and build tools together.

We recorded Farmerama ‘live’ from Turin, Italy this month where thousands of small-scale farmers, shepherds, fishers, chefs and people committed to more resilient food systems from over 100 hundred countries around the world have come together to celebrate and share food and farming knowledge at the Slow Food Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, it's like the UN for food systems. In Turin an eco-gastronomer tells us about feeding all of our senses, a once-fisherman shares storytelling as an alternative to certification and we hear the united voices of farmers from around the globe coming together thanks to the Slow Food Network. Back home the holistic management framework gives one mob-grazer some clear goals at home and in the fields, a dairy farmer has a super simple calf-feeding technique for his herd and we hear about the Alabama-Cuban Oggun Tractor - an open-source, easily fixable tractor.

We are at a crossroads in British food and farming history, so this month we begin to probe the post-Brexit discussion. We hear a few candid kitchen-table chats with different farm families. Some hidden truths about soil testing are revealed, and we learn about practical knowledge sharing platform Agricology, bridging the gap between science and what really happens on the farm. Plus one of the projects they feature: Fit for the Future Network, sharing experiences of renewable energy. And Heritage seeds head from Norway to the Middle East, returning to their homeland on an artistic voyage of discovery. This is the beginning, we all need to and sew the seeds of an agricultural policy that leads to a positive food and farming future in the UK.

It’s July and we’ve now been following the nitty gritty of the smaller-scale farming world for one whole growing year. One revolution of this world around the sun. We’ve chanced upon and dug up so many stories and met inspirational farmers and growers as the podcast has spiralled into an adventure leading us to uncover different ideas, perspectives and techniques along the way. This month we are in Utah for a garlic special in the Wasatch mountains. Hannah hears from a Dagenham farm trainee abou...

This episode we are brimming with innovations and new perspectives from all over the world. We enjoy crowd farming oranges in Valencia, WeFarm’s farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing in Kenya and Peru and the community fuel of Food Assemblies around the country - all part of a panel discussion we chaired at the ReWork Future of Food Summit. Ben Raskin is back as he chats to Alan Schofield about an organic perspective on hydroponics, can soil-less growing be organic? Abby gets the low-down on a supe...

Giddy goats, a no-till, mob grazing & herbal ley winning combo plus young entrepreneurial growers & food poetry

SoilCity in Glasgow, Farmhack, urban farm updates, poetic landscapes and glasshouses, plus rural entrepreneurs

The voice of small-holders, business tips for urban gardens, cellular agriculture and organics in Udaipur, India

Seeds on film, secret sauces, woodchip composts, Care Farming for health & finances, plus a few cheeky outdoor winter salads

Oxford Real Farming Conference, a positive health CSA, Field of Wheat uniting farmers & other folk, cover crops + no-till, & land songs