Last week our Eco Reps and Prefects attended a special Eco Council meeting in which they were joined via a video link with a company called FarmED.

FarmED is a not-for-profit organisation based at Honeydale Farm: a diverse 107 acre mixed farm in the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire. Its mission is to create learning opportunities, spaces and events that inspire, educate and connect people (from the local community, farmers and academics to policy makers) to build sustainable farming and food systems that nourish people and regenerate the planet. 

The farm itself is a diverse mix of low input arable and temporary grass, and organic permanent pasture. Their trial plots include sainfoin, herbal ley, barley, heritage wheat, wild bird seed and various cover crops. The grassland is managed by mob grazed sheep and cattle. Other features include a micro dairy, natural flood management scheme, a whole farm Countryside Stewardship Scheme, heritage orchard, tree planting, wildflower margins and an apiary. Their kitchen garden, which they use for their café and restaurant, is run as a Community Supported Agriculture scheme.

During the call, students were introduced to the ‘farm in a box’ sent by the farm, which included some seasonal produce and an example of crops that had been grown with and without fertiliser, exploring the viability of more sustainable farming methods. It proved to be a really interesting insight into a working farm and the educational work around that, as our speaker was once an Eco Prefect and geographer at school, just like many of the audience.

For further information, here is their website: https://www.farm-ed.co.uk/