PLOTGATE: THE MEAD I recently went, with Dan Britton from Plotgate community farm, to Salisbury where we visited Harnham Fields – where there are some well-known restored water meadows. We met Hadrian Cook and Kathy Stearne, of the Harnham Water Meadows Trust, and we...

BRIDIE'S FARM – A LIVELY START Photograph: Bridie's Farm newsletter   Glastonbury Food and Regenerative Farming Centre, known as Bridie’s Farm, held their first volunteer day on Tuesday 2nd April, and probably by the time you read this there will have been at least...

I began writing this series of articles intending to create a picture of regenerative agriculture in Glastonbury and the surrounding area; but whilst all of those included can call themselves regenerative in one way or another, I have found only one farming business...

Ben Hoyles, Brook Farm  Ben Hoyles lives at Brook Farm, on the western edge of Butleigh. If you have ever walked along the footpath that takes you from Henley Lane to The White Field – a small nature reserve that used to belong to the permaculture teacher Patrick...

Jem Bendell’s appearance at Glastonbury Town Hall, and the launch of his book Breaking Together, marked an important shift from his focus on climate change to painting with a broad bright brush a picture of society’s collapse and potential disintegration, in every...

There is little doubt that something important has happened in the local regenerative farming and growing community. Its aims are to transition to sustainable food and farming in what has been called the Avalon Agroecological Area, and to feed Glastonbury with food...

I arrived at Bridie’s Farm to meet Bon and Holly the day after their planning application for ‘A Food and Regenerative Farming Centre’ had been acknowledged by Somerset Council. Suddenly the gate was festooned with notices: the big welcome to Bridie’s Farm sign, the...

I am lucky enough to have an allotment, though it’s a small one. The traditional size for an allotment is 10 rods, poles or perches – which means 250 square metres. But like most people on the Town Council’s allotment site in Glastonbury I have barely a quarter of...

Photograph: Dan Britton    Photographs: Jane Sweetman   Plotgate Community Farm, in Barton St David, is potentially now nearly twice the size that it was a short while ago. They made a successful bid at auction for 16 acres of land right next to their existing...

Photographs: Kevin Redpath   “A massive milestone was crossed yesterday” as a friend said on the Monday, echoing the words of Graham Harvey as he’d ambled around the stage giving the opening address of the ‘Let’s talk about local food’ event at Glastonbury Town Hall....

This Sunday there is a very interesting event taking place at Glastonbury Town Hall: ‘Let’s talk about local food, farming and growing’. It is at once a People’s Assembly discussion about how best to provide our community with sustainable and resilient food supplies,...

I was asked to write a short piece about soil for Glastonbury’s Climate and Ecological Emergency’s Advisory Committee’s newsletter. This publication’s editor wanted to devote her next issue to information about the soil, and she seemed to be having trouble getting...