Episode 37 of Meet the Farmers features Wiltshire farmer and Chief Executive of the Soil Association Helen Browning. From her inspirational great aunts to food ethics and from pigs and dairying to games of squash we cover a lot of ground in this episode! For previous episodes of the podcast click on the 'Meet the … Continue reading Meet the Farmers – episode 37 – Helen Browning

Patrick and Brian Barker (aka The Barker Boys) grow cereals, herbage grass seed, linseed, spring beans and, until recently, oil seed rape, across 513 hectares in Suffolk.  Situated on the North Suffolk Claylands, the cousins have put active research at the heart of moving their business forwards as well as boosting biodiversity through conservation and … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 36 – Patrick and Brian Barker

Episode 34 of the podcast features Suffolk based organic farmer and entrepreneur William Kendall. William is the Chair of drinks company Cawston Press as well as an advisor to several other companies. He formerly led The New Covent Garden Soup Company as well as Green & Black’s and is a Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 34 -William Kendall

Episode 33 of the Meet the Farmers podcast features Guy and Emily French who run the innovative Foxes Farm business in north Essex. They grow for seasonal markets, focusing on Christmas Tree production as well as pumpkins which they sell wholesale to the Coop as well as selling direct to the public. They also run … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 33 – Guy and Emily French

Lauriston Farm is a 210 acre biodynamic farm on the Essex coast, not far from Maldon. Quite recently the farm's director, Spencer Christy, decided to reach out to the local community and make the farm community owned. Spencer has a background in environmental science and we spent a good deal of time talking about farming … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 32 – Spencer Christy

From putting 30 litres of raw milk in a fridge to selling cheese all over the country and further afield Jonny and Dulcie Crickmore's story is certainly an inspiring one in a few years when dairy farming seems to have faced little but bad news. Jonny's Baron Bigod cheese, made from the milk of his … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 30 – Jonny Crickmore

Episode 29 of the Meet the Farmers podcast features Cambridgeshire arable farmer and UK Chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, Martin Lines. We spoke at length about farming and conservation, the growth of the network and the work that Martin is doing on his own farm to improve the state of nature there. Also … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 29 – Martin Lines

Every January well over a thousand people gather in Oxford to talk all things connected to food and farming, at the Oxford Farming Conference and the Oxford Real Farming Conference. For the first time I attended both conferences in an attempt to search for common ground and to see whether delegates would be interested in … Continue reading Meet the Farmers – episode 28 – ‘Searching for Common Ground at the Oxford Farming Conference and the Oxford Real Farming Conference’

Episode 27 of the Meet the Farmers podcast features Essex farmer and Deputy President of the National Farmers Union, Guy Smith. Much of Guy's land lies below sea level, similar to my own family's farm which is situated just a few miles north, so his farm is at long term threat from sea level rise. … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 27 – Guy Smith

I'm really excited to introduce this special podcast episode to you which was produced in collaboration with Matt Williams and the Wild Voices Project podcast. We visited Teleri Fielden (@TeleriFielden), a first generation farmer, who won a Wales Young Farmers Clubs and National Trust scholarship to run a farm in north west Wales for three … Continue reading ‘Meet the Farmers’ – episode 26 – Teleri Fielden