Putting Down Roots with Sarah Langford

Sarah Langford is a best selling author, communicator and public speaker. For a decade she worked as a defence barrister but in 2017 she moved to Suffolk and, together with her husband, Ben, took on the running of his family’s small farm. They have converted the farm to organic production and have planted hundreds of metres of new hedgerows. 

The paperback version of her book Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution (pub. Penguin), comes out on 2nd March. 

Sarah has also written The Sunday Times bestseller, In Your Defence: Stories of Life and Law (pub. Penguin 2017), a narrative non-fiction account of her decade as a criminal and family barrister.

About Ben

Ben Eagle is a freelance rural affairs and agricultural journalist and podcaster. He also produces podcasts for a number of other rural organisations. You can find out more at benjamineagle.co.uk 

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A-Plan Rural Insurance

This episode is sponsored by our primary sponsor A Plan Rural. 

Open Farm Sunday LEAF Breakfast Meetings

Re the Open Farm Sunday shout Out click here to find out more about the breakfast meetings. 

Timestamps

00:27 Ben introduces today's show. 

01:39 Ben begins conversation with Sarah

02:00 At the beginning of the book Sarah writes that 'farming is not just a job, it's an identity' - how does Sarah perceive this?

04:13 How does Sarah see her own identity? 

05:45 Ben turns to the topic of Sarah's grandfather and asks her to talk about her grandparents and their influence on her. 

07:40 Childhood in the countryside

10:05 Connected to place

11:25 Ben introduces the show's new primary sponsor: A Plan Rural Insurance.

12:20 Why was Sarah so determined to embrace a city life?

13:54 How did Sarah come to Suffolk?

16:18 The search for home. 

18:50 Village life.

19:12 A shout out for farmers interested in taking part in Open Farm Sunday. 

20:17 How has Rooted gone down with the urban audience?

24:50 'Don't be fooled by the shininess - there are plenty of people out there who have wisdom that can help your life'. 

25:22 Sarah's fear of the response in the rural audience.

26:40 How did Sarah select the farmers that she wrote about?

29:50 Did the way that Sarah perceives farming alter by going through the research process for the book?

32:19 Food is at the root of health, of the environment and of community. 

35:52 More information about A Plan Rural

36:15 Ben and Sarah go outside for a field walk. 

27:38 Cover crop trials.

38:00 You will never control it all. 

42:05 Does Sarah feel like a farmer?

42:47 Sarah's message for the public.

44:14 Sarah's message to farmers.

45:07 Ben rounds up the episode.