Western Morning News (Saturday)
Community project teaches kids about traditional farming
As part of our six-part series to commemorate the sailing of the Mayflower on September 16, 1620, the creators of a new historical travel guide, Mayflower – A Seachange, have interviewed 20 people from around Plymouth to find out what life was like 400 ye
EVERYONE knows that today’s farmers have diversified. In Devon alone you can tour a chilli farm, visit places that grow edible flowers, taste pretty good plonks from British vineyards, and enjoy the produce of farms that create cheese, fudge and clotted cream.
However, nothing could be more innovative and educational than Plymouth’s Poole Farm, a local nature partnership that involves people in volunteering, learning, enterprising activities, and providing a gateway to the Derriford Community Park project.
The park’s main objective is to tackle the great disconnect of humans from their natural environment. Plymouth’s nearest and oldest farm is a green island in an urban maze, hosting everything from pioneering rewilding initiatives through to community activities for all.
At Poole Farm, all the oak trees felled, to make way for a new road, are being used to further other farm projects, creating tables, seating, bee hives, signage and a pop-up café.
Another initiative is planting yellow rattle, a plant that stifles soil fertility to stop commercial grasses from growing, while giving wild flowers and diverse species a chance to flourish. There’s also a range of family-friendly activities from Wildlife Wanders to den-building, traditional rope-making, a chance to see Dartmoor sheep, renovate chicken sheds and study animal care.
For farm manager Ashley Tod, Poole Community Farm is a way of tackling the great disconnect between younger generations, their natural environment, the food they eat and other anti-social behaviours that are a growing problem in society as a result. “If the kids volunteer and help build up aspects of the farm, they won’t want to damage it; they’ll own and understand it,” he says.
Also, he warns: “The farming legacy we leave behind relies on the younger generation being custodians of the land and not ignorant consumers of its produce.”
Both of Ashley’s parents work in the youth sector, fostering kids from extremely difficult backgrounds, and it was this childhood experience that taught him the importance of being selfless and working in a team.
Ashley went on to study Environmental Science at university, owing to his love of plants and animals, making him the natural candidate to deliver Poole Community Farm’s vision. Key to the farm’s success is the team of volunteers who manage bee colonies, teach schools about the provenance of food, forage for things like wild garlic, and educate groups about how mankind domesticated wild forest foods through cultivation, in the past. So, the team needs a diverse range of skills and to be flexible.
Farm tours include learning about bees and pig husbandry. One of the most popular tours includes an ancient oak, as old as the Mayflower, which can be found in Lower Bircham Valley. “I call it the halo tree,” says Ashley. “We get a great show of bluebells round it each year. As an extra, fun activity, the school kids get to blow chalk-dust on clay figurines set up next to the tree, to make them look like ‘the old man of the woods’, making the trip more memorable.”
Another highlight of a farm visit is watching stags fighting in autumn’s rutting season, “A fantastic sight when they become fearless, majestically parading around, as if they own the place,” Ashley adds.
Innovation has been the secret to human survival and balance since the Mayflower sailed, and this farm is also pioneering new ways in agriculture. As well as trials of new ways of raising cattle, the farm will soon undertake a science-led re-introduction of a pair of Eurasian beavers – the first urban beaver population since they became extinct in Britain in the 16th Century.
“As ‘ecosystem engineers’, beavers kick-start cycles of nature,” says Ashley, “benefiting biodiversity enormously, by creating channels and ponds for a myriad of species.”
But ,at its heart, Poole Community Farm is still about growing things in an entrepreneurial and educational way. Ashley says: “I see crops as an essential part of farming – we grow squashes, pumpkins and many varieties of fruits, loads of apples from cookers to juicers, along with plums, in the biggest orchard in Plymouth. We want to expand this into a landbased horticultural education location and be a hub for the city.
“We plan to sell a wide range of produce from eggs to honey, through a plastic-free farm café, and even sell bee colonies. It is about using the farm as a hub for the local community, working with education providers like Plymouth University and Cornwall’s Duchy College, to teach sustainable farming.”
The farm will also teach an expanding remit to a cross-section of the community, building on NVQ 3 Animal Care, and apprenticeships.
Poole Community Farm aims to go some way towards ‘future proofing’ the local community against food shortages created by a potential breakdown in the food supply-chain, thanks to challenges like Brexit. “Some say that with ‘just in time’ marketing that we are only ever two days away from anarchy. Growing crops in back gardens or allotments will enable a lot of people to have the skills to nourish themselves and their families, and rely less on the ‘just in time’ economy,” Ashley adds.
Paradoxically, he is also a technology fan, “But only if it helps keep communities healthy and in touch with their natural environment and attracts people to this great Plymouth farming and wildlife programme,” he says.
Looking into the future, Ashley wants to make nature real again: “I think farms will not be the rural idyllic settings we know today. In 400 years, our dietary needs will be met with novel uses of technology: growing food in closed systems – nuclear bunkers, an underground tunnel, on a rooftop or in a central city warehouse – using advanced systems such as aquaponics.
“In time, we will be able to take a sample of cut fillet and synthesise that part of the animal in a laboratory to create the steaks of tomorrow. This will give animals their fundamental freedoms back, living a natural life in small herds. My hope is that mega-farms with poor welfare standards will cease to exist.”
Meet more fascinating Plymothians, learn about their amazing stories, find out positive strategies for survival, and discover the extraordinary story of the Mayflower pilgrims in Mayflower – A Sea Change, which you can buy from me by email ( julietcoombe@yahoo.com.au) or from Bookfluential (www.wordfluential. com/sea-change) or from Amazon (Mayflower A Seachange).
‘If the kids volunteer and help build up aspects of the farm, they won’t want to damage it’