#15
After last month’s words from farmers around the world at the Slow Food Terra Madre, we are now back on British soil with stories from Perthshire to Devon.
We start on the west coast, with Patrick Holden from the Sustainable Food Trust. Patrick tells us about how he makes the most of the by-products from his dairy farm thanks to local producers Illtud & Leisel, and what a positive effect transparent pricing could have on all farmers.
We hear about a great little trick for soil testing on the cheap – the TBI – from systems thinker Dr Tom Powell. He used this technique to sample a Field of Wheat at many locations earlier this year to compare ‘underground’ activity in the soil.
And then we are in Shropshire to find out about some of the ups and downs of Wwoofing from Barbara at Babbinswood Farm. Wwoof UK celebrated its 45th birthday a few weeks ago and it’s great to hear about the contribution wwoofer’s have brought to Barbara’s farm, and how she has contributed to them.
Finally, we get a collection of dispatches from the first Scottish Farmhack organised by Common Good Food, an experience that had many people excited to share ideas and co-create tools – including new methods for crafting with the community minded MakLab.
You can listen online here or subscribe on iTunes here
We would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts about what’s good and bad in Farmerama! We are always looking for more contributors, ideas, anecdotes or stories from farmers and their friends all over – so please do get in touch if you have something you want to share!
Thanks to this month’s contributors Carolin Goethel at Food Assembly, Abi Glencross at Future Farm Lab, Keesje Crawford-Avis at The Burmieston Project , Abby Rose at vidacycle tech (and Farmerama) and of course our podcasting crafter Jo Barratt.