Field Notes: 10th - 16th June 2024

Jun 12, 2024

An exciting announcement...

Last week, we helped to host a launch party for the brand new pop up restaurant - Good Gathers. Nestled in the middle of the Cornwell Estate, this delightful spot is run by Ross & Ross Events and will be open from June till September. With deck chairs, parasols, music, tents and tables, it's a wonderful space to gather with friends or family, enjoy some delicious food and watch the sun go down on a summer evening.  
 
You'll be spoiled for choice with the menu's range of tasty options, including a 20 day dry-aged sirloin steak served with garlic butter, home-grown potatoes and a heritage tomato salad. There’s also slow-baked aubergine, chargrilled sea bream, and a scrumptious selection of wood-fired pizzas. 
 
All the profits from the restaurant will be donated to FarmED, and, at the launch party, Ian and Emma from the Kitchen Garden People explained how these profits will help educate people about regenerative farming.
 
Food is served Thursdays and Fridays from 5-9:30 PM, Saturdays from 12-9:30 PM, and Sundays from 12-5:30 PM. Follow @good_gathers on Instagram for more updates!

Events Recap: What’s on at FarmED?

The farm was bustling last week with school visits, a lunchtime talk from our resident artist, and the arrival of new work experience students. 
 
Lunchtime Talk - Meet our Artist in Residence

Judith Yarrow set off the week to a perfect start with a fascinating lunchtime talk about her time as a resident artist at FarmED. Over 18 months, Judith immersed herself in the farm, observing, sketching, and painting the fields as they transformed through the seasons. She shared her personal journey into regenerative farming, illustrating how the farming landscape can be so uniquely beautiful through an artist's eye.


Judith’s gorgeous painting of our sainfoin field last May 

Judith brought her original artworks, discussing her inspirations and telling the story of how she came to be an artist. She recently won the 2024 prestigious Ironstone Art Prize for her piece ‘Secret Pool’. If you missed the talk, you can find her work on her website or on Instagram. She’s also exhibiting her work at Chipping Norton Theatre throughout June as part of the Lark Rise production, so be sure to check it out! 

Farm Walks

Last week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sibford School to the farm. Alex, our Public Engagement Coordinator, kicked things off with an introduction to FarmED. The students then spent a glorious morning strawberry picking in the kitchen garden, leaving with a real understanding of what true farm-to-fork living looks like. 

Later in the week, a group of students from Kingham Hill School paid us a visit. They explored our natural flood management scheme at the lower end of the farm. It was brilliant for them to see how every small part of our farm contributes to the greater whole.
 
Special Visitors
 

Over the next month, we’re thrilled to be hosting two special visitors at the farm: PHD students Lyn and Ellen. They’ll both be spending two weeks with us as part of Cotswold Seeds’ Legume Legacy Project. This research programme brings together doctoral researchers across Europe along with experts in ecology, agronomy, plant breeding, animal nutrition and statistics. The project’s main goal is to improve the sustainability of farm-scale crop rotations. 

We are proud to be a part of this project, and excited to see Lyn and Ellen get stuck into all things happening at FarmED. As much as they will learn from us, we’re equally excited to learn lots from them, too.  
 
Cafe Catch-Up: What’s new in the FarmED Cafe?
 
The Cafe menu has been bursting with fresh veggies from the kitchen garden as we move into the summer. Some of our favourites include courgettes stuffed with spinach, feta, walnuts and carrot top salsa; roasted carrot and coriander soup with homemade sourdough; and a whole host of salads featuring beetroot, spinach, rhubarb, courgette and fennel. 
 
We’ve also had an abundance of strawberries over the past few weeks and have been busy making all sorts of delicious treats: jams, cakes, strawberry scones, smoothies, and ‘thickshakes’ with ice cream from The Dairyy at Honeydale and milk from North Cotswold Dairy. They’ve been going down a treat with visitors, so, with the weather looking up this week, why not pop down and try one yourself?
 
We also have some exciting news to celebrate: Phoebe, the friendly face of our farm-to-fork cafe, graduated last week from her Level 2 Patisserie and Confectionery Course at City of Oxford College. Over the last nine months, she has learnt a whole range of different skills, in pursuit of her dream career in baking. Congratulations, Phoebe!
 
Garden Treasures: What’s been happening down in the kitchen garden?

 
Our fledging kestrels 
 

Although it may be June, the weather has been far from summery at the start of the month as we’ve braced the hail, rain, wind and cold. Harvesting the summer strawberries and courgettes feels oddly out of place while wearing our jumpers and waterproofs, but that’s all part of being a grower! 
 

We’ve harvested the first of the cucumbers this week, a summer crop that will soon be coming out of our ears as we near the later part of the month. Yellow beetroots, fresh curly kale and spinach are also in abundance. 
 

We witnessed fledging kestrels on the farm this week, nesting near the owl boxes next to our plot. They’re currently under an amber conservation status, so it’s brilliant to have them on the farm, showing how when you look after the earth, wildlife will reward you. We even heard a cuckoo when walking along the hedgerow at the edge of our plot, a call that is becoming an increasingly rare sound in the English countryside as they join the UK’s ‘red list’. 
 

"If you build it, they will come." - Field of Dreams
 
In other news, we’ve been busy planting over 5000 brassicas: cavolo nero, cabbages, and lots of curly kale. The planting process for these seedings is a true labour of love. First, we mark the rows out with a two wheel tractor, which notoriously has a mind of its own and requires a lot of upper body strength to keep in line. Then, we irrigate the rows by connecting drip lines up to a water system before the dibbing starts - creating perfectly sized holes at evenly spaced intervals. Finally, the seedling is pressed into the hole, making sure the roots make contact with the soil. The vegetables are then cared for carefully until harvest: watered and weeded. Putting in the hard graft now means making our jobs easier during the course of the year, and means we will have a bountiful harvest come autumn! 


Life is better with strawberries