ORFC in the Field at Comrie Croft

In partnership with Comrie Croft, Tomnah’a Market Garden, and CoDeL this unique, hands-on event will explore how young people are finding a way back to the land and farming, re-introducing traditional skills, applying new agroecological knowledge and practices, and inspiring and encouraging more young people to do the same.

Over three days, Oxford Real Farming Partnership and partners will host an exciting series of practical workshops and talks in the 230-acre grounds of Comrie Croft which offers a variety of options for accommodation and food from local, low-input/organic suppliers. There will be delicious local food offerings for lunches and dinners as well as folktales and music in the evenings. On the third day, there is the opportunity to visit a variety of local farms to see some of your learnings in practice.

Small groups, guided by leaders in their field, will have the opportunity to take part in workshops including:

• Cultivating and integrating various mushroom species into your garden or farm with Rhyze Mushrooms Co-op
• Learning how to make a Lazy Bed to produce great soil with seaweed 
• Heritage Seeds: understand their importance and how to save your own seeds with Seeds of Scotland
• Tour Comrie Croft Farm with Andrew Donaldson and learn about Andrew’s journey to accessing land in Scotland
• Explore Tomnah’a Market Garden with lead grower, Catherine Kwella

There will also be the chance to take part in a visioning session, and create your own vision for a small parcel of land led by the founder of CoDeL, Theona Morrison, as well as an in-depth talk on how to access land in Scotland with Tara Wight from Land Workers Alliance and Josh Doble from Community Land Scotland.

Following the workshops, there is an optional day of farm visits (Friday, 11th October) where you can see some of the best Scottish agroecological farms. These include:

Tombreck Farm

Tombreck Farm is in Highland Perthshire beside Loch Tay and on the south-facing slopes of Ben Lawers. Tober Brown inherited the farm in 1997, and since then has planted thousands of trees and helped to create the community at Tombreck, which currently numbers 20 people. They have a herd of pedigree KuneKune pigs, Castlemilk Moorit rare breed sheep, hens, herb, flower and vegetable gardens and sell produce at their on-site farm shop.

East Neuk Market Garden

East Neuk Market Garden is a 4-acre agroecological farm growing vegetables, salads, herbs and fruit in the beautiful East Neuk of Fife. They grow on a human-scale without the use of pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilisers and follow methods that enrich and regenerate biodiversity and soil fertility. They are currently transitioning to a deep mulch or ‘no-dig’ system throughout the farm. They experiment a lot and are always trying new methods, whether to improve the ecological impact of the farm or to get the most flavour and nutrition out of the food they grow.