Hi Grahame, where can one see the spreadsheet? I couldn't see it in the Files section.

It is always said, looking at spreadsheets of financial projections "the sunshine is in the bottom right corner" - ie far into the future, the bottom line! I have taken this news of revenue falling behind expenses as an excuse to dust off the 2017 projections that were made when the second round of our field members were invited to contribute £200. The "break even" figure then, with conventional crops and fairly light expenses, was on the basis of yield 5.7 tonnes /ha to be sold at £145/tonne. We all agreed to veer away from this, into new territory of heritage crops, agro forestry, and a lower input model; but sadly I think what one would conclude is this approach would not be financially viable for a farmer trying to make a living from the land.

Thanks for the report John, and thank you for your time sharing part of your world with us for the last few years. It's been a great experience being part of ourfield. I feel a small part closer to where my food comes from and understand a little more about the choices farmers need to take. Sorry we made a loss but hopefully you've learned some useful info to use (or not) on other parts of the farm. I'll continue to follow groundswell on social media and hope to make it in person too. All the best to everyone at the farm!

p.s. I think you're spot on with your comments about future ideas like this Abby. 60? people is a lot to stay engaged with and communication is both key and time consuming, so a focus on this could really boost any future projects.

Hmmm 7.5 tonnes from 28 acres :). Will be interested to ask John Letts what his thoughts on this are!

Thanks for the update and all your brilliant work and perseverance with OurField @John Cherry you have been a total star!!

It has been a real treat to be part of this and I am excited to see how the field progresses in future years as the trees develop and what you decide to do with it! Do you have a clear idea of what you will do next?

It does feel extra quiet without the lovely @Tony Allan around.

On reflection the two things it seems are v important if there ever was another ‘OurField’ are some funding for a group organiser/admin and a paid position for someone taking on a specific sales/marketing role for any outputs….both feel vital for a new project to flourish. Would be interested to hear others thoughts on this too.

Thanks to everyone, been a pleasure co-‘managing’ a field with you :)

Harvest was successful, we got two trailer loads off the field. I put it through the cleaner three times and ended up with 7.5 tonnes of wheat and about 20 tonnes of brome seed. Realistically, the experiment is over.

The income from the last two years combined with what's in the bank is unfortunately less than the costs of planting and harvesting, rent etc for the two years, so I think now is the time to wind up #ourfield.

It's been a lot of fun and very interesting from our point of view, but I it's course is run.

John

Thanks for doing that Oliver. Good to see how things are growing and the trees seem to be doing well. This is also on my listen list for anyone, like me, who didn't get to Groundswell (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000x4xx), which seems to be getting bigger and better every year. Well done John and family!

Hi everyone, for those who weren't able to be at Groundswell, I made a quick trip up to the field on Wednesday afternoon. Sadly I missed the tour, but I'm sure John and others can add the info I'm missing. I wasn't quite sure what the wheat variety was in the field, I'm afraid.

Here's a short video I made, which hopefully gives you an idea of what's going on in the field

Thanks John, the pictures are great and the crop looks healthy.

I appreciate the cereal yield per period of time has limits but of course an organic crop rotation while yielding cereals only once or twice in a rotation of 5, 6 or 7 years is productive during the rest of the rotation too, for instance with a diverse ley fixing nitrogen and providing grazing for livestock who also fertilise the ground leading to a cycling of nutrient to enable (one hopes) a healthy field for future years. And of course providing income during those years outside of the cereals.

And over the course of a rotation the mixtures of clovers, livestock manure, cereals and pulses works well by reducing weeds without herbicides and disease without fungicides and also feeds the soil without adding bought in bag fertiliser.

The perenniel approach is different and over time it will be interesting to see how it goes. As you say, John, time will tell.

John, what cereals do we have in there?

The trees are an exciting aspect and will help providing not just shelter but adding focus for more creatures, from the microbial to the feathered varieties who all bring their attributes to the field.

I can see us scything à la Rob Penn come the autumn!

- https://robpenn.net/slow-rise-a-bread-making-adventure/

Guess where the cows pooed.

To answer Stevens points below:

The whole idea of this continual wheat with a permanent understory of clover/trefoil/weeds is that you don't worry about the weeds as they are doing their thing, holding mycorrhizal fungi when the wheat is not there and protecting the soil. It obviates the need for rotations and fertiliser and sprays. If we harvest 1 tonne/acre every year, then that will effectively out-yield conventional organic farms, which might produce 3 tonnes/acre once every five years...

The field has had no sprays of any sort, no roundup, no fungicides, no weedkillers, no fertiliser and it looks ok, even with no rain to speak of for six weeks. I think it's an interesting experiment. The fruit trees look like they've taken ok too. Time will tell.

I've just spoken to John Letts who has taken last years harvest home. He is planning to malt a fair bit of it, as it was slightly musty from the weed seeds and then turn that into Groundswell Beer, ready to sell at the show (23rd/24th June, tickets available now...). He also has some better quality stuff which he'll get milled if anyone wants some flour in 5 kg bags. The weed seeds he dressed out he thinks could make into Blackgrass Whisky. Interesting times...

John

Pictures of field

I'm so sorry to hear that. I think I only met him the once, at a meeting at the E5 bakehouse, but his contributions there and throughout have been so instructive and important. Condolences to John and everyone else who knew him.

So sorry to hear this about Tony. Thank you for letting us know John.

Oh John, that is such sad news.

Tony was a brilliant scholar and a warm and open person. I am proud to have known him for the brief time that I did.

I feel dreadful that I've taken so long to answer your points Steven and now I've heard the ghastly news that Tony Allan has died. So, if you'll excuse me, I'll leave it a bit longer to answer.

Tony was an intellectual giant and the nicest man I've ever come across and I am just terribly sad

John

Thank you Steven for your very informative comments. Your invitation to consider a long term approach to OurField including taller heritage wheat and weed control is timely. Also the use of nitrogen fertiliser, regenerative practices, agroforestry, nutrition and marketing. We need John to share what he is thinking. Tony ALLAN

Hi,

There are several issues here then aren't there?

Weeds are an issue, they compete with the crop, plus if weed seed is not removed after the crop is cut then there are issues such as fungal infection of the grain.

We have discussed approaches to weed control and management. I know that people in this group have voiced opposition to use of herbicides such as glyphosate and John doesn't use a plough.

I wonder then what the long term strategy is?

Another factor I believe we have yet to resolve is use of fertiliser.

The choice is generally between each or a mix of these; green manures - clovers and such, animal manures or manufactured fertilisers.

That last one has an enormous GHG footprint. Research from Sheffield Uni showed that around half the GHG of a conventional loaf of bread is the artifical fertiliser ammonium nitrate, and much of that is from the manufacture of that product before it even gets to the farm.

Some farmers use harrows and hoes to take out or even just to stress the weeds. Timing is vital and it can be nerve wracking when a young wheat crop is already sprouting.

Variety choice has a key role too. Research shows that taller varieties are generally found to be more weed competetive than more recent;y bred varieties. Taller can refer to anything as recent as Maris Widgeon - 1960s - or as far back as April Bearded - 1860s.

Another advantage to taller wheats is they can grow well with less fertility. That would help if ammonium nitrate is not being used. It doesn't when it is being used, as taller wheats are more likely to lodge, to fall over, where a bag fertiliser is applied.

Anyway, food for thought if people are interested in such a discussion.

Do we want to look at what the long term strategy for OurField is?

Thanks for the update John. As others have said I agree the idea of a beer sounds good if (some of) the grain is good enough. The various grades make it hard for lay people like me to comment, so I wanted to say I am happy for you and John L to use the grain for any purpose you think is best. Sorry not to be able to feed in more widely.

Sorry he’s just sent me a link that might be handy. It’s for barley but wheat is more or less the same:

https://www.ukmalt.com/uk-malting-industry/barley-requirements/

I think the assessment would need to be made by the maltster rather than the brewery?

Cat

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Hi all,

Thanks John for the update.

My partner is a brewer so I’ve just mentioned this to him.

Are we sure that the quality is good enough for malting? He seems to think if it’s not good enough for milling, it’s unlikely to be good enough for malting. Or at least that there isn’t a buyer for something that isn’t of a
certain quality.

So is there a way to get this assessed by the buyer (the breweries?) and maybe get some kind of guarantee that they will purchase once the grain is malted? I’m assuming malting would have a cost attached?

I think it’s a great idea but it only works if the malted wheat can be used.

Cat

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John Letts has provided a lot of very relevant information and advice. I suggest you do whatever you have time to do. The beer making option sounds interesting but someone needs to have time to make things happen. If you (and we) don't have time I think the risks are too high to get involved in such a venture. Best regards Tony

Hi John, it all seems a sensible choice under the circumstances. If we can find any way to use the crop then we should go for it. Thanks for all you and John L have been doing.

Hi John,

Thanks for the update. It seems like unless we feed it to livestock, there aren't a great deal of alternatives. I really like the beer idea and it would be great to have something to give people - as well as maybe even making some money on it.

All the best,

Oliver

Any comments?

We've delivered last years harvest back to John Letts. Unfortunately the amount of weed seed in the sample has given most of it a musty aroma, which makes it unsuitable for milling. Probably easiest if I quote his message:

Thx for sending on the grain. I've worked my way through the bags and have made the following conclusions....

1. The spelt/emmer mix doesn't have much more than 5% spelt/emmer in it, as I remember from when we walked the fields (and I've just checked some old photos). As I remember, there was a lot of volunteer wheat (I think it was volunteer) but there was so much grass it was hard to figure out what was what.

2. C. 1.5 tons of of the 2.8 tons of spelt/emmer seed is a little too musty for milling, but is probably ok for distilling or malting.

2. There is an amazing amount of grass in the samples - at least 10% by weight. I'll get in CYO Seeds to help with this. It's too much for me to handle.

3. There is c. 6.5 tons of heritage wheat according to my estimation (not all the bags have a weight indication). C. 3.7 of this is too musty for milling, but is probably ok for malting or distilling. That leave 2.7 tons for milling.

So in total I count c. 9.3 tons of grain in total, but after cleaning I reckon there will be 7.5 tons or so, of which I can use 2.7 for milling.

I would prefer not to feed this grain into TOAD's main products because I think this grain contains modern wheat, but can I suggest we get it malted?  This is exactly the size of a malt batch at Crisps. it would make a fine Groundswell wheat beer. If there is any surplus malt TOAD would buy it. And malt keeps for at least 1-2 years if kept cool. A spirit batch needs only 2 tons, but I'm not sure if TOAD is ready for that just yet as they have quite a queue in their production plans for the short term.

If this does not appeal to you then I can try to shift some of the non-smelly grain to my miller for baking - but i won't be able to claim the emmer/spelt is heritage. And that still leaves the 3.7 tons of smelly heritage grain.

I'm not sure how we can work out the price for your work... it was a terrible year and I don't know your production costs. But maybe, if we got it malted (c. 350 a ton delivered back) we could recoup any loses and, perhaps, even make a lot more on the beer?  My contribution so far has been the grain used for seed. Your's has been production cost and delivery of the harvest. I say we be bold and get it malted, and then find a couple of breweries to make some great beer for sale at Groundswell or elsewhere. Groundswell Ale..  has a ring to it.

Dear John

You could do without this frustration.

Also the lock down does not help. It is really quiet in London today

Keep safe. TonyA

Thanks for the update John – not ideal! I’m tied up with work commitments currently, but would love to come and lend a hand assuming restrictions allow, by the time the trees are delivered.

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Quick update...in turns out that the dopey Woodland Trust failed to actually order half the trees (despite telling us they'd be delivered between Christmas and the NY), so we planted a few cherries and a lot of hazel and elders today (that had been delivered) and now we await the other fruit trees. So if you were thinking of turning up with a spade tomorrow (no-one did today, so we weren't holding our breath), please don't break lockdown on our account!

John

Dear John

Thank you for the invitation to help plant trees. As I said earlier the spirit is strong but the flesh is elderly and weak. I only way I can contribute is with a donation. I shall be in touch. Good luck with the project. TonyA

Sorry John, I will be working on those days but all the best with the planting.

"The guys who want to harvest the fruit" also sounds interesting. I have heard about other partnerships like this forming and it seems like a great way forward. Do they have a website/social media presence we can follow?

I'm sorry for the late notice, but we've provisionally earmarked the 5th and 6th January for tree and shrub planting for the agroforestry project. There are a lot of hazel and elder bushes and apple, pears, cherries, plums and gages, roughly a thousand altogether. We've marked out the rows already and have a plan so it shouldn't be too arduous a job. The guys who want to harvest the fruit have got a few helpers lined up, but there will be room for more if anyone fancies it...a bit of exercise before the Oxford Real Farming Conference begins on the 7th!

The forecast is a bit dodgy and with all the covid hassles I don't expect anyone fancies this particularly, especially as we'll ask everyone to provide their own lunches etc. It should be happening from 10am both days, let me know if you're keen or turn up at Lannock Manor Farm (before 10am)

John

Thanks for the update and link, John. I'm very much up for coming to plant some of the trees in the new year! If you need any help to organise a date I can help with this too, if this would be useful.

Dear John, Joanna and Paul - Thank you for posting the excellent Groundswell webinar on soil health. It was a very good session. And thank you for the up-date on the wheat and the weeds on OurField. The news on the tree planting is very good. The idea of doing some planting is good. I regret that he spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. What species will you be planting? Best Tony (Allan)

If anyone is interested, here's a recording of a webinar we did on Monday:

 https://youtu.be/nnYVEcbhL7A

Also, the agro-forestry project is coming along nicely, the Tree Heritage people reckon they'll get the trees and guards etc to us by Christmas, so if anyone is keen on a bit of planting, we might try and get a gang together early in the new year.

The wheat is up on the row, surrounded by a lot of weeds, but I'm full of hope that it'll get away ok. We'll give some thought to grazing it off around March time if the weeds look like they're coming on a bit strong.

I hope you're all keeping well

John

Dear Annie, Thank you for sending the information on activities in North-East England. My roots are in Northumberland. We have learned from hard experience that putting a local supply chain in place with local players is a key condition for commercial success. It would be good to hear from JohnC if there are any signs that there is any market innovation in Hertfordshire. Tony (Allan)

This is quite an interesting session from the Northern Real Farming Conference 2020 on minor cereals and the supply chain - much of the spelt discussion echos questions we had in year one: https://www.northernrealfarming.org/events/developing-supply-chains-for-minor-cereals-in-north-east-england/

Hope you are all well! :)

From Tony (Allan)

Do find time to listen to two amazing BBC Radio4 programmes which were on air this morning.   

Nature notes, from farming to fungi - 31 August 2020   about 45minutes

 BBC Radio4 - Start the Week

James Reebanks, Melissa Harrison, Merlin Sheldrake with Andrew Marr

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m569

BBC Farming Today    31 August 2020     about  12 minutes

The Farming Forum        https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m4cn

On regenerative agriculture.  An amazing Farming Today episode.

This Farming Today episode is interesting as the programme has interviewed conservation and regenerative farmers a number of times in the past five years.  But there is never any further discourse.  Every time the system is presented as if the topic has never been identified before. In addition the NFU never responds or presumably is never asked for an opinion. The farm input corporates, who sell cultivation equipment and tractors remain silent. As do those who sell pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer. DEFRA is silent.  It is a very long and expensive - what social scientists recognise as - a sanctioned discourse. The powerful commercial interests are determined to go on doing the wrong thing extremely well.

Actually Syngenta and Bayer are showing signs that they realise that regenerative principles cannot be ignored. Perhaps it is time to reach out to them.

Best    Tony (Allan)

So good to hear your words on the radio, Rosy.

You hit the nail on the head, several times. This line sticks out, for me, - We shoud be asking why some people can’t afford good food, and where does this fixatation on cheapness come from in those that can afford?

Well done for being so clear and insightful and getting your voice heard. I know it may not move mounains today but people might hear that interview and it might give them added incentive and added confidence to do something brilliant.

I also listened back, thanks for the fuller update Rosy. It's here for a few more days if anyone else wants to listen https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000kmkw

The bit you said about the fixation on cheapness from those that can afford is what irks me the most. Hopefully food security means more in our post covid world.

Brilliant work @Rosy Benson - you are amazing and thanks for sharing such inspiring words :). And thanks for bringing it to our attention @Tony Allan. Can't wait to taste a Bread and Roses loaf one day soon

Hi Tony, thank you it's nice to hear you caught it the quick interview I did on Radio 4, you must have been awake early to catch Farming Today! The full interview was on local food responses in the time of Covid and their push towards future food resilience, its great that local grain is getting more attention. Here is a transcript of the longer interview if anyone is interested in my ramblings on where I'm at with using local grains! 

INTRODUCTIONS

Hi I’m Rosy Benson of Bread and Roses, a bakery project in the city of Bristol  I mill, mix, bake and deliver FRESH BREAD. I set up this project  arm of the bakery around the start of lockdown to make loaves for a couple of charities delivered through the Bristol Coexist Community Kitchen, that funding is due to end soon. Sustainable long term funding for vulnerable food insecure groups to access real nutritious food is perhaps a whole other radio programme!

The other arm of the bakery is a doorstop delivery of your weekly loaf, we are set up using a subscription model where customers set up a monthly direct debit, this arm of the business in part subsidises the other but there is a limit to how much I can sustainably do for free. We definitely increased our capacity and took on a lot more customers in the initial few weeks of lockdown as people scrambled to secure their weekly provisions.

I think what makes the bakery different to many others is I buy in grain direct from farmers in the South West and around the UK, I like to mill fresh flour for better flavour and nutrition and I do long fermentation bread (sourdough) using a whole range of different grains, not just wheat, grown in farming systems I support and I go and visit those farms throughout the year. 

We’ve managed to keep the costs down by sharing a bike delivery system with a local salad and milk business and we have quite a basic bakery set up, so our overheads weren’t massive.

I’m very excited for the next few months, whilst we continue to look for an affordable production/retail bakery space in Bristol I am currently setting up a teaching bakery with a friend, actually on the farm where a large proportion of the grain I use comes from, Gothelney Farm in Somerset, it will be called Field Bakery, this has been helped by the support and encouragment of Fred the farmer who runs Gothelney. I’m very aware of how little access the average person has to where and how their food is produced, especially those living in inner city Bristol, so we will be inviting small groups to come out for the day on the farm, to walk through the hundreds of different varieties of grains out in the fields, to see the pigs! teach them a little about the soil and the farm system as a whole, give them a chance to get their hands messy in the dough and for them to bake and take home their own loaf and mill their own bag of flour using Fred’s grains. I hope they’ll enjoy the experience and in the future take a minute to consider supporting local grain when they next make or buy bread. Day courses start pre harvest in August.

HOW HAVE YOUR BEEN AGILE as A BUSINESS through lockdown?

As bakers we worked hard before, so that didnt change, but I think almost overnight I felt a little more pressure and sense of responsibility to keep baking for my community here in Bristol, but I also try to have a sense of level headedness about what’s happening. We are very resilient. I found a set up where I could work alone, and took advice on how to work safely. The long term goals of Field Bakery bakery are now clearer than ever.

Small independents businesses with short supply chains were able to adapt very quickly.  

Many bakeries expanded what they offered to keep access to food for people  from local producers when other routes to market  stopped.

The supermarket model can’t provide the same quality, transparency and authenticity in (what they call) bread, their model doesnt adequately feed people, and creates great amounts of waste and how they’ve been allowed to take market dominance (especially in the area of food aid) at this time is really worrying. I hope this moment in time has reminded people to support small businesses then, now and always. We need them for their skills and the diversity they bring. 

The South West Grain Network is relatively new and part of a much bigger UK and international grain movement. It has taken many years of commitment and labour from farmers to go in this direction, often without governmental help but down to their own experience and observations on caring for their soil, I’m happy to be helping provide a market in the city of Bristol for that grain and to help with the education that goes alongside creating that market. As a network we still working it out, there’s been plenty to do in terms of logistics, purchasing grain cleaning equipment to improve quality, as well as  thinking about how we can help other farmers and bakers to connect in the future so more networks can exist.

I hope that they’ll be a lasting change with the increased awareness around grain and local food as we as food producers (primary and secondary) have become more visible.

CHEAPNESS- why does a loaf of your bread cost £4?

I would like everyone to be able to access local, healthy and affordable food. As Tim Lang writes in his recent book Feeding Britain; “food poverty and inequalities are shaped by forces outside the food sector; jobs, income, social class, taxation, history, genetic chance as to who one’s parents are”

The bread I make is good value for money, a loaf I make will sustain, nourish and can be enjoyed for several meals, the price fully reflects the costs of labour and ingredients which have actually been incurred in creating it and getting it to the consumer. Through the Bread and Roses project bakery in Bristol I also make sure there are a proportion of loaves which are subsidised so everyone we all can access them.  The nutrition and digestability of sourdough, the skill and time spent fermenting and baking at a human scale plus the use of diverse locally grown grains mean it can’t be compared to the cost of a loaf of sliced white from the supermarket. There are huge externalized diet-related ill health costs of cheap food which we will be paying for in years to come, we can already see the effects on our environment and our health. We shoud be asking why some people can’t afford good food, and but also where does this fixatation on cheapness come from in those that can afford? Isnt your diet one of the most important things to spend money on? Part of my motivation for teaching baking is helping people to value local grain and the craft of baking (as well organic vegetables, meat, diary etc) we’ve got a long way to go in terms of education around food and farming. Currently supermarket bread is a symbol of a broken food system, I’m going to bake the way I do as my resistance to that. 

FUTURE RESILIENCE

From a food security and energy perspective it makes perfect sense to grow our food closer, rather than relying on imported wheat. But local grain is much more than that to me. Its the great people I meet in this journey as a baker. As a food citizens, as bakers and other food processors we need to find connection to the land around us so I’m keen to build long term relationships with great innovative farmers and have more reason to get outside. It makes my job a lot more interesting!  I want to support low impact regenerative farming  and encourage biodiversity in the field, for healthier soil, and potentially greater adaption of these cereals to climate instability. As I progress in my career as a baker, having worked in many bakeries in the UK and US I feel I’m gradually getting closer to learning how to make better bread and increasingly enjoy the job I do, maybe its also that I increasingly have more agency in sourcing better flour too, I’m building a real desire for flavour and my appetite grows for good food. I like to create food for nourishment, pleasure and enjoyment, for that moment savoured when you eat something really delicious. 

The more we put our shopping pounds towards local food, the stronger it can become and as they say, a food system is only as good as the one you engage in. I want to know that when I spend money on food its supporting regenerative farming, more of that value should be going back to the producer encouraging good farming practices as well as supporting a valuable meaningful job in the bakery. I believe we all should earn a decent living, but I also want to help foster a sense of purpose and integrity in what we do as bakers. 

Dear Wendy

The Farmarama episodes are amazing. It is good that Abby Rose - a founder of OurField is active in Farmarama. It is also good that JohnC is aware of the ideas. We should certainly align OurField activities with the widening awareness of the importance of seed diversity. Best TonyA

Hi Tony. You can listen online here https://soundcloud.com/farmerama-radio Enjoy!

Dear Wendy

Very many thanks for drawing our attention to the Farmarama material. Could you provide links to the episodes? And a good New Year to everyone. TonyA

Happy new year everyone! And thanks for the update above John/Tony/Christine. I hope the slow down in wet weather is helping in the fields!

As well as Darren's recent mention of the Farmarama episode (no 51) including John Letts talking about his grains I have also just finished listening to the six part Cereal series by Farmarama's Katie which was mentioned in the episode.

If you've not already listened to it (and I'm sure some of you have as you worked on it or are in it!) do!

As we're all part of ourfield we're obviously already bread fans but the series covers so much about the bread making process, from seed to loaf and many steps in between, I'm tempted to go back and listen to it all again.

Sharing an abridged offline discussion started by Tony A on the impact of the recent very wet weather on the field with input from John regarding Our Field Weston :

BBC's Farming Today has lots of encounters with farmers having a terrible problem with saturated fields and facing great difficulties getting the winter crops sown. How is it at Lannock Manor Farm?

John's response: It is now quite soggy, we have had to keep off the land for the last week or two. I had a walk around Lannock last night to have a look, as the ditches were running for the first time this winter, the soil has finally admitted to being saturated. The #ourfield crop looks okay, it has mostly emerged. I think we may have lost some seeds to rotting in wet ground, but enough will come to make a crop...

...I think we've had less rain than Lincolnshire for example, and our soil is less heavy than some, so I try not to feel too smug about how clever we are. Most of our cultivating neighbours are, however, way behind and those that have had a go, have fields that look like a re-enactment of the Battle of the Somme.

[Re a comment about beneficial effect of cover crops] You are quite right about cover crops, but even they can't work miracles. I've just been walking across some here, the cover is three foot high in places, but there are still puddles on the soil surface on the heavier ground. We may be regenerating, but we have a way to go. At least with living roots in the soil, so it'll dry quickly when the time comes. I suspect the uncovered soil c/w ponds will take a while longer. Even permanent pasture here walks a bit squishy in places.

One would hope that this wet back end would be a wake-up call for those practising conventional techniques, but so far I've had comments from cultivating locals like 'It's all right for you, you don't cultivate so you've managed to plant everything.' All I can do is meekly nod...words fail me frankly. I don't want to create an 'us and them' mentality which makes it hard to cross the line, but I really want to shout at them 'Why are you spending a small fortune on plough metal, diesel and machinery to get into a situation where you can't plant anything, while simultaneously you are degrading your core asset: the soil?'

Time will tell, people will change when they are ready

Hi everyone, I hope all's well. Does anyone know where I can get hold of a few kilos of heritage wheat seed to grow for personal baking?

Dear Darren

Veru many thanks for drawing our attention to these topics Best Tony Allan

A couple of things I thought Ourfield folks may like

A lovely recent episode of the Farmarama podcast included a long piece where John Letts tells the story behind his grains - which we are now growing.

For seed week, this week, Seed Sovereignty published a series of blog posts that ended with Where have all the grains gone

Dear Darren
Very many thanks for drawing this farm visit to our attention. It is very important to encourage the engagement of farmers, scientists and consumers on the crucial regenerative issue of soil health. Best Tony Allan

Thought some Ourfield folks may be interested in this Farm Tour in Oxfordshire 17th September
Its with Soil Farmer of the Year, Julian Gold who farms 751 acres of mixed arable crops.

A message from Tony Allan:
Industrial agriculture and its climate change impacts
The global climate change debate neglects the role of industrial farming on carbon emissions. The attached article is a well written piece summarising the position and highlighting the problem.

It has no metrics. The CC community only highlights the contributions of energy, transport and other industries to global temperature trends. Agriculture has other big impacts on water, biodiversity and nutrition.
Link to article:

A message from Tony Allan:

Dear OurField members

Groundswell 26/27 June 2019

Attached is a short report on the extraordinary impact of Groundswell. It has become a farming phenomenon in the UK.

I invite the other OurField members who attended to supplement these comments.

With very best regards
TonyA

Good luck to the Cherry's for Groundswell and have fun if you're going!

Hello to everyone, I want to bring to your attention an event I help to mange which takes place each July. This year the OF&G National Organic Combinable Crops - #NOCC19 - takes place on 3 July and will be on a farm in East Yorkshire that moved into organic in 1949.
More details on the OF&G website - https://ofgorganic.org/events/nocc-19

Hi Oliver, I've sent a ticket code to you by email. Let me know if you get it. Yes its for both days.

Hi Steven, I didn't book in time. Can I have that ticket if it's still available? Is it for both days?

Hello, I will be at John's farm for Groundswell this coming Wednesday & Thursday, maybe see some of you there? I may have a spare ticket if someone does want to go and has not yet booked. Cheers, Steven

I have attached a report from Tony Allan about Conservation Agriculture (CA) and hydrology from a research visit on 3 June 2019.

I will be there both days - would love to go take a trip to ourfield with you all! Think they have changed layout this year so everything will b v close to OurField

Yes, would be good for us to meet up those who can make it.
I will be going to Groundswell. Hope to see some of you there.
Its a great schedule - https://groundswellag.com/sessions/

I'm due to take part in a session in the Agricology space on the Wednesday, detail here and if any of you want to come along you’d be most welcome -
Getting out of the commodity trap – new markets for sustainable arable
Agricology Discussion Tent 26/06/2019 12:15 pm - 12:45 pm
One of the barriers to moving towards more sustainable arable systems is finding a market for smaller volumes of diverse crops. In response to this there is a growing number of farmers who are finding alternative markets for cereals and pulses which support them to farm agroecologically.
Fred Price, Gothelney Farm; Katie Bliss, Agricology; Steven Jacobs, OF&G
https://groundswellag.com/sessions/agricology-breakout-session-new-grain-economy/

Who is going to be at Groundswell and which day?

We should try and arrange a quick catchup and go and look at the field. I'll be going on one of the days (not sure which yet) so can take some photos for everyone.

Great to see John and Groundswell in the Guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/24/farmers-save-earths-soil-conservation-agriculture

I am posting a message from Tony Allen, for info:

Monitoring soil health - comparing the hydrology of soils under conservation agriculture practices with soils in fields being farmed with conventional tillage and chemical inputs

Mark Mulligan at King's College London has initiated a 24/7 monitoring programme to detect hydrological outcomes of the introduction of conservation agriculture practices - namely no-till, cover cropping and rotations. His team has installed monitoring equipment on John Cherry's farm and on the farm of another CA farmer well known to some of us, Tony Reynolds, who farms at Bourne in Lincolnshire. At each place the monitoring equipment has been installed in a field of a neighbouring non-CA farmer. There are four other pairs. The plan is to expand the number of sites. There will be a panel on the activity at Groundswell 2019 on 26 and 27 June 2019. There will be an exhibit at Groundswell where the approach and preliminary results can be discussed.

Thanks @grahamehunter

And I suggest we identify not only a seed variety we like but a market for the resulting crop as well.
Spelt has issues as it needs de-hulling. We managed to make it work last time, thanks to sterling efforts of OurField members, nod to @christinelewis1 and @oliverrubinstein and @grahamehunter

So, whatever we want to choose from I’d like it if proposers of varieties have also an idea of how and where to market the grain. Or if they have not then it would be gret if we start that conversation before seed is sown.
On a different technical point if heritage or simply older wheat varieties are being considered then we should note that they tend not to enjoy the full fertiliser regime in modern farming.
I know @johncherry is exploring different approaches to fertility building on the farm. But worth noting that if there is a lot of fertility in the soil it can lead to heritage wheats shooting up and then falling over, often called ‘lodging’.
Sometimes they’ll come back up, but its a risk. They sometimes lie so close to the ground even if they do stand back up later in the season they may have picked up some fungal disease if over a very wet soil. Less of a problem if we get another year of drought-like conditions!
Cheers,
Steven

Dear Grahame
Many thanks for inviting ideas for cropping for next year. We should find out what heritage and population wheat seed is available. Those who are up to speed on seed availability and marketing options should make suggestions. Tony (Allan)

The earlier the better for me. Decisions seem to take a long time and planning in advance is something many people have asked for.

What crop for 2020?

In view of the very long discussions last year, could we start gathering information about the to-be-sown-perhaps-in-2019 seed programme. Last year we left it so late, that when we eventually decided to plant a heritage crop, that wheat seed was no longer available.

No objections but maybe we just call it 'crop updates' so it continues each year. Either way it seems logical not to call it 2018 crop updates.

Should we not rename the topic "2018 crop updates" to "2019 crop updates"?

Any objections to this? We called it 2019 in the entire discussion about what to plant, so with that logic the harvesting year becomes the denominator.
I think it is also fine if we stay with 2018 crop updates, but would that then mean we should always then stay with the planting year as the crop denominator? (So, Spring crops / Autumn crops for harvest in the same year, have different descriptors.)

Hi everyone. Tony kindly emailed round a link to a BBC Radio 4 show which visited Martin Lines in Cambridgeshire recently. If anyone else wants a listen I found the programme at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002rll It's a nice positive listen for 20 mins or so. I found it very interesting.

Thank you Oliver for the New Year greeting and comment. Let's develop the topics.

Totally agree and great idea @oliverrubinstein - I am writing a post about this at the mo as well - so will be sure and tag Sustainuary when we post it in a few weeks!

Great idea - it's already an interesting read on #Sustainuary and it's only the 4th January.

Sustainuary

Hi everyone, happy new year.
On the back of Veganuary, I'm really keen to get people thinking more about the overall impact of their food. I've come up with 'Sustainuary', where people commit to making a concerted effort each day for the rest of the month, to learn more about where their food comes from and how it's produced, so they can make more informed choices.

I'm all for more plant-based diets, but it worries me that people have become so focused on 'plant-based at all costs' and there's not enough discussion (or understanding) about the impact of some of these meat and dairy alternatives. I'm encouraging people to ask questions on social media and for others to share resources that might help (as well as their own knowledge). If anyone would like to follow or take part, I'll be tweeting about it using #Sustainuary as well as sharing things on facebook.

Nov 2018 Groundswell newsletter

Here is a link to the Nov 2018 with information about Groundswell 2019 - from Tony Allan

agenda suggestions for 30th September?

Perhaps enter them here, or send them directly to Tony Allen.

Tony, I see one of your responses included this comment..
The problem we are facing in making a decision reflects the fact that we have not been able to put in place a multi -season rotation strategy informed by the potential of mob-grazing. We are also facing the problem of not having a research capacity.
Perhaps we can discuss how this could work, at the meeting?

Hi, Harriet,
my understanding of how OurField was established, was to get the public (so, people like you, in a cooperative) involved in understanding decisions about how food crops are produced, and the risks and pressures of modern farming selling into both specialised and commodity markets.

Certainly diversification of risk - such as horticulture, which you have suggested - could play a role; however at Weston as a co-operative essentially "renting" a field, I would suggest that we have a choice of two routes to go down:-

• using the methods which John Cherry employs on his conservation agriculture, no till farm, which could also include other farming methods which he could carry out for us using the equipment and labour he already employs, or

• doing something ourselves, which in the case of horticulture would mean finding the work force, planting the crop, building the green house etc if that was necessary and above working out how to sell the product. So YES we could do it, but John Cherry is not going to do it for us. He is a cattle and grain farmer.

You would therefore be welcome to make a proposal to the group of how such a project could be established, and with what resources, and where they would come from.

As a precautionary tale, two years ago we asked John Cherry to grow Spelt for us, with no clear sense of how we would sell it - and as a result we have 4 tonnes still sitting in the barns at Weston.

Hello all, as I am new to OurField, I am wondering if we ever thought about horticulture at least on part of the field? What would be the pros and cons? I am asking because most new entrants to farming are setting up organic horticulture presumably because it is often more profitable than arable. I guess it is another ball game in terms of labour, but it would be good to hear about the specific considerations in the context of OurField. Another question also whether there are any/ we have ever considered agri-environment schemes you can get paid for such as putting in a flower strip in part of the field (perhaps a bit late to do this now we will be out of the next CAP, but would be interesting to keep a look out for options in the UK subsidy policy).

2019 crop

soon I will start a thread for the 2019 crop, which will need to commence with a vote on what will be planted. I have spoken with John about this, and will relay the results of that conversation later today..but also the Trello / management team have been looking at this outside this Loomio forum, which is a huge benefit; so there should be a lot of things to read soon, before the final decision.

Hello Janaki,
Thank you for your suggestions and questions. Christine has dealt with most of them in her reply. And she has also posted a lot of information about the issues being discussed by the coordinating team.
We do have information on the soil of the field. A friend of the OurField initiative is David Dent is a soil scientist who has done some soil sampling of OurField. His analysis can be reported. It would be good to have a Google image of the field and the surrounding area. I shall try to pull one down. It would be the next best thing to a farm walk. Your suggestion that we post such information systematically is a very good one. Best TonyA

Hi Janaki - thanks for the suggestion and offer of help. We are trying to organise both a meeting at Weston that suits John's timeline and also a meeting in London that may be easier for many to get to - watch this space. Thanks for offering to help with this, which would be great. I am going to provide an update hopefully today/ this weekend which will outline where we are in more detail. Re planting the next crop I think John will need to have a decision before we manage to meet because he needs to order seeds etc. in advance - I imagine suddenly a choice will appear on the site and very soon.

Hi returning to the idea of meeting one another -- do you think we can get together in September and talk about what to plant? There are other topics I'd love to hear broached in an introductory form / presentation style, so as to get a bit more intimate with our actual field: quick timeline of the soil and some speculative future timelines; OurField topography and what's happening with the water in that soil; looking a bit more at which plants have established themselves and what they're likely to contribute to soil health; an intro on the commodities market and intro on alternative markets. These topics have been addressed in Loomio, but maybe we could accumulate them into a synthesized picture in a meeting. This is basic stuff, but having a little dating profile of the field would be nice. I can help organize over the next few weeks with a few more members. Thoughts?

@grahamehunter Just about to remove you from all the Trello boards - then there should be Trello silence for you! We will keep you and everyone else updated here until we have a plan for any migration. PS very keen on John's suggestions to add OurField 2017 Spelt to his harvest. Feels like cheating but it is very hard for us to address and all part of our lessons learned.

Sorry @grahamehunter that you have been bombarded with notifications - we will sort it. We really appreciate your efforts. As Oliver mentions the coordinating/ leadership group is using Trello to organise ourselves.

Hi Grahame, the leadership team have started using Trelllo to better coordinate our activities. All decisions and actions will be shared with the collective via Loomio. Likewise, all group decisions will still be made via Loomio.

Trello

I have recently started receiving notices about conversations concerning OurField on a platform called Trello. Is this being proposed as the replacement for Loomio? I do not think I wish to follow two forums for OurField, and many members seem to find even one problematic, so as soon as there is consensus on which is preferred please post the result here .

I am happy to switch platform if required, but in the meantime, members can assume that your facilitator is dumb on Trello..

Looks very tasty Christine! Height isn't everything! happy baking x

Thanks for the tip. Subsequently I have used a loaf tin with some success, with a sourdough yeast. My experience too was that the dough was fairly weak, but made a good loaf in a tin.

Just made my first OurField bread with a mix of the white and wholemeal flour using a very basic recipe and with dried yeast. The flour was very soft to use and the dough rose very quickly. I think this may mean the flour is not that strong which resulted in a flat bread, it tasted fine though. Next time I will use a loaf tin.

splitting the work area; accounts and finance

copied from the leadership group thread for general comment if any

Grahame wrote:-

I am not sure whether the __ leadership group __ is quite the best forum for drawing members' attention to the bi monthly and other accounts, largely because this is a public forum, and the accounts are sent outside Loomio to each individual member. So an early thing that group could decide on, is how much confidentiality is necessary (eg do we want to air __ in public __ matters such as the price we want to sell the grain at, or what is the rent paid to Weston Park Farms for renting the field?).

It is fair to assume that most accounting queries will fall into one of three categories;

• someone who has not understood the figures provided, (such as what is the difference between a reserve against charges, and a current expense?)
  
• questions about the figures which require general clarification (eg what is meant by the agronomy charge?) , and
• how the numbers have been calculated (what is the rent, and does this take into account the farming subsidy?.)

clarification; thread member

A thread member is anyone who has contributed to the thread, not those who have read posts in the thread. You can test this, by starting a new thread, and initially, there is only one thread member.
My feeling, along with Tony Allen, is that every forum has wrinkles; so for those who have mastered Loomio there is a benefit in staying put. The main drawback with this one, for us, is that John cannot go to the field, take a picture and post it easily from his phone into Loomio with a comment.

good thinking @catg - we will look into this!!

I don't know if this is at all relevant as I'm still getting to grips with Loomio and am not entirely sure how everything works yet but I notice that although there are 61 members of the OurField group, only 9 or 10 are members of the threads. Could this explain why some people aren't getting notifications and perhaps aren't engaging as much?

Loomio does have Slack integration so we could do that. Slack though is only for instant messages etc. and quick feedback and probably not good for maintaining records of what we are doing. It could be that we need to use Loomio integrated with Slack with a Facebook or other website for recording and linking to more detailed information to give a choice for what works well for everyone.

Dear Christine and Olly
Thank you Christine for your very useful recap. And thank you Olly for drawing attention to 'slack'. Could you provide more information.
Best TonyA

Thanks everyone and here is a quick summary of our discussions from memory, I cannot find the posts we made back then in March:

• Loomio does make it easy to vote on decisions
• Loomio contains all discussions from when the project started, although it is hard to find things with no search facility
• Loomio is good for short debate and quick queries
• Loomio seems bad for people accessing Loomio by phone
• It is very hard to find older conversations and previous topics unless an administrator ‘pins’ them which makes it not ideal for collecting interesting links and discussions

There any many people who are keen to read what is going on but do not want to comment or engage directly - which is fine and seems normal for a virtual group. In the end we decided there was no obvious alternative to Loomio and would see if there were any improvements in the second year

We did find another Loomio group who decided to move over to another site completely in one go but we felt we needed more participation from members to be able to recommend this - and I cannot find the link now to share with you. As more members were joining it also prevented a survey of current members I was considering how members felt about Loomio communications but we felt we needed to wait for the new group to join and have sufficient time to use Loomio before we started asking them about it. Draft survey - we could use this or something else if members want to.

My thoughts:

• How many people actually receive the notifications and are keeping up to date with things - selling last year’s spelt and what to plant this Autumn are still our live topics.
  
• Is it time to start discussing Autumn planting?
• Do we want to make better use of the gold status we have on Loomio which lets us set up sub-groups, categories and/or Slack integration - these may be useful but I expect needs to be done by OurField Loomio administrators
• Do we want to supplement Loomio with the Ourfield Facebook page if we can get the admin rights transferred

Dear Wendy
Thank you also for commenting on Loomio and mentioning Christine. The small group that discussed the functionality of Loomio consisted of Darren, Christine and myself - as I recall.
If members/investors want to revisit the topic it would be approprtiate. But we need advice based on hard, first hand experience of systems that could provide what Loomio does - namely, discussion group facilities on a number of topics and a voting system. Best Tony Allan.

Dear Wendy
Thank you for your message. It is good to know that the Loomio readers have had the chance to read the information on Groundswell 2018. Tony Allan

Sadly I can't make it again this year Tony but it does sounds like it's going to be a very intresting couple of days.

GROUNDSWELL 2018 From Tony Allan

The Groundswell 2018 event will take place next week on Wednesday and Thursday 27 and 28 June at farm managed by the Cherry family. They also organise the Groundswell event.
In an earlier message I suggested that if any OurField member/investors will be attending it would be useful to know when they will be around so that we could meet. I recall I suggested that we could meet in the barn where the self-service lunch will be served. PLEASE advise me on [email protected] if you plan to be at Groundswell and I'll advise some meeting options.
ABBY will be there. She will be demonstrating a hand held technology that provides soil information. This is just one of the businesses in which she is engaged. I shall be moderating two sessions on soil health at 11.00 am on the Wednesday and on Thursday. These two sessions are just two of over 20 sessions on conservation farming and related issues on the programme. There are also field demonstrations of no-till equipment, a soil survey pit and an earthworm science exhibit. There is too much to do and observe. The quality of the discussions in the barns is very high as top farmers will be speaking about farmer led initiatives and scientists and farmers from across the world will also be contributing. I hope Grahame will be around as it would be good to hear from him. Best regards Tony (Allan)

Maybe we could have quarterly meetings? Get them scheduled well in advance for physical meetings, with a look to having a dial-in option? I think with some of the previous events it's been quite short notice. If I have something in my diary a long while in advance it helps a lot

I rarely engage.. I would like to but I’ve had problems with Loomio. I’ve got a new iPhone 8plus and it seems I can log in now.. my old phone had an old browser and Loomio didn’t work.. I also travel a lot and don’t have apps so I rarely engage..
Maybe a good idea to have a physical meeting in London

I'd agree with Olly - I find it really hard to keep up especially if I've been away with several conversations within a couple of threads and as I'm out or travelling most of the time the app isnt great with my phone. It can be hard to get back into the swing of things I find on loomio or at least in the way we have it setup.
I use Slack at the open food network and can vouch for it being a great tool for our global community to use which is easy to follow, mobile ready and organised.
To add - I'm happy to look at integrations between loomio and slack or help with questions (in my other life I do tech/app integrations for groups like ourselves)

a better alternative could be slack ? https://slack.com/ It seems to be the go to platform for this kind of forum and seems to be more intuitive than Loomio - but perhaps that may be just because i'm already using it...?

Thanks Tony. It wasn't me on the small group looking at this @grahamehunter it was @christinelewis1 (adding in case you want to say anything on the use of Loomio Christine).

Reply on the Loomio alternative issue from Tony AllanWe did look at alternatives to Loomio. A small group of us decided that Loomio was functional enough. It is providing many services and we could not identify anything else that was CERTAIN to provide a better system. We felt it was best to stay with Loomio.
I don't think Loomio is the problem. The main problem is that members don't have time to engage and certainly don't engage actively. Best Tony (Allan)

Loomio - can we find an alternative, please?

recently, someone posted..
Second large challenge, I am finding Loomio to be very hard to work with. I have a post that I don’t think was posted (my responsibility, must have not done something right or did something wrong) and I can’t always find posts I think other people are referring to, I have a poor sense of direction geographically but didn’t think this was the case in the digital world. Indeed I’m no luddite, I would consider myself quite an able wielder of basic tech but Loomio appears to me as hard to navigate.
I must try harder. I feel if I were to interact more I’d learn how to work with the platform more successfully, or satisfyingly.
Many find it almost impossible to use on a mobile phone.
We did set up a group to look at this - any news, and have you found an alternative? @johnanthonyallan @wendyalcock

Dear Grahame
Very many thanks for posting the information on Groundswell and the DEFRA consultation.
_______________________________________________________-
I have managed to generate interest in Groundswell on the part of some recently appointed DEFRA technical staff. I am hoping that some may attend. Best Tony Allan

Groundswell approaches

The Cherries have kindly agreed that any OurField members who would like to attend can obtain a discount on the standard entry price.

For simplicity, the discount has been calculated as the VAT amount.
To get this saving __ requires you to confirm your interest to me, and I would arrange the block purchase of tickets through the OurField account, and your individual member account would then be debited. __

To read about Groundswell, to look at the events and choose if you would wish to come one day (£55) or both days (£85) see the groundswell website

That is interesting, and perhaps disappointing so few farmers responded.

Dear Grahame
Very many thanks for drawing attention to the DEFRA consultation. I heard this week that 40,000 responses were received by DEFRA. I understand that 35,000 were from activist and other interested groups. It will be interesting to know how many farmers contributed. There are roughly 100,000 UK farm owners and about 100,000 tenant farmers. John completed the questionnaire.

Congratulate Eliza for her excellent paper which summarises the importance of soil health and the role of Conservation Agriculture very well indeed?

You were at the screen very late last evening. Much appreciated.
Best TonyA

Government DEFRA consultation

Tony Allen and others have circulated copies of the Government's consultation paper. He wrote..
@johnanthonyallan

As you know my position is that farmers should be seen as innovators and leaders in remedying the problems that have come about as a consequence of chemical and intensive practices.
..the power-point entitled The Future Farming Environment Evidence Compendium is very interesting.. ..there are over 60 slides. Nearly all of them are useful.

The deadline for comments is long over but for anyone who would like to see or reference these fascinating documents, I have put them here .. reference documents folder

You will also find there a recent paper which I have found most useful, prepared by Lizie Jenkins called "why soil health matters", a literature review she has made as part of a Masters degree.

Dear Annie and Grahame
Sorry that I missed the 6 May deadline for responding to the invitation to help design a programme. I did suggest that we could, by ATTENDING GROUNDSWELL, achieve a number of our goals regarding discussion and sharing information.

I think we should have a summer event and an autumn event.

Summer event on the farm - on a Saturday in August or September
Purposes
1 To look at OutField and see how the cover crop has developed and - if it has been grazed - to observe outcomes.
2 To hear from John and Richard Harding [agronomist] on:
a What is happening on OurField and next steps. What to do next is very important. We could liaise beforehand.
b John's thoughts on the DEFRA consultation on the 25 Year Food and Farming Plan. The title of the invitation from DEFRA to contribute was entitled Health and Harmony. Both John and I completed the DEFRA questionnaire and I sent in a few pages of additional comments. I'd be pleased to share these. Some of the DEFRA documentation which informed the consultation is very interesting indeed and could also be circulated to good effect.

An Autumn evening event in October in London or ???
Purposes
1 To discuss UK environmental policy.. The Environmental Principles and Governance Bill will be being discussed in Parliament at that time. It would be very good to hear comments from John and Richard (if he is available) and a Q&A on what the farming community feels about the process.
2 An up-date on OurField rotations over the coming years
3 Other suggestions - beyond the farm gate
I'd be pleased to help with finding a venue. The E5 Bakery in Hackney would, however, also work. If we were to use this venue it would encourage a discussion on beyond farm gate topics.

Catering. I would be able to contribute financially but have no capacity to contribute materially other than bring along some wine.

Tony [Allan]

Hi Grahame - I also could have time to help but would echo the comments that I missed this check as I was away for a while, so caught up with OurField in a big batch last week!

Grahame - I'm inclined to help organise events, among other activities for the group, within some clear parameters. I understand the frustration with the non-responses to the poll. Not excusing my own failure, I haven't quite got a smooth flow with conversations on this forum and suspect this might be a wider affliction. However, I did get an alert of the closed poll on this issue at which point I sent a private note, though perhaps not helpful. I'd like a chat to get more context of the group's dynamics and outline my commitment.

in the 9 days that this check was open, no-one indicated they had time /inclination to help organise OurField events.
We need to have events, so any ideas, anyone, how these might occur? It is pretty nice out here at Weston now, sun out, crops growing. It might be fun to have a day for members in the country..

Dear Annie
A summer event sounds very good. The last days of April are more like February so the idea of a summer activity is very attractive.
Some of us will be attending the extraordinary Groundswell event on 27 & 28 June. This is a very good value experience with excellent speakers and expert panels of immense relevance. But it is not free. I have suggested that any co-investors who do attend could meet up over lunch. I shall be attending Groundswell 2018.
If we hold an OurField event I would be pleased to fund half of the catering and contribute £100 towards taxi fares from Stevenage station for those attending. Or perhaps we could hire a minibus.
Best Tony

Events; how can we organise these best? Who can help?

_Annie Landless has written _

It would be great to do events -- think there are a couple of options -- we can organise / a co-investor could organise / or a paid events person (as we did for the harvest party last October).

I'd be happy to organise something in the Summer, but for Spring I am quite busy!

I think events can be fairly informal -- a chance to meet up, have good discussion over a nice lunch and a good walk round the field.

The work involved in organising is:

• creating plan for event (lunch / walk round / planned discussion / speakers)
• posting on eventbrite
• sharing eventbrite with co-investors by email newsletter
• follow up email newsletters reminding about booking tickets & with event details
• prep for event (food / drinks / cups, plates, cutlery etc)

It's generally better to have two people organising I think.

The first thing would be to plan a schedule of events, define a budget for each one and then find people available to organise them within the budget. We have eventbrite accounts set up and email lists easily accessible.

Hope this is helpful!

Annie x

copied to the Farming Methods thread

I hope this comment appears on the Farming Methods and the Ethos of OurField
Questions for John
1 How is OurField at the end of what has been mainly a wet and very cold April? Certainly it is cold this Saturday morning.

Would it be possible to have some photos of the cover crop and the weeds?
2 Can we expect that the field can be grazed?
3 I did ask earlier whether any of the 'weeds' would be grazed if you do manage to install the equipment needed to manage the grazing?
If you have time - thank you. Tony Allan

closed topics are not invisible!

It is true, and @keesje has mentioned this, that some really useful topics - such as "what are we going to plant in 2018?" have been closed.
However, everyone can still see them; the only thing closing a topic does is to stop new posts going into that place..
If there is a particular point someone wishes to discuss or carry on talking about in more detail, (and I apologise for I know it is a bit clunky..) you would need to copy it and paste it into a current topic, and comment on it there..
There are a few timeless topics which will not be closed - such as this admin channel, and for _general farming discussions the one on "Farming Methods and the Ethos of OurField" _

Rosy, this is so interesting and such good work you are doing. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Tony, thank you it's nice to hear you caught it, you must have been awake early to catch Farming Today! The full interview was on local food responses in the time of Covid and their push towards future food resilience, its great that local grain is getting more attention. Here is a transcript of the longer interview if anyone is interested in my ramblings on where I'm at with using local grains!

INTRODUCTIONS

Hi I’m Rosy Benson of Bread and Roses, a bakery project in the city of Bristol  I mill, mix, bake and deliver FRESH BREAD. I set up this project  arm of the bakery around the start of lockdown to make loaves for a couple of charities delivered through the Bristol Coexist Community Kitchen, that funding is due to end soon. Sustainable long term funding for vulnerable food insecure groups to access real nutritious food is perhaps a whole other radio programme!

The other arm of the bakery is a doorstop delivery of your weekly loaf, we are set up using a subscription model where customers set up a monthly direct debit, this arm of the business in part subsidises the other but there is a limit to how much I can sustainably do for free. We definitely increased our capacity and took on a lot more customers in the initial few weeks of lockdown as people scrambled to secure their weekly provisions.

I think what makes the bakery different to many others is I buy in grain direct from farmers in the South West and around the UK, I like to mill fresh flour for better flavour and nutrition and I do long fermentation bread (sourdough) using a whole range of different grains, not just wheat, grown in farming systems I support and I go and visit those farms throughout the year. 

We’ve managed to keep the costs down by sharing a bike delivery system with a local salad and milk business and we have quite a basic bakery set up, so our overheads weren’t massive.

I’m very excited for the next few months, whilst we continue to look for an affordable production/retail bakery space in Bristol I am currently setting up a teaching bakery with a friend, actually on the farm where a large proportion of the grain I use comes from, Gothelney Farm in Somerset, it will be called Field Bakery, this has been helped by the support and encouragment of Fred the farmer who runs Gothelney. I’m very aware of how little access the average person has to where and how their food is produced, especially those living in inner city Bristol, so we will be inviting small groups to come out for the day on the farm, to walk through the hundreds of different varieties of grains out in the fields, to see the pigs! teach them a little about the soil and the farm system as a whole, give them a chance to get their hands messy in the dough and for them to bake and take home their own loaf and mill their own bag of flour using Fred’s grains. I hope they’ll enjoy the experience and in the future take a minute to consider supporting local grain when they next make or buy bread. Day courses start pre harvest in August.

HOW HAVE YOUR BEEN AGILE as A BUSINESS through lockdown?

As bakers we worked hard before, so that didnt change, but I think almost overnight I felt a little more pressure and sense of responsibility to keep baking for my community here in Bristol, but I also try to have a sense of level headedness about what’s happening. We are very resilient. I found a set up where I could work alone, and took advice on how to work safely. The long term goals of Field Bakery bakery are now clearer than ever.

Small independents businesses with short supply chains were able to adapt very quickly.  

Many bakeries expanded what they offered to keep access to food for people  from local producers when other routes to market  stopped.

The supermarket model can’t provide the same quality, transparency and authenticity in (what they call) bread, their model doesnt adequately feed people, and creates great amounts of waste and how they’ve been allowed to take market dominance (especially in the area of food aid) at this time is really worrying. I hope this moment in time has reminded people to support small businesses then, now and always. We need them for their skills and the diversity they bring. 

The South West Grain Network is relatively new and part of a much bigger UK and international grain movement. It has taken many years of commitment and labour from farmers to go in this direction, often without governmental help but down to their own experience and observations on caring for their soil, I’m happy to be helping provide a market in the city of Bristol for that grain and to help with the education that goes alongside creating that market. As a network we still working it out, there’s been plenty to do in terms of logistics, purchasing grain cleaning equipment to improve quality, as well as  thinking about how we can help other farmers and bakers to connect in the future so more networks can exist.

I hope that they’ll be a lasting change with the increased awareness around grain and local food as we as food producers (primary and secondary) have become more visible.

CHEAPNESS- why does a loaf of your bread cost £4?

I would like everyone to be able to access local, healthy and affordable food. As Tim Lang writes in his recent book Feeding Britain; “food poverty and inequalities are shaped by forces outside the food sector; jobs, income, social class, taxation, history, genetic chance as to who one’s parents are”

The bread I make is good value for money, a loaf I make will sustain, nourish and can be enjoyed for several meals, the price fully reflects the costs of labour and ingredients which have actually been incurred in creating it and getting it to the consumer. Through the Bread and Roses project bakery in Bristol I also make sure there are a proportion of loaves which are subsidised so everyone we all can access them.  The nutrition and digestability of sourdough, the skill and time spent fermenting and baking at a human scale plus the use of diverse locally grown grains mean it can’t be compared to the cost of a loaf of sliced white from the supermarket. There are huge externalized diet-related ill health costs of cheap food which we will be paying for in years to come, we can already see the effects on our environment and our health. We shoud be asking why some people can’t afford good food, and but also where does this fixatation on cheapness come from in those that can afford? Isnt your diet one of the most important things to spend money on? Part of my motivation for teaching baking is helping people to value local grain and the craft of baking (as well organic vegetables, meat, diary etc) we’ve got a long way to go in terms of education around food and farming. Currently supermarket bread is a symbol of a broken food system, I’m going to bake the way I do as my resistance to that. 

FUTURE RESILIENCE

From a food security and energy perspective it makes perfect sense to grow our food closer, rather than relying on imported wheat. But local grain is much more than that to me. Its the great people I meet in this journey as a baker. As a food citizens, as bakers and other food processors we need to find connection to the land around us so I’m keen to build long term relationships with great innovative farmers and have more reason to get outside. It makes my job a lot more interesting!  I want to support low impact regenerative farming  and encourage biodiversity in the field, for healthier soil, and potentially greater adaption of these cereals to climate instability. As I progress in my career as a baker, having worked in many bakeries in the UK and US I feel I’m gradually getting closer to learning how to make better bread and increasingly enjoy the job I do, maybe its also that I increasingly have more agency in sourcing better flour too, I’m building a real desire for flavour and my appetite grows for good food. I like to create food for nourishment, pleasure and enjoyment, for that moment savoured when you eat something really delicious. 

The more we put our shopping pounds towards local food, the stronger it can become and as they say, a food system is only as good as the one you engage in. I want to know that when I spend money on food its supporting regenerative farming, more of that value should be going back to the producer encouraging good farming practices as well as supporting a valuable meaningful job in the bakery. I believe we all should earn a decent living, but I also want to help foster a sense of purpose and integrity in what we do as bakers. 

Hi @Rosy Benson just bringing your attention to this post from Tony Allan to you.

Tony Allan to Rosy Benson

I was very pleased to hear you on Farming Today this morning - Tuesday 7 July 2020. Congratulations on all you are doing on milling and baking. It would be good to hear more than the sound bites you could only share this morning.

Is marketing getting any easier? Is the demand for heritage grain increasing? Has the lock-down period changed things for the millers and bakers?

If you have time. It seems you are very busy and making a difference

Tony (Allan)

Tony Allen is drawing the attention of the Groundswell 2018 meeting to the Members of the OurField Membership..

he writes

John Cherry and the team at Weston, in Hertfordshire, organise the Groundswell event at Lannock Manor Farm every June. This year it will take place over two days on 27 and 28 June 2018. Both days day are devoted to conservation agriculture and complementary livestock management.

Details on the event, its location and how to register can be found here..

There is also an excellent video available here

The video trailer is here

It would be good if some OurField members could attend. We could meet and catch up over lunch on the second day.

Comment by Tony Allan. I attended this farmer led event last year. It was one of those days when there is too much to see, do and learn. The panels and lectures are held in barns that are very easy to move around in and in June they are comfortably air conditioned by Nature. The programme is very rich indeed with practitioner experience and specialist science very well integrated. The speakers are very capable professionals from across the world. There are other exhibits and demonstrations in the fields nearby.