The farm has been running a crowdfunder – and the deadline is coming up! On 25 May we will be closing our crowdfunder so please do tell at least three friends even if you think you’ve already shared the news (if you have – THANK YOU!) – it helps more than you know.

Also, our friends at Blackbark Films have kindly made a film for us, to explain in more detail why we’re raising money. You can watch the video here or through our crowdfunder page linked above.

We need to raise enough money to:

• support our new entrant growers team achieve a successful season. In particular, we need to raise enough money to keep our third grower to the end of the season, as we can currently only afford to keep them until August. We have expanded our grower team from two to three people, to ensure greater resilience and capacity in the team, however we need your help to ensure that all the growers can see the season through.
• ensure the sustained life of our infrastructure and machinery. Our tractor (Pierre) is old, and breaks down a lot, while our grower team is new, and is learning the skills to troubleshoot and fix parts of the tractor themselves. This means for now, we need to rely on our mechanic more than in previous seasons. We also hope to raise enough to offer tractor training to our growers.
• provide solidarity veg boxes (for free) to households who cannot afford them. We try to keep our prices as affordable as we can, but sometimes this is not enough. With the cost of living crisis and inflation, it can be difficult to access local and nutritious vegetables, but we want as many people as possible to benefit from what we grow. We also want to run more events on the land to ensure greater access to green spaces, nutritious food and connection to nature. By doing so, we believe we are taking an active part in the agroecological movement in the UK – by providing knowledge sharing spaces, workshops and opportunities for others to learn about sustainable agriculture.

Quick links:

Crowdfunder here

Sims Hill crowdfunder film here