The Farm

Little Woodbatch

Little Woodbatch is a permaculture and regenerative farming project focused on:

  • Building community level resilience through food

  • Reconnecting to the land, nature and the non-human world

  • Cultivating the skills that we need to face the future, as individuals and as a community

  • Developing a shared sense of purpose and responsibility for others and the planet

It is led by Daphne, in collaboration with skilled community facilitators and specialist trainers.

Have a look at our upcoming trainings and events.

What do we do at Little Woodbatch…

Permaculture

The farm brings together a variety of spaces and activities to support nature, produce food, inspire and educate, develop skills and find purpose through connection. Diversity and diversification of systems is our path to resilience.

Little Woodbatch includes:

  • a Market Garden space, complete with polytunnels for growing annuals and perennials, propagation (we are seeking a grower to take on this space).

  • Seed saving, with isolation tunnels and infrastructure for seed growing, processing and storing the Bishop’s Castle Community Seed Bank

  • Forest Gardens & Community Orchard: with 3+ acres dedicated to over 400 fruit and nut trees and other soft fruits

  • Herbs, medicinal and dye plants

  • Edible hedges & coppices for cobnuts, wild plums, willow, hazel and food for birds and wildlife

  • Ponds for wildlife

  • Meadow spaces and wild edges for pollinators, and habitat and food source for wild things

  • Bees: We host several bee hives which ‘rent’ space and are managed by a local beekeeper as a part of his honey and queen-rearing business (see below for our invitation to collaborate)

Skills Development:

LWB is a space for collaboration to build skills for self-sufficiency, land stewardship, eco-literacy and connection - so that we can take an active role in building a more resilient world. Join us to learn and bring your skills to share.

  • Seed saving

  • Horticulture: fruit, veg, soft fruits, herbs

  • Orchard care and management, inc. grafting, pruning, identification

  • Foraging & plant identification

  • Hedge laying

  • Scything

  • Food storage, preparation & preservation

  • Soil, land and water systems

  • Small-flock poultry care

  • Climate resilience & systems thinking

  • Food systems & short supply chains

An Invitation to create opportunities

Our goal is to collaborate with our community so that we can learn and build resilience together. We invite ideas from people who would like to develop initiatives or enterprises that can benefit the local area.

Origins

Our work at home on the farm has been influenced by Daphne’s PhD research on local food systems and policy. More about her work as a researcher and consultant.

Little Woodbatch links with other scales of work taking place through local community projects, the Shropshire Good Food Partnership, The Marches Food Network and other projects and programmes.