1. Wayfield Nurseries at East Portlemouth
– Site host Alan Stapleton (01548) 843085
Wayfield Nurseries is a 4 acre agricultural site which sits on the coast above Gara beach near East Portlemouth. Polytunnels and bore hole irrigation mean that there is plenty of water and heat with which to grow delicious organic fruit and vegetables. 

The land owners Alan & Jonquil Stapleton support both community and commercial agricultural activities on their land.  Both Alan (a soil scientist) and Jonquil (a special needs teacher) have a keen interest in seeing their land being used for the sustainability of the local community. They are in the process of developing Geoheritage Trails and Equine Assisted Learning enterprises.

The site is currently being cared for by local community members to grow their own food.  Permaculture Designers Catherine Middleditch and Douglas Lane are helping to manage the land and are working along side Alan and Jonquil in developing a multi-functional land based ethical enterprise called 'Community Land Care' (CLC).

Local to the site is considerable neolithic and early iron age archaeology with ancient field lines and iron ore seams in the cliff.  To contact Alan Stapleton about this interesting and historic site, or find out about how CSF members can get involved please ring Alan on (01548) 857640 .

Wayfield location - google map

The Hanging Polytunnels of Portlemouth - 2009

Donkey Therapy - 2009

Local community members helping to build herb garden - 2009

Cat making summer fruit crumble with the local kid’s art club - 2009

Permaculture design workshop - 2009

Doug making compost - 2009

The Wayfield Dartmoors - 2009

The first pick of the community harvest - 2009
 
Families leave after a hard days tree planting with Trees For Health - 2010
 
The Community Land Care (CLC) Concept - multi-functional land care

Contact Cat at www.sustainablecreations.co.uk  if you would like more information about CLC.

2. Great Prideaux Farm
– Site host is John Sherrell (01752) 872815
A 250 acre agricultural holding being farmed by John Sherrell and his parents. Over the past decade, John has increased the abundance and diversity of local food being produced and sold directly from this traditional family farm to the local community and to residents of
Ivybridge and Plymouth. His local products include beef, eggs, chickens and lamb. John is passionate about the need for farming to feed local people and local towns and for the food chain to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. He is also keen on biodiversity conservation on the farm.His farm comprises many diverse habitats including species rich meadow grassland, streams and woodland. The farm was one of the first in the country to be accepted into a new stewardship project that encourages the conservation and improvement of biodiversity and habitat on farms. John is a very experienced and successful farmer who currently runs about 150 beef cattle, 500 chickens and a new flock of sheep. He would like to increase the diversity of produce sold from the farm, particularly vegetables for which there is demand locally. If you want to see what a fully developed sustainable farm can look like, it is well worth coming on a CSF event here! For more information about Great Prideaux Farm please ring John on (01752) 872815 or e.mail greatprideaux@hotmail.com.

Grazing the biodiverse pasture with beef cattle

The young oat crop emerges

Cattle in the field where vegetables had been grown in previous years

Cattle graze a secluded meadow surrounded in woodland

Cattle graze the Great Prideaux Farm landscape

3. Velwell Biodynamic Orchard
– Site Jeremy Weis (07962432317)
Velwell Biodynamic Orchard is a beautiful two acre biodynamic vegetable and fruit oasis - shaped like a boat and captained by Jeremy and his staff. It produces an abundance of biodynamic vegetables and soft fruit juices, flowers and herbs which are sold in local shops and via a box scheme. The land is equipped with a polytunnel and tool shed with accompanying germination racks. Also there is a children's play area and sand pit within sight of the main vegetable beds. Children love Velwell Biodynamic Orchard as it is a safe and beautiful space to experience with a sand pit and swings within sight of parents working the vegetable beds.
Since joining CSF's Neighbourhood Farm Network in 2003 CSF has helped Jeremy to create new vegetable beds, lay hedges, turn compost heaps, plant out, harvest crops and host educational workshops in biodynamic vegetable growing. Through CSF Jeremy has been able to recruit new interest in the 15 year-old orchard. Jeremy wants a few CSF members to come out regularly in the morning to help him and his staff in return for a share of the produce.
The best thing to do to get involved at Velwell Biodynamic Ochard is to ring Jeremy on (07962432317) . Please do not ring him after 8pm as he gets to the orchard early and likes an early night.

Winter CSF day at Velwell: Alor and Jeremy clear wood from the hedge

Toddler and mum at Velwell harvest celebration walk past the leeks
before making soup

Judy Westacott the mayor of Totnes gives a supportive speech during
Velwell's Harvest Soup Celebration

4. Landmatters Permaculture Co-operative
– for information ring (01803) 712718
Landmatters Co-operative owns a 42-acre agricultural holding with 6 major habitats: stream, south-facing meadows, north-facing meadows, hedges, semi-ancient oak dominant woodland and water meadow. Co-op members live in low-impact structures around a village green, with veg gardens, windbreaks and the beginnings of a forest garden growing up between the benders and yurts. The land is managed as a permaculture holding, which integrates traditional land management practices, land-based businesses, educational events and sustainable technologies.  Landmatters is a Permaculture Association Learning And Network Demonstration (LAND) site (www.permaculture.org.uk/land) which is open to visitors on the second Saturday of each month, and is also a member of the WWOOF network.  For information on skills training days, courses on aspects of sustainable living and permaculture, seasonal celebrations, or if you would like to visit or volunteer, call Landmatters on 01803-712718 or see the website (go to links page).  It is accessible by public transport, and there is very limited parking, so please phone for details before visiting.

Volunteers Planting Veg Beds

Volunteers Making Compost Bins

Raised Vegetable Beds

Tree Planting

Scything

raising the oak barn

potato harvest

Fencing new areas, planting new hedges and trees are nice winter activities

Winter is the season for hedge-laying – which provides an abundance of useful
wood and improves the hedge habitat for nesting birds and small mammals

5. Beenleigh Meadows Farm - Farming, education and conservation
Site contact Steph Bailey stephkate@tiscali.co.uk
Beenleigh Meadows Farm near Harberton in South Devon is a 21 acre farm managed using traditional, organic and permaculture production principles. The farm has at its heart the aims of sustainable food production, education community engagement and conservation. 

The farm is managed under DEFRA's Countryside Stewardship Scheme guidelines and has a mixture of extensive livestock farming and agroforestry. Its primary production is LAMB and the farm has recently launched a new scheme, South Devon Lamb CSA, a Community Supported Agriculture partnership allowing local people to gain a real connection with the meat they eat. Members are invited to attend on-farm events, celebrations and workshops(sheep shearing, lambing, harvest festivals, etc.) Members thus support small-scale livestock farming and are able to engage in a real alternative to supermarket bought meat! South Devon Lamb CSA

Our low input grazing system encourages the biodiversity of the various permanent pasture habitats which include water meadows. Willow, ash and hazel are grown as craft materials, for energy provision and as forage crops and a new native woodland has been planted (with Trees for Health 2004 - 5) providing a wildlife corridor to an ancient copse. 2007 - 8 saw the planting of a new fruit and nut orchard with species including chestnut, plum, apple, pear, apricot and walnut. This was run in conjunction with a carbon trading company and part funded by the Permaculture Association, and its design and implementation was run as a course.
Chickens were introduced in 2009 and we had a year of egg production under the CSF brand 'Grown Down The Lane' Beenleigh Meadows has regularly hosted on-farm educational access events for local schools and groups and public events such as bug hunts, fungal forays, cob building, lime rendering, bush craft skills, bird box making and compost making. The farm is also a member of LEAF and open our doors yearly for Open Farm Sunday which this year is on June 13th Open Farm Sunday

The farm produces its own electricity from the sun and wind and has rainwater collection for its vegetable garden and domestic needs.

Find us on Facebook: Friends Of Beenleigh Meadows - South Devon Lamb CSA

Luxury eco camping in yurts will be available from Summer 2010

Milly with lamb

Biodiverse meadows which have never been sprayed with artificial fertilizers

Jacob from Sudan lends a hand teaching about cob (mud) buildings
with a participating school class from the South Devon Steiner School

Tree planting goes on in the winter season - a fun activity for all the family!

The toolstore acts as a store for farm equipment as well as a dry
space for tea and lunch

Sheep maintaining the biodiversity of the grassland at Beenleigh Meadows Farm

6. The Green Lanes Centre, near Blackawton
– Site host is Valerie Belsey (01803) 866916 or 07866081369
The Green Lanes Centre a 6 acre site bordering the ancient green lane of Coomery. It is a stunningly beautiful and quiet place where you can literally time-travel to the recent past when green lanes were a vital part of England's rural infrastructure. Here you can hear tales of
pack-horse trails, pirates, smugglers' contraband, and a nautical link between lands in Devon and the Caribbean. The site contains many
habitats: mature woodland, meadow, stream, an old orchard, and hazel coppice. It is now managed as a nature reserve with history education trails. Walks centred around the history of Coomery lane occur throughout the year and are often promoted in the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) events leaflet. The history of Coomery lane involves much of the history of the parish of Cornworthy, the town of Dartmouth and the village of Allaleigh. The site is run by local historian and green lanes expert Valerie Belsey, a green lanes officer for South Hams District Council and author of numerous books about green lanes and green walks of Devon. Valerie has conducted decades of research into the natural history and human history at her centre and conveys her deep knowledge of the site with much passion and entertainment. Her on-site presentations offer a real glimpse at the past from the time of neolithic foot paths to the present day. For more information about the Green Lanes Centre e.mail valeriebelsey@hotmail.co.uk or ring (01803) 866916 . You can help Valerie as a CSF member by offering to help her to manage the site and keep the history trails open, as well as attending CSF hedge-laying and tree planting events.


Tree nursery planting at Green Lanes Centre with BTCV and Green
Dragon Wooland Project

7. Transition Town Totnes
Garden Share Scheme: A partnership between CSF and Transition Town Totnes (TTT) has resulted in the urban local food initiative called Garden Share. The basic idea is that householders can give spaces within their gardens to people who are willing and have time to cultivate food (such as people waiting on allotment lists). In return, householders receive a share of the produce. In this way TTT maintains a kind of dating agency to bring food growers without land to gardens without food growers. It is a win win relationship and so far there are a growing number of garden shares spreading throughout Totnes. Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall was so impressed he featured it in one of the River Cottage programmes on television and even set up a website to set up a similar scheme at national level!

8. South Devon Steiner School
– Site host is Ian Twist (01364) 652991
The school teaches how to grow your own food to all children from Class 1 to Class 10. The school's own Hood Garden is perhaps the biggest and most developed school vegetable garden of it's kind (about 2 acres in size) and the only one in the country where teaching occurs every day. Hood garden is just one aspect of the South Devon Steiner School's outdoor classroom, The outdoor curriculum of the school includes subjects such as biology and ecological science, science of agriculture and the art and science of sustainable living. The outdoor classroom of the school takes up much of the school grounds and includes an outdoor kitchen, a forge and blacksmithing area, an outdoor pottery kiln, and a lime kiln. Recently an agricultural field has been acquired next to the school to extend the range of field-scale crops grown by the school for the school community. Every Wednesday lunchtime during term time there is a school farmers market selling school vegetables, fresh baked school bread and other local and biodynamic produce. For more information about how CSF members can get involved ring Ian on (01364) 652991 or go to the school web site (see links page).


Scything course takes place in school meadow

9. Coombe Meadow
– Site hosts are Toby and Ruth Chadwick 07810127376
Coombe Meadow is a ten acre agricultural holding run by the Chadwick family. Toby delivers local vegetables and local bottled water in South Devon as part of Nature's Round. Near his packing barn he grows an increasing abundance and diversity of biodynamic vegetables which he includes in his box scheme. Toby is keen to contact other local organic growers wanting to market their produce locally. Toby is interested in CSF events where people become involved in the production and distribution of local vegetables. Toby is also interested in developing a cooperative structure for Natures Round. Toby has a wealth of organic and biodynamic food growing experience to pass on. For more information on how you can help as a CSF member and what you can learn, please contact Toby on 07810127376 or e.mail ruthandtoby@gmail.com

10. Castle Meadow Totnes
A partnership between CSF, Totnes Town Council, South Hams District Council, Totnes Allotments Association, Totnes Development Trust and TTT resulted in the creation of a new and official allotments site in the heart of Totnes. Future plans for the rest of Castle Meadow include planting a community orchard / forest garden with a variety of local fruit and nut trees. (BBC News Link)


Public Consultation Event organised by CSF, Transition Town Totnes and
Totnes Town Council

Year 10 Steiner School Students visit the meadow