Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

Our market garden is about an acre with over 400 m2 protected cropping. Possibilities for working a larger area can be discussed. The business would market as part of Tamarisk Farm and would be certified with the rest of the farm by the Soil Association. Additional projects such as arable, baking, education, care farming or other ideas would be happily considered.

Who we are Those who know the farm from years past will remember Arthur and Josephine Pearse who founded Tamarisk in the 60s. It has been organic since Soil Association certification began, starting as a small organic market garden, growing to ~600 acres of two thirds National Trust land. About 100 acres in an arable rotation with grain going to local watermills or sold direct to the public, with excess grain fed to a small flock of laying hens. The rest is conservation grazing (now largely SNCI and PFLA) supporting native breeds of cattle and sheep for a plethora of meat and wool products. Future projects include our newly planted nut groves and making better use of our orchard. Public access and nature conservation is fundamental to what we do.

Our farm team is Leila and Ben Scriven, and Adam and Ellen Simon (Leila’s parents) with Rowan Watkins working particularly with the arable.

What we’re offering Sadly we are losing our vegetable grower at the end of this season; however we see this as an opportunity for a newcomer to develop their own ideas within the farm. We do not wish to be prescriptive or dictate how the market garden is run or what is produced and would love to hear your own ideas, including other enterprises on the farm if desired. Produce has been sold primarily to local restaurants and shops and in limited quantities through our farm shop, but a box scheme or CSA are options.

Details

• Agricultural equipment and expertise is on hand
• All land available for horticulture is rented from us directly at a rate to be negotiated
• The garden is currently 1 acre overall with ~60 m2 propagation tunnel, >400 m2 of polytunnels (of which 300 m2 is reserved for sheep in January and February), a tool shed and a small packing shed.
• No part of the market garden is further than 350 m from the packing shed with road access between them
• All land is south facing and coastal: exposed to Atlantic wind but virtually frost free
• Metered mains water available throughout, as well as free water from a large pond for part of the year.
• Soil in the established market garden is good, having been nurtured for decades, but increasing the area under cultivation would involve moving onto less improved heavy ground
• There is some manure available from the winter housing of stock and we are often given wood chip by local tree surgeons
• Additional protected cropping is possible but larger areas would require planning permission as we are in a “National Landscape” (formerly AONB)

Accommodation We can offer a basic shepherd’s hut and know of a few other possibilities in the area.

Application information

Please email farm@tamariskfarm.co.uk with a little bit about yourself.

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs