Soul Farm — Falmouth's Market Farm - Soul Farm

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Welcome to Falmouth's Market Farm

We are a Community Supported Agriculture farm growing tasty and sustainable veggies

Our veg box scheme is fully booked. Visit us at The Food Barn - Tregew

Why join our CSA

Our farm and practices

Soul Farm is 4-acre no-dig market farm growing seasonal vegetables in the Falmouth area of Cornwall

Soul Farm is a food justice-oriented, ecologically supportive, not-for-profit organisation. We cultivate vegetables using organic principles and no dig methods. At every step, we’re thinking about how we organise around making good food accessible to all and around restoring local people’s relationships with the land.

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The Journal

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Soulfarm job 2

August 3, 2021August 23, 2021The farm

Now Recruiting – Market Gardener

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April 27, 2021The farm

Community Resilience Project

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March 26, 2021March 26, 2021The farm

Big projects underway

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Now is the time when we have quite a glut of thing

Now is the time when we have quite a glut of things like tomatoes. We spent Sunday roasting tomatoes with garlic and olive oil and freezing them for winter pasta sauces. Thanks @holymolecornwall for the tip. We will also have some ripe tomatoes for you to take home from the @foodbarn.tregew this Saturday. Pop down.

Local food matters. Whether it’s about taste, he

Local food matters. Whether it’s about taste, health, biodiversity, putting money into the local economy, protecting wildlife and growing community, it matters. Our farm stand at the @foodbarn.tregew is our flagship storefront and a place where local people can donate to our solidarity scheme. Now we’re trying to secure the market’s future and open it up with a full-access toilet, baby change, steps and railing up the bank and better parking, among other things. If you’d like to be part of developing a reliable meeting point for local food producers and local people, please give to the @foodbarn.tregew’s crowdfunder (link in our bio and theirs) and share with others.

Please share with anyone you know who qualifies. @

Please share with anyone you know who qualifies. @landinournames is redistributing over £29,000 in grants to Black people and people of colour who are either interested in growing, investing in their already established allotment or back garden, and investing in their learning and training or their projects/businesses. These Growers Grants will be available for Black growers and growers of colour to either take that first step or have that helping hand.

Black people and People of colour; from beginners to seasoned growers.

There are four tiers of funding to apply to:
Getting Into Growing tier for beginners (up to £125)
Caring for my Garden tier for hobbyists (up to £300)
I’m Gonna Be A Grower tier for new entrants/trainees (up to £800)
Fertilise the Movement tier for large growing projects (up to £1000)

Applications are currently open and close Sunday 12th September 23:59.

Applicants can submit their applications in writing, as a video or a voice note.

The link to the application form is in our bio and theirs. Applicants must email their completed application to the email: bpoc.growers.grants@gmail.com [image: an illustration of Black people and people of colour watering, planting out and harvesting with a shed and sunflowers in the background by artist @javhux ]

This week’s full CSA share Celery Beetroot Par

This week’s full CSA share

Celery
Beetroot
Parsley
Spring Onions
Padrons
Cucumber
Salad Mix
Crystal lemon cucumber
Tomatoes
French Beans
Chard

📢 WE WILL NOT BE AT MARKET TODAY 📢

We can’t staff or harvest enough for today’s @foodbarn.Tregew. We are really sorry for the veg related inconvenience.

We’re now in second spring and feeling echoes of

We’re now in second spring and feeling echoes of the shift toward autumn. There is so. much. to do. We are being pulled into contact with our humanness in a full-being way - the reality that we are of earth. To avoid getting burned out and to keep our practices sustainable, we rely on the help of our community.

We have some big jobs coming up as we move into second spring and we particularly need help digging up daffodils, doing a big ol' group weed and putting up a polytunnel.

Our volunteer days are still Wednesdays but if another day of the week would work better for you, let us know. We‘ve also decided to have volunteer days every Saturday this month. Message us or email info@soulfarm.co.uk if you can help.

A few weeks ago, we had the honour of sharing our

A few weeks ago, we had the honour of sharing our space and skills with a group of 15 home educated young people ages 11-16 who are taking or considering taking an IGCSE in Environmental Management. We chatted, played silly games and took them through some volunteer jobs. There’s a lot we’d do differently if we did it again - including maybe not doing it during our busiest time of year! But we appreciated the opportunity to continue our education in holding space for young teens connecting with ancestral land practices.

📷 Photos courtesy ‘Environment Matters’ Treverbyn Trust

[Young person in the 11-16 age range rakes to prepare a bed for succession planting in Soul Farm’s walled garden]

Lughnasadh. The midway point between summer solsti

Lughnasadh. The midway point between summer solstice and autumn equinox. We’d planned to mark it this past weekend with a special volunteer day but different things came up for everyone and no one could make it. So we figured we’d go anyway, take a cake, make some music and get the much needed sowing underway. But we didn’t.

When it came to it, we were exhausted. So we didn’t go anywhere this weekend for the first time maybe since the winter. Bodies began to feel everything and there was a lot of sleep. So we’re probably behind but obviously couldn’t keep going, maybe not even if we’d wanted to.

We often talk about having started the farm for work/life balance and to be together as a family as well as to do meaningful work. The reality at this time of year is that time together is thin, especially because we don’t live that near the farm and it doesn’t always work to take our young people there. Sharing work time doesn’t happen in this season either so many nights and early mornings are spent trying to make the extra income we rely on. Everyone seems to be tired all the time and too tired to figure out another way of doing things.

We share this because it can sound idyllic, the market garden thing and we feel a responsibility to be honest that we’re not always getting it right. This is definitely not about celebrating how busy we are, as grateful as we are for the work. If anything it’s about recognising, with relief, that sometimes the body dictates that you will take a sacred pause.

Our sacred pause coincided with that midway point, marking that we moving now toward autumn. But also with Emancipation Day in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. This too calls for a sacred pause - a remembering and a recommitment to working towards liberation. 📷 @emlibendixen

We’re a little less than a couple of weeks from

We’re a little less than a couple of weeks from Lughnasadh, the halfway point between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. One of our awarenesses as a farm early this year was that we wanted to embrace more ritual to help bring us close together as a working community and spiritually connect us to the earth’s movements. That’s been rather more erratic than we’d hoped but learning often isn’t smooth. Still, we’re planning to mark the “beginning of harvest” and shift toward autumn with a volunteer day on Saturday 31st July, the day before Lughnasadh.

The plan is to make light a few farm jobs together, share cakes and a couple of playful activities. If you play an instrument, that’s welcome too! We may give organising the traditional matchmaking a miss. 😉 Direct message us or email adele@soulfarm.co.uk to volunteer on Saturday 31st or to volunteer on other days. Our weekly volunteer days are every Wednesday and can also accommodate volunteers on other days.

Market day tomorrow! One of the items we’ve love

Market day tomorrow! One of the items we’ve loved adding to our stall is baklava made by one of our Syrian solidarity members. And clearly it’s been a few months since we started stocking her pastries, hence the daffodils! 😂 They may be a surprise on a fruit and veg stand but we can confirm that they’re amazingly delicious and just the thing with a cup of tea.

Our solidarity veg box memberships are fully funded for those who receive them so they don’t pay anything and are welcome to keep the membership as long as they need it. That includes not just the boxes but access to our developing online community and any events at the farm. These memberships are paid for by boxes on our upper and highest tiers so that we’re all sharing the harvest. Sharing our farm stand too is a joy.

We’re at the @foodbarn.tregew every Saturday 9am-1pm along with lots of other local food producers.

A month ago, @farmstofeedus visited us with photog

A month ago, @farmstofeedus visited us with photographer @emlibendixen to take a closer look at what we’ve been up to. We found hearing more about what they’re doing helpful too. Farms to Feed Us is a social enterprise bringing together activists, farmers, journalists, and economists with the goal of connecting people with farmers, fishers, and food producers during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. We’re one of the farms on their database which helps people find locally produced food. They also champion and amplify causes around food standards, regenerative farming and land access. For us, it was especially a treat to meet Catherine Chong who is one of the forces behind Farms to Feed Us and who has become a good online friend of the farm. Hopefully we’ll see you again before too long, @so_klim! And Emli and her family even popped back to visit, which is the sort of thing we’re always grateful that this space allows us to do. I was a little embarrassed we hadn’t properly shared Emli’s photos before now (though a couple have appeared on the feed) but we’ve generally only been around in our stories because we’ve been SO busy. If you see our previous post, you’ll know why. Laurence and I keep falling asleep with our young people. Not great for Instagram (or for washing up, sometimes!) but not surprising as we hit the height of summer. Scroll for a few different shots of the farm and its people.

-Adele

This time of year is abundant. Our veg boxes and o

This time of year is abundant. Our veg boxes and our market stand at @thefoodbarn.tregew are mostly populated by food we’ve grown here on the farm, which is both thrilling and daunting. Because there is so much to do, we need both to pick up the pace and to keep a steady one - because we are not machines, we’re a part of nature. The only way to hold in balance that tension of being a small team in a startup and of needing to honour nature in our bodies is to keep reaching out to our community.

This is very human work we’re doing here on our no dig farm in Flushing and truly regenerative thinking recognises that when slowing down isn’t possible, more hands are needed. So we’re putting a shout out for more volunteers to come join us. Our official volunteer days are Wednesdays and one Saturday a month. This month we’re meeting on Saturday 31st July.

We typically work together from morning until mid afternoon or however long people can stay, with a break for lunch, often cake and sometimes a small gratitude or reflection practice together. You can usually take some salad with you too. We can also arrange volunteering opportunities outside of those times so please get in touch even if Wednesdays and Saturdays don’t work for you. If you have something in particular you want to learn or a specific skill you want to offer, let us know, though no experience is necessary.

Today our volunteers helped us prep and plant salad, tidy and replant chard, work through our sowing list, plant out fennel and dill and mulch a bed under tarps. We are always grateful for their help and find a lot of joy in being able to share this beautiful space and meaningful work with the humans who choose to join us. Message us or email adele@soulfarm.co.uk if you’d like to volunteer.

Photo by @emlibendixen courtesy of @farmstofeedus

Been a mega busy harvest day ahead of some birthda

Been a mega busy harvest day ahead of some birthday buzz. Hundreds of bunches of kale, the first beetroots for all our veg box members, loads of herbs, hundreds of salad heads and of course radishes. Produce going to the @foodbarn.tregew and our veg boxes. Extra pressure on since Laurence will be interrupting salad harvest with a trip home for birthday breakfast and presents for our daughter turning 10. 🎂🎉🥳
📷 @emlibendixen courtesy of @farmstofeedus

Swing down to the @foodbarn.tregew tomorrow. We ha

Swing down to the @foodbarn.tregew tomorrow. We have stacks of veg for your bank holiday. Some new items we’ve sourced from other farms such as aubergine (#bbq time), black garlic 🤯 and pak choi. Also loads of the famous Soul Farm salad, spring onions, and new season rainbow 🌈 kale.

Come see and be a part of what we’re doing on th

Come see and be a part of what we’re doing on the farm! We have a few spaces for volunteers this Saturday (29th) from 11am. We’re also looking for regular volunteers for Wednesdays from 10am. Message us if you’d like to pop along. [Image description: volunteers move manure to build a bed at our second site which is being converted from a daffodil field]

Creating a business that recognises the impact our

Creating a business that recognises the impact our decisions have on others requires constant refocus when the culture’s drive is to grow big and quickly. That was one of the reasons for having a whole team vision and values meeting before we kicked off our new veg box season, the most boxes we’ve ever done and the longest we’ve ever done.

So, we checked in with everyone, had some quiet to notice what our bodies and minds were doing before telling the story of how each of us joined the farm. Then we looked together at how we’re farming and how that connects to the people around us. And it must, tangibly. How do we make food accessible? How do we make our spaces welcoming? How do we shift in ourselves and in our business the worldview that drives today’s inequity while also surviving in what is?

Coming to this and coming back to this doesn’t mean we solve everything (or anything) but it does help us to work out the next little thing we need to do. And it hopefully means we start a new season with humility, respect and sensitivity.

“The name “Soul Farm” first came from thinki

“The name “Soul Farm” first came from thinking about Caribbean soul food: nourishing, comforting and evocative. Soul food carries memory.

As we work with the living planet, we see that organic soil – black, crumbly, humusy, complex and full of energy – has soul.

We wanted to name “soul” as a guiding principle – a reminder that we grow with life, feelings and action. The soul is linked to connection and interbeing. It’s the part of us that remembers that life requires that we respect all living beings. We’re growing a business that’s truly human.”

It only took 2.5 years but we’re finally starting to rewrite our website from quick business plan excerpts to reflect a bit more on who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Interplanting recognises that we need each other.

Interplanting recognises that we need each other. Experimenting with it like we are here reminds us that learning how to live alongside each other can take trial and error. In this bed we’re hoping that the garlic shade will help slow down the spinach from bolting too soon. Having diverse roots in the ground enhances soil life and structure. Nothing in life is meant to be monoculture.

For the first time, we have a genuine polytunnel t

For the first time, we have a genuine polytunnel to grow in. Up until now, we’ve been using more temporary moveable tunnels so it’s quite a step up. Hello, tomatoes! 🍅

Soul Farm bought two of these beauties for one of our fields and, at the same time, co-director @ian_brydon_ bought one for his family and himself to grow and experiment in. Planning permission has taking longer than expected for the two we’ll be putting up so the business is borrowing this tunnel for at least a year.

Putting up the tunnel was a great community effort with lots of helping hands alongside @oake.n and @anna_bonnie_brydon who you can spot in the photos.

Adele wrote this for our newsletter a couple of we

Adele wrote this for our newsletter a couple of weeks ago and with the new veg box season starting next week, we thought we’d share it here: “I’ve just been thinking about when our kids were 3, 1 and but a twinkle in the eye and were considering worldschooling (home educating while travelling). We figured the only way we could afford it was by doing some sort of exchange for labour so we decided to test it out closer to home by WWOOFing on a sheep farm in Cornwall (we were in Bristol at the time). We had an amazing time and, while we realised that WWOOFing wasn’t for us at that stage in our lives, we were convinced that we wanted a more outdoor life.

So the “someday dream” of starting Soul Farm began with choosing balance for our family life and a livelihood more in touch with the land. As with many good things, we began to gather more reasons as we went along: ecological and social responsibility, food justice, community care, creativity and fun. I’m sure we could easily find a few more reasons for good measure!

Maybe you find that too when you’re sourcing your food through a small, sustainable farm. You might join our veg box scheme to know where your food is coming from and find that, actually, the opportunity to increase your cooking confidence means a lot to you. Or maybe you pop to our Saturday market because you’re after better nutrition and discover that you value the taste of food that hasn’t had to travel far.

Clarifying our reasons has really helped us keep going when tired and making decisions for our farm and family. And eating organic food that’s locally grown can be more challenging than rocking up to the supermarket. So it helps every now and then to come back to those reasons.”

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