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 membership organisation run by volunteers and paid growers. 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

Latest posts

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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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March 15, 2021March 15, 2021Solidarity.The farm

Solidarity veg boxes: make real food accessible to everyone

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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.”

🌻🌻A forest of sunflowers🌻🌻 We’re e

🌻🌻A forest of sunflowers🌻🌻

We’re excited to support @the_sunflower_project_cornwall, an inspiring creation by @naomi.creative.roots, one of our growers and a community artist. The project is supporting communities across Cornwall to plant over 10,000 sunflowers, from schools to the windowsills of those isolating with dementia, community fields to home gardens, by a young mums project, youth groups, an inclusive dance collective and more. It’s all about sharing beauty, connecting community and spreading hope.

Their beautifully designed origami seed packets, containing 80-100 seeds, will be on our stall at the @foodbarn.tregew tomorrow (Saturday) for £5 with profits going toward growing the project next year.

We’ll also be growing our own sunflower patch with the project, here on the farm with our volunteers. If you are involved in a community group and would like to find out about a community pack, get in touch with Naomi via thesunflowerprojectcornwall@gmail.com

From Naomi: “Since I was a child I have found profound magic in the act of planting seeds and of watching them grow. Now we are doing it together. These seeds are in our hands. In fact, they will fall into hundreds of hands. The hands of young and old planting a forest of sunflowers. In the darkness of winter this was my wish - to plant and share seeds of hope and to share the beauty of growing.”

[image description: hands holding sunflower seeds in upturned palms]

It’s the first Friday in a long time that we’r

It’s the first Friday in a long time that we’re not doing CSA veg boxes (though we’re harvesting for restaurants today). Reflecting on the winter CSA season, people have told us that having our veg made lockdown a little kinder as a sweeter spot in their weeks. That’s energy we’ll take into the upcoming CSA season which starts mid-May. It’s easy to get swept up in all the things we could be doing but helpful to remember that the veg itself makes a difference to people in our community. 🌱🥬[image description: aubergine seedlings growing on a shelf in the greenhouse]

Back when our first baby started solids, we starte

Back when our first baby started solids, we started learning a whole lot more about organic eating. We felt strongly that good food shouldn’t only be accessible to people in a certain income bracket. Now that we were becoming food producers ourselves and growing to organic principles, we needed to figure out what we were going to do with that issue of access. Funding the first boxes by donations and linking with a local foodbank was a start.

We gave the sliding scale our first go in our winter 2020 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) veg box season which has just come to a close. We funded 10 boxes free to those who needed them to be as well as low income boxes sold at below cost price. Intending to expand to run an almost year round CSA season this year, we hoped to also increase our solidarity memberships (low income and fully funded).

The wheels were in gear but expanding was set to be a challenge. That’s why we’re grateful the @landworkersalliance is helping scale up this side of our work. This year they invited us to participate in their Community Resilience Project with the @tnlcommunityfund . Thanks must, of course, also go to the National Lottery players for making this possible. They’ve enabled us to really get this side of things going alongside all the other work we’re doing.

You can read more about what their help is allowing us to do over on our blog. #nationallottery [image description: peas growing with poles, violas in the foreground and a polytunnel to the left, trees in the distance]

Earth Day was an opportunity to renew commitments.

Earth Day was an opportunity to renew commitments. Eating local and seasonal is a small, big commitment we take to love our Mother. But it matters how the food is grown, that we keep carbon in the soil and work with the worms, fungi and all our small relations. It matters that the food and food community is accessible to everyone, regardless of income or background. It matters that work with the land is accessible to all, that each of us consciously works to stop racism and every other oppression from determining who gets to feel welcome in the countryside and who sees themselves in agroecological industries. It matters that we see all of this as connected. It’s not enough to pursue food security for the people inside our four walls. Our commitment to the Earth is to all living things, including each other. This is a commitment to connection, conversation and practical action.

Image description: Finn a volunteer forks horse manure from a wheel barrow onto new no-dig vegetable beds

We’ve been prepping a lot of beds recently which

We’ve been prepping a lot of beds recently which has involved cutting plants that have been left to flower. It’s a simple way of promoting the garden’s biodiversity and honouring all of life. Wherever we can, we also leave the roots in the ground to avoid unnecessarily disturbing the mycelium network. Gentle ways of moving with the space. Image description [rocket is flowering with person in background working]

We’ve sold out for this year’s CSA season! Tha

We’ve sold out for this year’s CSA season! Thank you to all who have chosen to throw their lot in with ours, to connect with your growers in a less conventional, albeit more meaningful way. We’re going to continue to fill more solidarity spots so you can donate through our website or at our Saturday market stall but 24% of our veg shares are already going to low income and solidarity members! We will be pausing for gratitude.

The food is growing! Looking forward to starting o

The food is growing! Looking forward to starting our 2021-2022 CSA veg box scheme next month. Just a few spots left and we’re going to close early so we can focus on other aspects of our work. All out of full shares so just half shares left. Remember “upper” and “highest” tiers help fund our low income and solidarity boxes. Hope you can join us!

Perpetual kale is a wonder. These are our second c

Perpetual kale is a wonder. These are our second cuttings from a plant that Laurence’s dad grew from a cutting from @charles_dowding years ago. No hungry gap for this crop.

Big projects are underway around here. Things we c

Big projects are underway around here. Things we couldn’t have predicted we’d be doing in just year two of making Soul Farm a full time gig. This past year we’ve clarified our vision around agroecology, community and solidarity. We’ve tried new things, sometimes because we were pushed to try them. And we’ve met people who want to see what we’re doing go further. That includes the people behind LEAP, a project of the Real Farming Trust that has given us a game changing grant and loan that have enabled us to do so much more this year than we would have otherwise.

On the ground, we’re currently building a polytunnel and getting planning for two more. Just this weekend we’ve put together a walk-in cooler which hugely opens up what we’re able to do. Just needs a lick of paint. We’re upgrading our irrigation systems, building a washer and spinner for our greens and kitting out a pack station for your freshly harvested veg. So, busy, busy.

But ultimately, what all these activities mean is that we’ll be able to work more efficiently with and take better care of the land, plants and people we partner with. And that allows us to look after our capacity to feed the community and to steward the soil.

The focus of the funding is community. We’ve written about how the funding is helping us to further develop our solidarity veg box and our work with volunteers on our blog. [image description: rows of rocket seedlings next to the polytunnel]

Shungiku! Edible chrysanthemum greens, high in vit

Shungiku! Edible chrysanthemum greens, high in vitamin B complex, vitamin C and iron. We joke that often Laurence chooses what veg to grow based on how aesthetically pleasing it is. You could certainly rest your mind tracing the edges of these leaves. More to the point, shungiku is wonderful for growing in the winter and an exciting addition to the dinner plate. To unlock its show stopping flavours and textures, blanche then sprinkle with soy sauce and sugar or stir fry with the same plus rice vinegar. It’s also used in soups and stews. We’re hoping our CSA veg box members will show us how they’ve used it in our online community group. Anyone else growing shungiku? Even if not, have you cooked with it before?

The food is growing and getting ready to go out in

The food is growing and getting ready to go out into the community. But here in the hungry gap there’s not a lot we can currently harvest on the farm. Our veg boxes for the upcoming season start in mid-May because we want to kick off with an abundance of food we’ve grown rather than with produce we’ve had to buy in from elsewhere. So as a thank you to members for helping us plan ahead by committing to us and hanging tight, we’re offering 10% off all items at the Soul Farm stall at @foodbarn.tregew market on Saturdays until our CSA veg box scheme starts in mid-May. You just need to come say “hi” and show the welcome email you receive from us to someone at the stall - that goes for new sign ups too.

We did our first delivery in our new reusable veg

We did our first delivery in our new reusable veg boxes on Friday, the eve of the spring equinox. Packing these beauties feels like resetting our intentions as we move into a new season in the life of the farm. We still have spots still available for our May 2021 to February 2022 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) veg box scheme. This is an opportunity for all of us to think about our shared future as people concerned about the earth and about each other, while eating some pretty next-level veg.

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