Where to buy regeneratively grown produce in the U.K.
We need your help with this!

Riverview Cottage Farm.  Cumwhinton, Cumbria:             'Growing carrots that are carrots'

​

Dan and Sam are to be envied. They have started their regenerative journey early enough in life to have the youth and energy to approach it with gusto and with a long look into the future. More than that though, they are to be thanked. They are doing the right thing by all of us.

​

3 miles south of Carlisle, it could be considered a modest smallholding, one acre in lovely countryside, “perfect really ..close to the river for paddling.” It is enough land, however, to produce a plethora of healthy, nutrient dense vegetables, rich in minerals and phytonutrients.

 

In choosing seed, Dan and Sam go organic (they have just achieved organic certification) and heritage. Add regenerative practices, and in terms of nutrition, you can’t do better than this. Eat their produce and you will live longer and live better.

 

With a nod towards a basket full of handwritten seed envelopes, Dan explains that “you get a small number of heritage seeds with the idea that you grow your own seed stock.” I think we can definitely look to Riverview Cottage for a seed bank for future growers.

 

4 types of kale, 4 types of carrots, 4 types of beans, peas, mangetout, potatoes, lettuce, chard, asparagus, parsnips, squash, courgettes 4 types of tomatoes, and many, many herbs make up the produce grown here. Dan and Sam also produce several more unusual vegetables, tomatillos for example and agretti, partly because they supply a local restaurant that has requested more specialised produce.

 

Diversity* doesn’t stop there, they have had pigs this year and used a neighbour’s sheep to graze for 5 days They have honeybees and a wildflower section, and with their careful development of a native hedgerow connected to a mature woodland, there is generous provision for our vital pollinators and room for a variety of indigenous eco systems*.

 

‘Living Root*’ is covered at Riverview in a number of ways: winter veg, soft fruit, cover crops, green manure and, interestingly, experimentation on growing a nitrogen fixing plant (clover) in the same bed as vegetables that will then benefit from the nitrogen.

 

Being organic means that chemicals are not used anyway, but Dan and Sam also practise other techniques of minimum disturbance*; no dig of course (healthy soil needs this) and weed suppressant through heavy tarp coverage to ‘knock back and reset.’ Dan confesses they have had to disturb the soil to deal with the weed ‘mare’s tail’, but that is what regenerative growing is about -listening to the need of the land and solving problems whilst keeping as in tune with the soil and ecology as possible. What we loved about this was that they dug out the mare’s tail with an old wheel hoe salvaged from Dan’s Grandad’s farm in Oxfordshire: from a time before soil degradation.

 

Organic Matter* is provided using composted organic horse manure, wood chips and biochar. Stalks are left in the soil where possible, and in the future they will have their own willow for wood chips as well as craft activities.

 

Wood chip paths mean that highly beneficial, nutrient providing fungi will be developing in the vegetable beds and in the future Dan and Sam plan to develop composting techniques to provide  effective microbes*.

 

The financial benefits of their hard work are not there yet. Dan feels that there should be subsidies for growing healthy veg that benefits ecology and sequesters carbon. He certainly thinks you shouldn’t have to pay for organic accreditation. “£700”, Sam interjects. They feel that by showing people that “a carrot isn’t always a carrot”: in other words, by highlighting the difference in taste and nutrition of their veg, compared to supermarket produce, people will be prepared to pay more for food.

 

They have held supper feasts where the carrots that are carrots were picked an hour before eating. People had a great time and were appreciative …but haven’t been back to buy produce. A little disappointing but we are certain that once the nutritional benefits are more widely known -then shoppers will flock to their door.

 

Future plans also involve sharing extensively with the community* -helping the local school recreate garden beds, more seasonal supper evenings and teaching crafts with dyes grown on the land.

 

It sounds like a lot but compared to previously, Sam and Dan have actually been pretty lazy this year, no farmers markets, no feasting events at their place, no visiting help. The reason for this ‘laziness’ is incredibly cute and gurgles gorgeously in Dan’s arms as he talks. The other reason scampers around, quite used to feasting himself on tomatoes straight off the vine and enjoying all the benefits of what must be one of the healthiest microbiomes in the country.

 

Yes, Dan and Sam are to be envied, but not as much as their children.

​

​