Reflections on a year at the Plot 2025
Ellen Pearce, Coordinator, shares from a review of the year with the team
In early November, as the season closes, the Plot team came together to take stock, reflect and share dreams for the future.
The team agreed it had been a good year. Last year, in contrast, had been really hard – the worst year for growing veg many could remember. But this year, the weather had been kinder, and the bounty had come in the form of high quality veg making it easier to work on the two sites for our growers, FarmStart trainees and volunteers.
The value of community and networks
We could share the highlights of the broad bean harvest and the challenges of the cabbage white caterpillars but one theme that seemed to sing through this year was the value of the community and networks.
‘I’ve met people who can help’ Richard said, and ‘Diana’s input saved me a fortune’ mentioned Chris in relation to the training he had from Diana on compost making. ‘To access that quality of compost costs a fortune and I can make it at home’.
The scheduled farm visits were also a highlight for some of the trainees.
Ideas into action
‘I found it really useful because I took the ideas that jumped out at me and put them into practice. For instance, at Growing with Grace, the under-glass food forest was amazing, visually and practically – it’s imprinted in my head and I thought ‘I’m going to do that’… it’s far better than a video or a book!’.
Reaping benefits from the expertise and experience of lovely people!
Tommy also reflected that over the course of the year, they’d ‘met a wide range of nice people with diverse knowledge, and each of them had a real depth of knowledge about what they were talking about and their field – there’s a lot of expertise on the course.’
Being part of a big supportive network
The solidarity of being part of a wider movement has been important in other years too. It’s ‘a fantastic and big community to join – FoodFutures is a massive project so you are bought into a large community of people with a similar goal in mind to make the food system more sustainable’. And of course, the four FarmStarters learnt from each other too, as well as through all the lectures and hands on input from Dennis, the Plot grower
I’m doing a nature area in my local school – if I hadn’t done this course, I wouldn’t have made the connections with people who can help me’ Richard
Personal discovery
Overall the FarmStart programme aims to cover horticultural skills, business skills and link to agroecology – it’s a chance for trainees to consider all that’s needed to start a small-scale agroecology veg growing business.
Chris reflects though, that ‘another valuable thing it taught me, was my own limitations. I wont be able to veg farm full time and make a living out of it, but when I’ve got my small-holding set up, I can set a bit of land aside and produce one or two crops that I can sell’.
Tommy highlighted ‘What I’ve learnt is that farms which are successful financially, are not just selling their food. They have some grant funding or have combined it with another industry they can get some more income from’.
In conclusion, Richard summed up his year: ‘feel like I’ve made friends, I feel like I’ve learned a lot, and I feel like this is more of a beginning than anything else’.
And for Chris, beaming, he says: ‘I can start a farm now. It’s been invaluable for me – came from looking at something with a blank expression to now planning what I’m going to do and feeling confident’.
2025 was the fifth and final season of the Plot at Old Holly Farm, where we made our first veg beds, put our first seedlings in the ground, and ran our first training session. We’re now looking to a new future based at Summerhouse Farm.
