This talk and all our lectures are FREE for Friends of the Botanical Gardens to attend. Members of the public are also welcome to join us on payment of £5 at the door on the day. Live talks are held in the Education Centre in the grounds of the Botanical Gardens - easily accessed via the Thompson Road Entrance.
THIS LECTURE REPLACES THE ADVERTISED TALK BY SHEFFIELD FRUIT TREES
Doug Kemp, Farm Manager of Regather organic farm and community benefit society, shares his journey from desk job in London to organic farming cooperative on the outskirts of Sheffield.
Doug is the Farm Manager at the Regather organic farm on the outskirts of Sheffield. Having sold organic vegetables and run a veg box scheme since 2012, their ambition was to grow their own and in August 2019 they signed a lease for a field in the Moss Valley.
However, signing the lease co-incided with heavy rains in September which pretty much continued until March 2020, when they faced the national lockdown as the COVID 19 pandemic hit. Undeterred they got through the pandemic and are now in their fifth growing season and continue to expand growing areas and projects. Regather now has a market garden for veg, agroforestry, polytunnels, wild areas, 1km hedging, willow coppice, a meadow, heritage wheat, orchard, ponds and have started schools engagement projects.
Future plans may include another market garden, offering traineeships, keeping chickens for egg production and more!
Doug left behind desk jobs in London in 2014 to travel, spend more time outside and learn some new skills and after 18 months volunteering on smallholdings and organic farms he moved back to Sheffield where he found temporary work delivering veg boxes for Regather.
When it became apparent Regather might be about to start looking for land to set up their own organic farm business, Doug recognised a fantastic opportunity and he took the plunge along with the rest of the Regather team - they are now in their fifth season growing fruit and veg for Sheffield - the story continues
