“There's a shift towards a patchwork of small local farms,
all proving it's a viable way to feed ourselves. We want to showcase that”.
Ryan, Chief Grower
MEET OAK TREE FARM
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a burgeoning food revolution and Oak Tree Farm has blazed a trail. It's a way of farming with a dedication to regenerative, community principles, that is a powerful counter to global warming, healing the planet and even ourselves. Our broken food system accounts for a quarter of global emissions. We’re excited to be getting behind a great initiative working to be part of the solution.
What’s so brilliant
Imagine barren land exhausted by decades of industrial farming. Fast forward ten years, you’re in a verdant market garden. That’s what they’ve achieved. When locals sign up for their ultra-fresh, nutritious veg boxes, they also commit to work two hours a week at the farm, with 150 people regularly helping. Ryan the farm’s grower shows them how. Eating with the seasons, they learn about the land, sharing the harvest, risk and reward. Now that’s connection. Plastic wrapped, air-freighted green beans be gone!
“You come in on a Saturday and there’s 20 people getting stuck in, hoeing here, weeding there. It's inspiring. A lovely sight.”
Tom, share member and regular volunteer
What we can help WITH
The farm urgently needs more indoor growing space and they want to install a large polytunnel - 20m x 24m, yes large! They’ve bought a secondhand frame, have volunteers lined up to build it, and the Club’s £1000 pays for the roof.
One of their smaller existing polytunnels
WHAT IT MAKES POSSIBLE
More than tripling their covered growing area and a gateway to their ‘no-till’ regenerative approach, it would radically boost the quantity, quality and consistency of their crops year round. We’d be helping the farm’s long-term climate and financial resilience showcasing that community agriculture at its best is the way forward for our food.
PROJECT STATUS
The polytunnel completed all the way to the final doors going on, in December 2021 to much excitement and celebration at Oak Tree Farm…water tight just in time for winter. The first sowings are going to be in late spring 2022 and first harvests by mid-summer! Lucie and Ryan said… ‘We are all really thrilled by the opportunities the new polytunnel creates for us - a massive step forward for the farm, thanks again to The One Fund!
The Oak Tree Farm is a Community Interest Company based in Suffolk
Any profits are reinvested in their community mission