Working with Nature
Langcliffe Farm Gardens is a small, organic farm nestled in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Here we grow seasonal crops, cut-flowers, and perennial fruit trees, as well as working on environmental stewardship projects, such as the restoration of native wild flower meadows.
We are passionate about food sovereignty and transparency, adopting methods of farming that mimic nature’s own systems and structures. By working entirely by hand, (no machine intervention) we lovingly care for each of our plants, enabling us to provide food of the highest quality to our local community.
Our mission is twofold. Firstly to build healthy soil and grow clean, organic and nutritionally dense foods. Secondly, we hope to demonstrate that by working with nature, rather than battling against it, small-scale regenerative farming is not only an efficient and sustainable means of agricultural production, but is also a viable and attractive enterprise for more young people to get involved in.
Meet the farmers
We are Charlotte and Mark. Neither of us grew up farming, but we both grew up really loving food… We started growing food initially so that we could cook with high quality veggies that were guaranteed to be clean, nutritious and fresh as can be. Our homesteading adventures started scaling up once we became enamored with the idea of self-sufficiency, or food-sovereignty. Not being totally reliant upon the supermarket was an attractive prospect.
After a few years we worked out that we could be pretty efficient in our veg growing and we set our sights on providing fresh and wholesome foods for our local community as well. We believe that farming is not just about systems and practices but about intention. Fresh vegetables grown and tended to with love seem to be a gap in the market, and we are eager to fill it!
Farming Practices
Our market garden is small, which allows us to work by hand (no machinery) keeping our feet and eyes on the ground. This means we get to know our garden veeery well and are able to produce the highest quality produce as we can. “No-dig” growing - not using a tiller or a tractor - allows us to build fertile soil, which in turn produces healthy plants and nutrient dense food.
We strongly believe that growing organically is the key to resilient, nutrient dense plants that can support human health as well as the health of the entire ecosystem. Although we are not certified, we strictly adhere to organic growing principles and never use synthetic fertilisers or GMO’s.
Our cut-flower garden, orchards, and native wild flower meadows surround the market garden, providing a home for lots of beneficial insects and pollinators. As with the market garden, we manage our meadows by hand, using scythes to drop the hay each autumn.
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