Farming for diversity at Tamarisk Farm

Explore the article in 'Stories within Our Isles' by Angus D. Birditt, following the Simon family who farm at Tamarisk Farm on the Jurassic Coast in West Dorset. Lelia, alongside Ben and her parents, Adam and Ellen, run Tamarisk Farm, both organic and Pasture for Life certified, working to produce diverse, nutritious food alongside nature.

The more I learn about what 'regenerative' or 'agroecological' farming means, the more I understand it is utterly complex, for example, focusing on soil health and rebuilding or regenerating our natural cycles. But it is also about encouraging diversity, or more precisely, biodiversity; biological diversity.

Over the last century, we have seen our food and farming industries accelerate away from diversity and move towards centralisation, concentration and mechanisation. Take cereal, for example, a food group that has become so concentrated that the majority of the global intake of cereal varieties can be accounted for on one hand.

Yet, focusing on the British Isles and the particularly the South West, there are many farmers that are encouraging diversity by being a multifaceted enterprise. One such example is Tamarisk Farm in West Dorset, run by the Simon family. Tamarisk Farm is an organic farm, also certified Pasture for Life, which means that they feed their animals a 100% pasture fed diet, which is all natural, and none of that ambiguous 'this is grass-fed' malarkey. They farm Red Ruby Devon cattle, Dorset Down sheep, a variety of chickens, traditional varieties of cereal like Maris Wigeon and the more recent YQ Population blend, and manage a market garden, growing a huge range of fruit and veg for local shops and markets in the South West.

When I visited the Simon family and Tamarisk Farm in late summer, I was truly taken aback by the diversity on the farm, from the variety of animals farmed to the diversity in their wheat fields, laced with all kinds of vetch that Ellen, mother of the Simon family, knew like the back of her hand. The diversity on the farm extended to the small creatures as well with all kinds of bugs, bees, butterflies and other invertebrates making Tamarisk Farm their home for the foreseeable future. I too could have stayed for the entire summer quite happily under an apple tree in their orchard!

One such event I will forever remember when I visited the farm was herding their animals along the beach front, which they do a couple of times every year with both their cattle and sheep. This is done for the animal's welfare and to sustain a tradition that has been done for centuries. Come late afternoon in summer, the cows are herded on horseback from the farmstead in West Bexington to the very westerly fields of Tamarisk Farm. It's a few miles in total, and come a balmy evening, it is a joy to behold, a most intrinsic experience.

Words & Photographs by Angus D. Birditt | @angusdbirditt