"We envision an inspiring and resilient permaculture farm where humans work harmoniously with Nature and each other, co-creating a regenerative culture fit for the next seven generations and beyond"
Once upon a time...
Middle Ground Growers (MGG) was born in 2020, on a small 2 acre market garden in the village of Bathampton.
Like all vegetables, MGG started with an idea: producing ecologically grown food for local communities.
We started by supplying a whole food shop in Bath and selling directly on the farm. Rapidly we also decided to launch a veg box scheme and began delivering to 20-25 families every week in 2020, 75 households in 2021 and 110 families in 2022.
We received the support of hundreds of people in 2021 when we successfully raised over 95,000 in donation to get us started on our new 16 acre land in Weston.
In 2023, we are farming exclusively at Weston Spring Farm and are aiming to provide food for over 200 families and 12 local outlets.
The journey continues...
Regenerate
Through our agro-ecological farming practices we regenerate the soil, encourage diverse ecologies and harbour wildlife, capture carbon
and grow food for over 200 families in Bath.
Educate
Education is a crucial tool in feeding our collective future. We run seasonal traineeships to train the regenarative landworkers of tomorrow and support them to establish multiple market gardens around Bath. We also run workshops in permaculture design and agroforestry.
Pollinate
Everything we do revolves around creating a resilient future for the local landscape and people.
We actively engage in creating a thriving bio-regional web of farms that will bring back a sense of identity and food sovereignty to the Avon valley.
Meet the landworkers
Middle Ground Growers is an established Community Interest Company (CiC). We are a team of 5 part-time co-workers. We also have a seasonal team of trainees and year-round volunteers who help make this team richer and more diverse.
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We are fortunate to be able to steward this 16 acre farm below Kelston hill, and nested at the end of the watershed of Westbrook, we are predominantly south facing and enjoy growing on rich loamy soils.
Weston Spring farm is the fruit of a permaculture design and journey (2020-2021). It is now home to a 1.5acre no-dig market garden with 2 polytunnels, 6 acre of field crops in an agroforestry system (rows of apples, pears, plums, medlars), an orchard of plums, quinces and apricots as well as a nuttery (walnut, cob hazelnuts), a willow & hazel coppice and soon... a tree nursery.
Thanks to a massive push from Crowdfunders backers in 2021, we were able to plant thousands of trees, to buy market garden tools and machinery, earn a living for the starting up phase and feel supported and encouraged by your generosity. Thank you again!
We also host a honey beekeper on site and have planted wildflower strips, built bird boxes and hope the bats come and visit us more and more... and eat some insects that eat our cabbages!
The solar barn is under way too ... keep an eye out for updates.
Weston Spring Farm
We practice regenerative farming. We know we have a responsibility to regenerate our land and strive to apply best agroecological practices. This is why we are cultivating with awareness of soil health and life and have a no-dig market garden where we bring-in compost and woodchip. We practice crop rotation, succession and plant various green manures to bring back organic matter and activate soil biology.
To avoid grass and weed competition, instead of tilling or using chemicals (we are in Organic conversion by the way - full certified in August this year!) we need to cover areas with landscape fabric and tarps.
We practice minimum till in the agroforestry alleys as it is a bigger area to crop and require a tractor for growing food at scale. In the current economic system (high cost of labour and low price of veg) we have to use fossil fuels if we are to be economically viable and not break our backs weeding acres of leek and carrots by hand.
So we make compromises, and always strive to find a middle ground, to navigate the shift between the old and the new. to pioneer and explore new ways of farming and connecting to our land.