Meet our head grower

“The footsteps of the farmer are the best fertiliser” - never was a truer word said about growing vegetables. If we want to grow in a better way that replenishes the land and soil, the essential ingredient is the care and attention of someone who knows how to nurture plants to their true potential.

So we’re super excited to announce a major milestone for the community farm. We now have a head grower (and the money to pay him!)

Dave Barfoot grew up in Edinburgh and was involved in environmental causes from an early age, working with Edinburgh and Lothians conservation to run volunteer projects all over the region. Dave is also a traditional musician and while travelling Europe playing gigs and having a lot of fun (he assures us he’s settled down a bit since then) he spent a lot of time on traditional farms in Romania where he caught the gardening bug.

That took him back to Scotland where he worked as a grower at East Coast Organics for 4 years, learning all the ins and outs of commercial growing at a large scale (as well as meeting his partner and the mother of his children). As you can imagine this level of commercial experience is an incredible asset for us, and something that is really rare in a community project of our scale. We’re very lucky to have him…

As head grower, Dave will be responsible for running all the operations on the site - deciding what we grow, and where, and how it’s cultivated and harvested. He also sits on the board of the farm so has input into all the commercial and governance decisions that will impact how our veg is grown and sold.

Green manures growing on our site last year

Dave is a proper horticulture geek and takes inspiration from a lot of sources in his approach to growing. From permaculture he takes the idea of a focus on diversity of plant types, to spread the risk and manage pests and diseases. He sets out to grow plants that are so healthy that pests naturally avoid them (last year he did an amazing demonstration, lifting the netting off a row of brassicas to show that the hundreds of cabbage whites flying around chose not to land on them and lay their eggs).

Another key technique is the use of green manures - anyone who’s been to our site will have seen that much of it is covered in a mix of plants over the winter to cycle the nutrients in the soil and prevent their loss through leaching and weathering. He’ll also be encouraging lots of beneficial insects through the use of nettle banks and other native plants around the site.

We’ll shortly be announcing several upcoming volunteer days and would really encourage you to come down, get involved, meet Dave and learn a bit more about him and how he grows such stupendous veg.

A small taste of what’s to come in 2024