Growing organically

Using hand tools and a no-dig system of growing, a young couple has created a flourishing organic market garden in the depths of the North Devon countryside

- CATHERINE COURTENAY

It's fortunate that Olivia James and Henry Allison both enjoy being outdoors because their every daylight hour is spent tending the crops they grow at their market garden on the outskirts of Winkleigh.

The couple are now into their fourth year of growing produce. It’s early spring, most of the ground still waits to be planted, but healthy beds of chard, kale and cauliflowers are still flourishing.

The polytunnel, which contains winter salad crops, provides respite from the brisk wind that sweeps up over their three-acre plot.

Henry’s non-farming parents bought Down Farm in the 1970s, after returning from work in the Middle East and ‘falling in love with the view’ – one which reaches across to Dartmoor.

Henry, 33, grew up on the farm, then moved away to study countryside management at university in Brighton. Olivia, 29, was an English Literature student at Sussex University before going on to study environmental politics and economics in London. They both shared a love of growing sustainable, organic food and volunteered for community veg growing projects.

After university they worked in a variety of situations, all of which built up knowledge and skills. Liv was at Stepney City Farm in London and also worked at Shillingford Organics near Exeter; Henry undertook the Soil Association Future Growers training programme. A year spent in Australia brought yet more experience for the couple, including work on large scale veg and fruit farms.