Month: February 2024

Outdoor learning and land-based careers

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Harewood offers varied outdoor learning opportunities, such as school visits, apprenticeships, work placements and volunteering. They have developed and delivered a programme for school visits under a Countryside Stewardship agreement, which welcomed over 400 children to the Estate in the first six months. These sessions cover a range of topics such as biodiversity, renewable energy, regenerative approaches to farming, conservation and more.

During a tour of the Estate the Harewood team will share their learnings, including how to approach schools, developing relevant curriculum and the infrastructure needed for successful sessions.

The tour will be followed by lunch, featuring produce from Harewood, and then a discussion session to explore:

  • Engaging with schools and providing relevant learning at different levels

  • How can we create more opportunities for people to move into land-based jobs?

Follow the link below to join us:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/northernrealfarmingconference/1138546

10am – 3pm (lunch and refreshments provided)

The Hovels, Harewood Estate, LS17 9LF, near Leeds, Tuesday 26 March 2024.

Community ownership and land matching

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Access to land for aspiring or experienced farmers can be a challenge. Land prices now outstrip the potential returns from small-scale farming so that fields which could be used for food production are often sold for housing, as an investment, for carbon off-setting or other more lucrative uses. This contributes to a widening gap between urban and rural areas, which is leaving whole communities disconnected from the land and dependent on an industrialised food system which is contributing to ill-health and climate breakdown.

But there is another way: throughout the UK many communities are finding creative ways to come together to protect our green, rural spaces for food growing and landscape recovery. Featuring case studies from successful projects, this one-day farm visit will:

  • Explore case studies of getting land into community ownership, including Moss Lane farm’s work and strategy

  • Include a tour of Moss Lane farm and the community businesses that share the land

  • Be a chance to identify further actions to support greater land access for agroecological farming in the North of England

Follow the link below to join us and explore different ways to access land for food, farming and nature, including community ownership and land matching:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/northernrealfarmingconference/1138481

10.30am – 4pm (lunch provided)

Moss Lane Farm, M30 7RL, near Eccles (Salford), Thursday 21 March 2024.

Outline programme:

10.30 am Arrival/tea/coffee

10.45am Introductions and welcome

11.30am Context: the qualifications landscape and progress/challenges towards embedding agroecology in existing models

11.30pm Tour of Haigh Hall

1.00pm Lunch

1.45pm Co-designing a L2

3.15pm Collation of feedback on current system

3.30pm Wrap up and next steps/what more is needed in the North?

4pm Close

Exploring a level 2 curriculum for agroecology

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The qualification options for equipping people for land-based careers in an agroecological context are limited. As we understand more about the challenges in the current globalised, industrialised food and farming systems, the need to train our young people for a different food producing future becomes critical.

At Haigh Hall, the plans are to do just that. Combining agroecology, heritage kitchen gardening and food system politics a new two-year, accredited level 2 apprenticeship in productive horticulture is under development. There are currently no horticultural apprenticeships in Wigan, so together with the local college (Wigan and Leigh) we have the opportunity to create something beneficial for the borough and the wider region.

The walled gardens are due for restoration and we have the opportunity to design and build a syllabus as well as a garden ideally suited for training a new generation of growers.

Follow the link below to join us and co-design a curriculum that will better fit the future, and provide feedback for the barriers for change with the existing qualifications frameworks:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/northernrealfarmingconference/1138499

10.30am – 4pm (lunch and refreshments provided)

Haigh Hall, WN2 1PE, near Wigan, Monday 11 March 2024.

Outline programme:

10.30 am Arrival/tea/coffee

10.45am Introductions and welcome

11.30am Context: the qualifications landscape and progress/challenges towards embedding agroecology in existing models

11.30pm Tour of Haigh Hall

1.00pm Lunch

1.45pm Co-designing a L2

3.15pm Collation of feedback on current system

3.30pm Wrap up and next steps/what more is needed in the North?

4pm Close

Designing a ‘planetary plate’ – Monday 26 February 2024

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Join us at this event to work together to explore the concept of an eat well and planetary plate for the North of England. We aim to highlight some of the foods that are traditionally grown and eaten in the North of England and celebrate a local, seasonal menu.

The event is now sold out. Follow the link below to register your interest in being part of this work and helping us to explore and preserve some of the North’s diversity of seeds and breeds:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/northernrealfarmingconference/1138460#

10.30am – 2.30pm (lunch included)

The Catton Kitchen, near Thirsk, 26 February 2024.

Places are limited so please book asap.

Outline programme:

10am – arrival and get acquainted with the pigs and veg!

10.30am – introductions

11.00am – exploring the context and what’s happened already

11.20am – coffee

11.30am – developing an eat well plate for Northern England

1.00pm – lunch

2.00pm – next steps

2.30pm – cake and goodbyes

3.00pm – close