The important bits

• Eastbrook Farm stretches for 1,337 acres – that’s 1,300 football pitches. Not quite as exciting as football, sometimes, but much better for nice flowers
  
• No, we don’t use fertilisers, except the stuff that pigs, cows, hens and sheep produce every hour of the day.
• Sprays—we could argue that the birds and the bees do that job for us, coupled with the innate strength of the crops and grasses we grow. Not perfect, but pretty good.
  
• Yes, the livestock is free ranging-although arriving here on a foul day in winter, you will see most beef and dairy cattle in their spacious and airy winter barns. Pigs will also have a couple of weeks inside their straw lined yards as we sort them for slaughter.
  
• We like trees. We estimate we have planted about 35,000 of them in the 22 years that Helen’s been the boss, including a dedicated 18 acre wood that was planted in 2004.
  
• And hedges. Possibly 7 miles of them restored so far, and plans for miles more as money permits.
  
• And the water table. When the animals have put the fertility into the soil, we’re keen to use the phosphates and nitrates they’ve deposited before they seep down into the local water supply. So we move the animals on, and grow wheat, oats, and often beans
  
• And most of the wildlife: sometimes the foxes can irritate, but they try to keep the rabbits in check. The badgers constantly worry us, but there’s a stable population here and they seem (touch wood) to be TB free; the deer are a glorious sight especially on a frosty bright winter morning; the hares fight, like hares do; the buzzards, hawks, owls, and the occasional rarity such as the montague’s harrier are simply thrilling; the songbirds multiply noisily, and when they get too popular, the kestrels sort them out

Eastbrook Wood