Incredible Farm's story
Incredible Farm started as part of a very vague project to "do something about food"; growing food to share in public places, with or without permission. Incredible Farm had a strong belief that they needed to share their vision for a more empowered nature-connected and food-connected lifestyle, to show that it could be accessible to all, not just those born on farms.
Sprouting out of the original Incredible Edible in Todmorden in 2010, the Incredible Farm is now a stand-alone, not-for-profit social enterprise which is supported by income from produce, plant, fruit tree sales and from training, education and consultancy. A number of grants and funds have also allowed Incredible Farm to develop community and school outreach projects based around health, wellbeing and fostering an understanding of how to grow and eat sustainable locally produced food. These grants have also enabled their day-to-day management of the farm and the development of infrastructure. Over the past 12 or so years, opportunities have allowed Incredible Farm to develop into a fully functional 15-acre farm with livestock, veg growing and teaching.
Incredible Farm's educational workshops are open to schools and youth groups. They run a range of different school projects; from giving interactive assemblies about where food comes from, tasting tasty farm produce, talking about why it is important to think sustainably about food, to full-scale growing projects where they work with young people to develop growing spaces in their school and help them explore the world of food growing and permaculture.
All school projects are bespoke to the school with growing workshops linked to the national curriculum, in order to engage young people of all ages about food growing and sustainability.
Useful learnings from Incredible Farm
Just do it, grow food anywhere, intend to give it away, be generous, recognise and accept opportunities.
Sometimes progress seems very slow, but looking back we can see the scores of people we have inspired and empowered, and the route forwards towards making land-based career options available to many is becoming clearer by partnering with colleges and the climate challenge/green futures courses.
Incredible Farm's metrics
Number of people involved.
Amount of food produced.
Range of wildlife observed.
