My background isn’t in farming. For over a decade I worked in central government in various departments, ultimately as a senior civil servant. Before that I had spent several years working in international development charities, mostly based in Tanzania. But I had long held a secret fantasy to escape the office and become a farmer. 

Despite never having a garden or proper outside space living in London, I started to grow food on my window ledge, helping out an older lady with her allotment and volunteering through WWOOF on other farms on my annual leave. 

I also felt a growing concern about the climate crisis, and a desire to take practical action.

Then in 2017, various things happened in my life - including the death of a dear friend to cancer in her mid-30s - and I just thought now is the time to pursue that fantasy. If not now, when? 

So, the next year I left my job in the civil service and enrolled in a Masters in Food Policy at City University, London. The course looked at the whole system of food from production to consumption and the economic, environmental, social and health aspects. At the same time, I was lucky enough to undertake an urban food growing traineeship with Growing Communities in Hackney, East London. 

At the end of my Masters, the dream was still there, and no part of me wanted to go back to an office…

I thought I should probably learn a bit more about farming before trying to set up my own! So I managed to get a job as a grower at a biodynamic farm, Fern Verrow, in Herefordshire, living off grid in a shepherd’s hut through a cold winter, until covid struck. At the same time-and ever since-I’ve tried to learn as much as possible from other farms, courses, books, podcasts etc, drawing on the wealth of experience out there. 

In 2020, I returned to London and started looking for land, with the idea of creating a patchwork farm from different small sites. After asking everyone I knew, I managed to find a few sites including in the grounds of a disused primary school by Hackney Downs, as well as a friend of a friend’s back garden. With the help of amazing volunteers we converted overgrown sites into mini working farms, selling our produce locally and donating to food banks.

However, it quickly became clear that to be a viable enterprise financially, and to produce proper volumes of food, I needed a bigger bit of land. I set up a social enterprise, got together an Advisory Board, drew up a business plan, and started hunting in earnest. We were lucky enough to be put in touch with the Woodlands Farm Trust, who generously offered us 2 acres of one of their fields.

Still, we had zero infrastructure on the farm. So the first step was to raise the funds for polytunnels, a greenhouse, tools etc. I successfully applied for a London Mayor’s grant, which was contingent on raising half the funds through a Crowdfunder. Incredibly, it worked! We received donations from over 400 mostly local backers, helping us to raise 60k.

That was just the beginning. Using entirely regenerative and no-dig techniques, since Spring 2021 we have converted a field of pasture with a few grazing sheep on it and a Shetland pony called Bob, into a thriving, certified organic farm. Sitopia Farm is now inner London’s largest horticultural farm. 

We’ve come a long way, but we’re only just getting started… 

See above and below for pre (Feb 2021) and post pics (Sep 2021) of our beautiful field, to see what can be done in a short time.