Oxford Real Farming Conference in the Field – Report

Date Published: 9th July 2022

Suzy Russell of CSA Network UK was lucky enough to be invited to run a couple of sessions on CSA at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in the Field event, which took place this week (6th and 7th July) at the beautiful Farm Ed site in the Cotswolds. 

Alongside Emma Mills, who runs the Kitchen Garden People CSA, with growers Dan and Matt and communicator Christine, Suzy talked to two groups of interested folk about how CSA works and what it can achieve. 

The audience came from 3 miles down the road to such far-flung places as the Isle of Man and Australia. They were all looking at setting up CSAs and had a shared passion for community and good local food. 

Emma and Matt gave a brilliant tour of the Kitchen Garden People site. They introduced everyone to dedicated volunteers and explained their six-year rotation system. They also showed them the all-important packing shed, site trials of three sisters growing and the seven recently planted new agroforestry rows. The agroforestry rows will supplement their shares with seasonal apples chosen and planted to provide delicious local varieties ripening right through the apple season. 

The combination of theory, questions and the practical tour gave conference attendees a wonderful sense of what CSA looks like, and we hope to hear from them and support them as they begin to get their own new CSA ventures off the ground.

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