Kirkstall Valley Farm 3rd Anniversary

We visit Kirkstall Valley Farm to discover how it has been producing vegetables for the community since launching three years ago.

Transcript

00:00I'm Ben, I'm one of the main growers at Kirkstall Valley Farm here in Leeds. We started in 2021,

00:07the farm's council owned and we rent it as a community organisation. We're part of Kirkstall

00:12Valley Development Trust and I came on board as a seasonal grower back in that first year

00:18and now myself and Rhianne manage the site together. We've got 100 people who regularly

00:22come down here and get veg boxes from us and we've probably also got 100 people that regularly

00:27volunteer down here and more that come occasionally and we also do events. We have a

00:32kids team that runs Kirkstall Valley Explorers, a preschool parent and child outdoor play group.

00:39All the farm staff are lovely people, they're very understanding, they quite supported me

00:45in something very new for me because I've never really done anything with farming whatsoever.

00:49We've harvested quite a lot of beans recently so we've done that quite a lot. We do a lot

00:53in our poly tunnels, peas as well, onions, we've got a bunch of squash and pumpkins. If it weren't

01:02for everything I'd be here like a week so like but there's been a lot of stuff we've harvested

01:06and planted. We do a mixed veg box of spray-free vegetables, no chemicals, no pesticides. Every

01:14week on a Thursday probably about 95% of our veg comes right here from Kirkstall Valley Farm.

01:20We just buy a little bit in when our stored veg runs out. We've been doing stuff with the

01:26tractor where usually when you plant seeds you would put them in the ground but instead of

01:30us covering the soil we're using the tractor to go over it. It's like a new method the farm's doing,

01:35not sure how it will turn out but hopefully it turns out great. There's a birthday party that's

01:39our third anniversary on the 6th of July. There's so many benefits to volunteering, to getting out

01:46and meeting people, the social side of it. There's many proven benefits that being out in nature

01:51improves your mental health as well. It's a really nice place to come and hang out,

01:55you feel like you're in the middle of the countryside not in the centre of Leeds.