Join us to grow Kindling Farm

Help create a pioneering wildlife friendly agroforestry project & join us for our first growing season on Kindling Farm.

A few years ago, 800 people joined us in buying our 78-acre farm between Liverpool & Manchester, establishing a community-owned, climate-, wildlife- and people-friendly vision for sustainable food and farming.

Since the Summer of 2023, we have been laying the foundations for our ambitious plan to grow good food for everyone. Despite many challenges we are getting ready for the 2025 growing season, but we need your help to make it happen!

There are huge financial hurdles to start out in farming, and with prices for everything so much higher now—from timber to second-hand machinery—we are asking you to support us and get involved.

"As we move into our next exciting phase of developing Kindling Farm, we are seeking supporters to help us grow our food production, create more space for wildlife and invest in sustainable farming infrastructure. For example, you can help out with our first ever crop of pumpkins, fund a barn owl nest box or adopt one of our many hundreds of apple trees." 

                                                                 Helen, Cofounder & Director.

Any support is hugely welcomed and we hope we have provided opportunities for every aspect of the farm and for all pockets. From a £30 gift veg box, to £100 to plant a majestic oak tree, to joining others to buy a new tractor!

More information about Kindling Farm

"Kindling Farm is a unique and exciting opportunity to pioneer organic agroforestry methods, support more wildlife and connect as many people as possible with food. Having given the soil a much-needed rest, we now need to get the crops in the ground and become an economically viable working farm."                                                                                             Abi, Director.

We have been hugely successful in securing grants to develop our charitable activities and improve the farm for wildlife, but there are very few grants available to purchase the costly infrastructure needed to start farming from scratch.

With your help, we will transform this conventional farm, previously intensely farmed for animal feed, into an organic fruit & veg farm. This will involve rows of hundreds of fruit trees, with fresh seasonal veg growing in alleys between the tree rows. Crops like squash, beetroot, kales and beans will fill the fields, while an abundance of strawberries, tomatoes and year-round fresh leafy greens will fill the polytunnels. 

This system of farming is the best way we have seen for regenerating and maintaining a good healthy soil, managing water sustainably and rebuilding natural eco-systems that both improve wildlife habitats and help control pests and disease in the crops — a winner for us and nature!   

To transform food and farming, we know we need to be more than a farm. We therefore have broad aims & objectives:

• Promote sustainable land use by becoming a pioneering agroforestry farm.
• Increase consumption of local, seasonal and directly traded goods.
• Strengthen local economies and create meaningful livelihoods. 
• Support change makers by providing training, inspiration and resources.
• Foster symbiotic relationships between urban and rural partners.
• Support local communities through training and volunteering to improve skills, health & well-being.
• Provide low impact housing for the benefit of the local community.
• Promote and practice co-operative ways of working and living.

What is agroforestry?

Simply put, agroforestry means farming with trees — within the fields, not just around the edges. This is beneficial (and amazing!) for many reasons. Tree roots grow deep into the ground, storing carbon in the soil. They cycle nutrients and bind the soil together, preventing it from being eroded by the wind or the rain. And they provide great habitats and wildlife corridors throughout the fields and across the farm. 

Our system at Kindling Farm will have rows of fruit trees every 24 metres, leaving an alley to grow other crops. This results in an incredibly efficient use of land, using both the horizontal and vertical space to diversify the crops. It spreads the harvests (and therefore costs and income) across the year, and the provision of biodiversity habitats within the productive area encourages natural pest control.

Our Legal Structure

Kindling Farm is a not-for-profit Community Benefit Society with charitable objectives. This means we are owned by our Members, work for the benefit of our communities and that the farm is held in trust for future generations.

Our Members are those who have invested with us in buying the farm: 800 people like you, who have invested £200 or more.

How will we achieve the vision for Kindling Farm 

We are a dedicated team who have several decades of experience of food and farming projects. We have, in fact, been working to establish Kindling Farm for over ten years. Before that, we were involved in setting up other successful projects, such as Bridge 5 Mill in Manchester and Woodbank Community Food Hub and Market Garden in Stockport. 

We passionately believe that to make a real difference we need large-scale, ambitious trail-blazers like Kindling Farm — and now we have both the farm and the network of support to start making it happen, we would love for you to be part of that!

Kindling's Crowdfunder

"This crowdfunder is as much about starting relationships and raising awareness around food and farming (both the impacts and solutions) as it is about raising funds. Having said that we are in real need of financial support to realise the potential of our amazing farm and to kickstart our first growing season."                                                         Chris, Cofounder & Director.

We haven't set a fundraising target as any support, no matter the size, will really help. Many of our supporters say that Kindling Farm provides them with hope and inspiration, and we would love it if it did the same for you — and for you to come and visit one day! In the meantime we hope that this crowdfunder provides a way for you to help make it happen, while also providing a fabulous 'reward' for you or someone you love to enjoy.

Are these rewards available as Christmas Gifts?

Yes, and we can provide a certificate and seasonal gift card, providing your donation is made before the 12th of December. If you are making a donation for a fruit bag you will need to make that donation by midnight on the 9th of December.

Can I invest and become a Member of Kindling Farm?

Yes, and we'd love you to! We are excited to be re-opening our Community Shares campaign in Spring 2025. If you are interested please get in touch by sending an email to [email protected] — we will put you on a list of people interested and send you out the information for you to have a proper read of it all once the campaign opens in the Spring.