Otter Farm

by MarkD in East Devon District

We did it
On 16th March 2016 we successfully raised £64,735 with 700 supporters in 28 days

We are building the Otter Farm kitchen garden school - a place to learn about growing, cooking, preserving, building, fermenting and more

by MarkD in East Devon District

 New stretch target

Good heavens, we made it! And by 'we' I mean you, us, and everyone else who got involved. Thank you. It's been an incredible time.

And if you want to be part of what we are doing, you can still pledge: anything over the 60k target won't fall into my cider piggybank - we will put it towards building a cob wall around the new walled garden we are creating from the quagmire of the building site.

This is the place school groups and people on courses will come to learn about growing, so it'll be well loved.

Thanks again, it's you making it all happen

Mark


 

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: "What Mark’s been doing at Otter farm is inspirational. What he’s planning to is one of the most exciting things in British horticulture. I’m delighted to add my support to such a far-sighted and well-thought out project."

 

I’m Mark Diacono, and I’m lucky enough to spend my time growing, cooking, eating and writing about food. Otter Farm is where my family and I live and grow the most delicious food we can think of, in the ways which excite us most.  Alongside the best of the familiar fruit, vegetables, herbs, nuts and spices, you'll find find things such as pecans, sansho pepper and Carolina allspice, that you’ll struggle to find anywhere else in Europe. If you can eat it and it'll survive in the UK, it's likely to be here at Otter Farm.I've written seven award winning books based around what I grow and cook here, including A Year at Otter Farm (Food Book of the Year 2014), the recent The New Kitchen Garden. and three books for River Cottage, including the Veg Patch, Fruit and Chicken and Eggs Handbooks.Now, we want to open our doors and share what we do.To do that, we need a building - a place where not only can we turn our produce into wine, spirits and other delights, but somewhere we can also welcome visitors to a whole host of cooking and growing courses - everything on the journey from plot to plate.We've had huge support in getting this far: over 140 letters of unanimous support from around the country and the local community played a big part in convincing local planners to get behind our project. And now we need your help to take us over the final hurdle…

 

About Otter FarmOtter Farm started almost accidentally. A decade ago, on the way back from being married, we went to see a house with 17 acres attached to it – a few months later I was putting together a list of food I liked and wondered how much of it might grow here. I’m part way through finding out.It has become somewhere special and unique.Peaches, apricots, almonds, quince, mulberries, medlars and pears ripen their fruit in young orchards, while a young forest garden is filled with everything from white cherries to Asian pears, Chilean guava to creeping Japanese raspberries, and kiwis to Szechuan pepper.There’s a kitchen garden, vineyard, forest garden, orchards and nutteries, perennial garden, and much much more, all cared for organically. Many of the plants we grow are risky - gambling that the warming climate will make them viable: the idea is beautifully sustainable – if we can take advantage of climate change to grow delicious food usually sourced from overseas, without chemical/high carbon inputs, we will be helping arrest the acceleration of climate change in the process. Growing green manures, mineral accumulators and nitrogen fixing plants to naturally build soil and fertility underlies what we do. As a result, Otter Farm has become known as the ‘Climate Change Farm’.

 

Why would you want to come to Otter Farm?We are uniquely dedicated to the whole journey from plot to plate and beyond.So, if you want to grow some of your own vegetables, get better at cooking, or learn about permaculture, natural beekeeping, fermenting, real bread making, distilling, smoking, designing food forests, edible flowers, charcuterie, preserving, growing your own pepper, sea kayak fishing, garden cocktails, sustainable building, plot-to-plate days celebrating a single ingredient such as mint or chilli, writing, photography, and much much more besides, this will be the place to come.We'll also be hosting cooking demos, festivals, feasts and other events.And if all you fancy is wandering around eating dwarf kiwis, sweet cicely, chocolate vines, Japanese wineberries and Vietnamese coriander, or picnicking in orchards of pecans, quince, almonds, Szechuan pepper and rare apples, we'll have open days where you can do just that.The building will be a creative hub for the Otter Farm team to share our skills and knowledge, but it will also be a place of collaboration: we will host an ongoing calendar featuring inventive cooks, innovative growers and other creative minds.

 

 

The building itselfThe design of the building is beautiful and innovative. Green in build and energy, the original design was (as shown) to be clad in wood, but rather than export the subsoil excavated for the basement, we are using it to create the walls - mixed with straw and a little sand, the subsoil becomes the traditional Devon building material, cob. The beautifully angular roof will become an edible garden too.While we will host some small courses and events in the kitchen of our house (also onsite), this building will provide the multifunctional space for large gatherings, processing and selling our produce, while  the basement will be used for distilling and creating other fermentations.

 

Creating opportunitiesWe are dedicated to putting opportunity in everyone's path. As well as sharing practical skills and knowledge in cooking, growing, sustainable building and other creative life skills that enable people to live pleasurable, involved, ethical, healthy lives, we will offer courses on a pay-what-you-can-afford basis. We will also be taking on apprentices and creating other openings we hope will upskill and enable. We already have a team from the Exeter Chiefs HITZ programme - young people outside education and employment - working on the build, learning new skills and becoming engaged with sustainable building. And we will be continuing and increasing our work with schools, including making seeds available free.

 

 The rewardsI’m hope you find the rewards appealing. We have something for every budget, whether it’s for you or a business: many mean you come here and enjoy the farm, which is exactly how we’d like it.Everyone who pledges will be named on our Supporters wall in the building and online - a permanent reminder (and thanks from us) that you were part of making this happen.If you are a business or group and would like to discuss being a Friend of Otter Farm, supporting our work with schools and other groups, there are two rewards in particular that might appeal, but please feel free to email me.

Thanks for being part of it - it will help make a difference to a lot of people.

 

 

Rewards

This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.

£10 or more

£10 Reward

Your name on our Supporters wall in the building and on our website

£20 or more

£20 Reward

25% off all Otter Farm seeds and plants for a year from opening. Plus your name on our Supporters wall

£20 or more

£20 Reward

A packet of our hand-picked Szechuan pepper and coriander seed, for making a spice rub for pork and....a packet of our sweet cicely seed for making sweet cicely gin - we'll email recipes for both. Plus your name on our Supporters wall

£25 or more

£25 Reward

A bottle of Otter Farm wine, plus your name on our Supporters wall

£35 or more

£35 Reward

A tree, bush or vine planted in your name at Otter Farm. We'll email you a photo and include your name on our Supporters wall

£40 or more

£40 Reward

A personalised copy of 'A Year at Otter Farm' or 'The New Kitchen Garden', plus your name on our Supporters wall

£50 or more

£50 Reward

Otter Farm Membership - 25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening, plus your name on our Supporters wall

£50 or more

£50 Reward

An Evening With...Matthew Wilson. The well-loved garden designer, writer, radio and television broadcaster, and lecturer kicks of the first of our regular Evening With...slot at Otter Farm. A correspondent for the Financial Times, a panelist on Radio 4’s Gardeners Question Time and all round fine man, Matthew will give a talk, answer questions and fail to eat his pudding in peace. A three course meal follows.

£65 or more

£65 Reward

A Taste of Otter Farm - a tour of Otter Farm with Mark, including a two course lunch, plus your name on our Supporters wall. (Fixed dates - approx 3 hours)

£70 or more

£70 Reward

An Evening of Wild Food and Garden Cocktails - come to Otter Farm for a four course dinner of wild food cooked by Tim Maddams (ex River Cottage and emperor of www.greensauce.co.uk) and garden cocktails with each courses made by Mark.

£80 or more

£80 Reward

A Taste of Otter Farm - a tour of Otter Farm with Mark, including a two course lunch, a personalised copy of A Year at Otter Farm, plus your name on our Supporters wall. (Fixed dates - approx 3 hours)

£90 or more

£90 Reward

Two tickets to An Evening With...Matthew Wilson. The well-loved garden designer, writer, radio and television broadcaster, and lecturer kicks of the first of our regular Evening With...slot at Otter Farm. A correspondent for the Financial Times, a panelist on Radio 4’s Gardeners Question Time and all round fine man, Matthew will give a talk, answer questions and fail to eat his pudding in peace. A three course meal follows.

£100 or more

£100 Reward

Otter Farm Membership (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening), a personalised book, a bottle of Otter Farm wine, plus your name on our Supporters wall

£125 or more

£125 Reward

A day learning about cob building and putting it into practice at Otter Farm (Fixed dates)

£150 or more

£150 Reward

A case of Otter Farm booze (sparkling wine, still white wine and cider), plus Otter Farm Membership (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening), plus your name on our Supporters wall

£170 or more

£170 Reward

A place on any one day course, plus Otter Farm Membership (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening), plus your name on our Supporters wall

£200 or more

£200 Reward

A cocktail recipe invented by Mark and named after you

£300 or more

£300 Reward

For two: any day course, plus Otter Farm Membership (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening)

£700 or more

£700 Reward

For two: any course, dinner, a tour of Otter Farm with Mark, a bottle of Otter Farm sparkling and stay overnight in our shepherds hut, plus Otter Farm Membership (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening)

£1,000 or more

£1,000 Reward

A day consultation with Mark, at Otter Farm, in any aspect of growing, smallholding or cooking, two personalised books, plus your name on our Supporters wall

£2,000 or more

£2,000 Reward

10 places on any of our day courses (taken together or not), 10 personalised copies of A Year at Otter Farm or The New Kitchen Garden, plus 10 Otter Farm Memberships (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening)

£3,000 or more

£3,000 Reward

A bespoke day, for up to 10, plus 10 personalised copies of A Year at Otter Farm or The New Kitchen Garden, and 10 Otter Farm Memberships (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening)

£4,200 or more

£4,200 Reward

A bespoke day, for up to 16, plus 16 personalised copies of A Year at Otter Farm or The New Kitchen Garden, and 16 Otter Farm Memberships (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening)

£5,000 or more

£5,000 Reward

Become a Friend of Otter Farm - for a group of friends or Corporate: a bespoke day for up to 10, 6 course places to give away, 2 cases of Otter Farm booze, 10 personalised books (A Year at Otter Farm or The New Kitchen Garden) , and supporting our OF Foundation including 500 seed packets given free to schools, plus named on the Foundation page of our website and updates about the Foundation's work

£7,500 or more

£7,500 Reward

Become a Friend of Otter Farm - for a group of friends or Corporate: a bespoke day for up to 16, 12 course places to give away, 4 cases of Otter Farm booze, 16 personalised books (A Year at Otter Farm or The New Kitchen Garden) , 16 Otter Farm Memberships (25% off courses, plants and seeds for a year from opening) and supporting our OF Foundation (including 1000 seed packets given free to schools), plus named on the Foundation page of our website, and updates about the Foundation's work

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