Hello hive world!
fattathelan here, 26yo market garden grower, educated craftswoman, messy home cook, Celtic songstress, and striving nature photographer. Originally from Wales, I currently live on a rural 45 acre organic farm, set in the rolling hills of South West England with my husband, springer spaniel and 10 hens (plus a whole bunch of other creatures who are not my immediate family).
I am most content when wandering the bracken in the lower fields of the farm, tending to my herb garden, reading beside the ponds, frolicking with a big basket full of vegetables and rolling out pasta dough for dinner. I love to write and find much fulfilment from authors like E.E Cummings and enjoy anything that allows me to see and experience nature from a new perspective and feel close to the seasonality of my environment.
Enthusiastic about creating sustainable, community-based food systems, I have been running an organic market garden CSA for the last three seasons. We've grown over 100 varieties each season in our two and a half acre garden and led groups of volunteers, held events and fed our community through weekly vegetables shares. Despite the many successes over the years, there have also been many failures, after which, we've decided to demonetise the garden and use the space instead for domestic abundance, experimental growing and community education, rather than as a market garden business. My husband will be working nearby, implementing English country kitchen and foraging garden at a farm retreat nearby.
I'm completely enlivened by the possibilities that lay ahead with this new venture, to have so much growing space for experiential design and cropping, to grow for abundance and not for profit, to grow for crafting, for preserving, for health, for friends and teaching and cooking. I'll be sharing my day to day life here through writing and photo diaries, along with inspiration I find along the way. I hope very much that you enjoy all that my muddy corner of the world brings to you!
- y x