by Your very own organic farm seems to be the latest celebrity, but could it soon become the vice-rich and famous? Bake Off Star Prue Leith, who has a small organic farm at her home in the Cotswolds, has tackled the “red tape” of sustainable farming.
“The Cotswolds probably has a higher density of organic farms than anywhere because it’s where the rich who can afford to go organic live,” she said. The Old Man. “It takes at least two years to convert. During that time, you cannot use chemicals to increase crop growth and the soil is not yet good enough to produce a profitable crop.
‘You plant nothing but clover, to fix nitrogen, and borrow sheep to eat it and manure your fields. You cannot sell anything you gather or grow as organic. So, at the moment, the only farmers who are resorting to sustainable farming are the huge landowners or wealthy hobbyists.”
Although that doesn’t seem entirely true – the Soil Association says the organic market will grow by two per cent in 2023 and according to Defra, 509,000 hectares will be organically farmed in the UK in 2022, with 5,500 organic operators – it certainly is. that there are plenty of hoops for farmers to jump through if they want to be granted organic status.
And as Clarkson Farm Even if you are a non-organic farmer it turns out that work is needed for gain all too often. Clarkson claimed to make £144 in profit in the first year of running Diddly Squat.
But, of course, for most celebrities who farm, it’s about the love of the soil (and the Instagram selfies), not the cold hard cash.
So who are the famous people who swapped a life of fame for life on the farm?
Balearic beets
Superstar DJ Calvin Harris changed Ibiza’s rave culture for agriculture when he bought the island’s largest organic farm.
Harris, 40, bought the 138 acres finca Terra Masia in 2022 and produces its vegetables, eggs, wine and meals from farm to table. He drinks his own “huge” raw sheep’s milk every day, and regularly posts pictures of himself bagging crates of oranges and videos of himself herding sheep.
A source said: “Calvin employs a team of experts including farmers and chefs. But that hasn’t stopped him from getting involved and he regularly gets his hands dirty, helping to plant seeds and everything else that goes into running a farm.”
The Scottish multi-millionaire DJ took his now wife Vick Hope on trips to his farm, and allegedly proposed to her under a tree there. And when he’s not busy milking, Harris can get back to making music, as he’s built a recording studio on site.
The Oprah Effect
In 2013, the billionaire talk show host proudly announced her new venture. “Oprah’s New Farm!” screamed the headline on oh magazine, complete with a glossy picture of Winfrey in the obligatory checked shirt.
Winfrey, 70, grew up on a one-acre farm in Missouri with her grandmother, but this venture is a world away – in Maui, Hawaii, near her palatial farm estate of 60 acres, on the side of Haleakala, a dormant volcano.
The farm was inspired by her friend and personal trainer Bob Greene, who helped her designate 16 acres for farming and eventually planted one acre with 100 species of fruits, vegetables and herbs.
Hens are providing eggs and they are using “regenerative agriculture” to build soil health and save water. “Everything grows five times as big as you expect,” Winfrey wrote in ohdescribing her as “baboon bump radishes.”
Although the article claimed that Winfrey and Greene will “roll up their sleeves, fill the soil and share a beautiful bounty,” skeptics noted that Winfrey’s sun hat cost $245 and none of the hands were dirty in magazine pictures with Winfrey.
Dear lady
When Lady Carole Bamford founded Daylesford Farm, together with her husband, JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford, 35 years ago, she had one simple aim: “I always wanted to produce good, nutritious food from our farm,” she says. “Factory farming systems have lost good food, at the expense of taste and nutrition.”
When she opened her organic farm cafe on their 1,500 acre estate near Chipping Norton in 2003 she was sure no one would come. “It was in a field and all we had was soups and sandwiches,” she says. She now heads the Daylesford chain of cafes and farm shops, as well as the Bamford wellness brand, cookery school, and research hub, Agricology.
Daylesford, which has won over 100 awards and claims to be one of the UK’s most sustainable farms, is run by senior farm manager Richard Smith. “Just because we farm organically doesn’t mean I walk around here wearing a smoke, sipping on a piece of straw, ignorant of today’s ways,” he says.
Across 5,500 acres of organic farming land (split between their locations in Staffordshire and the Cotswolds), they slaughter 150 lambs, 16 cattle, 50 pigs, and 2,500 chickens per week and produce 20,000 eggs and 20,000 liters of milk. In addition they even managed to host Boris Johnson’s 2022 wedding.
From safety pins to sausages
Elizabeth Hurley swapped her manolos and safety pin dress for wellies when she bought a 400 acre farm in Gloucestershire in 2010. “I wasn’t a farmer before and I’m a farmer now because it’s a working farm,” she said. .
Although it was her younger brother, Michael, who did the day-to-day running. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done… it’s the only place I want to be,” Liz said. At one point she had four Labradors, two cats, three geese, eight chickens, 49 cows, 63 sheep and 82 pigs.
Hurley converted the farm to organic status and launched a range of premium beef and fruit crops, and began stocking his own sausages in Harrods under the label “Elizabeth Hurley Foods”. In 2009, she teamed up with King Charles’ Duchy Originals brand.
She said at the time: “His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is an inspiration to me because of his passionate belief in organic food and farming and his tireless commitment to helping protect and nurture the countryside.”
In 2015, the model and actress sold their farm for £9million, and moved 40 miles down the road to the edge of the Forest of Dean. “I had spent 10 years before in the Cotswolds, which I loved, but it was annoying people bumping into London that I cross the road to avoid,” she said.
Butcher, Baker, Organic Farm Maker
More than a million people tuned in to watch BBC presenter Matt Baker’s show about moving from Hertfordshire to the Dales to help run his family’s organic sheep farm in Our Farm in the Dales.
The 2021 series was a big surprise and followed three generations of the Baker family – Matt and his wife Nicola, their children Molly and Luke and Matt’s parents Mike and Janice. Over the course of three series, viewers watched Matt plant an orchard, raise a flock of sheep and organize a woodland cookout on the 100 acre farm.
Baker left the BBC The One Show after receiving the news that his mother had been in an accident and needed knee surgery. “It was one of those situations where you automatically go into rescue mode, so we minimized tools, went up there and from day one, it was all hands on deck.”
Although Baker’s new series is about traveling the UK with mum and dad in a caravan, his Instagram is still full of baby lambs, striped donkeys and farm life.
I see you child, plowing that field
Andy Cato from Groove Armada was on his way back from a gig in Lithuania, when he happened to read an article about chemical farming and the devastating impact it has on human health through the soil and plants. “I decided [organic farming] which I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he says.
In 2008, the Barnsley-born musician sold the rights to his songs to Groove Armada to buy a 110-hectare farm in Gascony in south-west France, where he raised red Sussex cattle and grew heirloom grains, eschewing mass production methods. But he was almost tormented by costs. “Do you know how much a tractor costs?” He says. “€80,000! It’s like buying a house every time you need something.” The 51-year-old was knighted for his services to agriculture in France, and President François Hollande visited his farm there.
After 12 years in what Cato calls “the agricultural school of the hard peaks”, he is now applying what he learned on a National Trust farm near Swindon. In 2018, he co-founded Wildfarmed, which distributes bread, pizza and pasta made from organic flour grown through “regenerative” processes, across the UK. He even writes an online “Soil Zine”.
“Farming changes your concept of time,” says Cato. “I think in terms of harvest now.”
