St Martin’s Farm Walk
In November 2023 the IOS Farmers’ and Growers’ Initiative hosted a day on St Martin’s touring the St Martin’s Vineyeard and Churchtown Farm. These walks are organised regularly for Scilly farmers to share best practice, keep in touch and learn from eachother, and to get together on areas of shared interest. Making a collective effort to keep Scilly special! More farm visits are planned over this year.
Holly and James showed off the St Martin’s Vineyard in the morning, then off to Churchtown in the afternoon to see how flower farming on Scilly is keeping up with the times. The St Martin’s Vineyard aims to preserve biodiversity across the site, being home to bees, butterflies, birds, and wildflowers. Dense wind-breaks provide protection for crops and also a home to nesting birds, and plenty of flowering plants provide spaces for insects to thrive.
St Martin’s Vineyard. Credit: Dulcie Fairhurst
Walking over St Martin’s. Credit: Dulcie Fairhurst
In recent years they have switched to a fossil-fuel free style of land management for the vineyard using battery-powered machinery and using organic waste as compost instead of burning vine and hedge clippings. The most recent survey of plants in the St Martin’s Vineyard recorded over 130 different species! No doubt helped by their rotational mowing practices and an absence of artificial fertilisers.
As of spring 2022 they installed bat boxes providing an improved habitat for the maternal colonies or pipistrelle bats resident on the island. This is particularly exciting for the bat survey conducted by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust with the help of volunteers all across Scilly.
Over at Churchtown Farm their recent advancements in the machinery used and the herbal and clover seed mix have improved the site as a habitat for insects and made it more drought resistant. Fine channels cut through the fields with specialised seed drills offer an alternative to the older methods of ploughing which released carbon previously stored in the soil. Using this new method the seeds can be planted directly amongst the grass, preserving the existing habitat. A small beefherd on site fed by farm-made haylage has proved to be an integral part of crop rotation and maintaining good soil health.
The Farmers’ and Growers’ Initiative organise regular farm visits so Scilly farmers can share best practice, keep in touch and learn from each other, get together on areas of shared interest – a true collective approach to sustainable farming!
Churchtown Farm. Credit: Dulcie Fairhurst