Ever wanted to own a farm? You can with Kindling Trust!

We have been so proud to work with Manchester based Veg Box People and we’re thrilled to hear that The Kindling Trust, the co-operative to which they are connected, is buying a community owned farm. Even more excitingly, you can be one of the owners!

Saturday 3rd April saw the launch of their campaign to attract community investors to buy a 120 acre farm on the outskirts of Manchester. The farm will use the pioneering practices of agroforestry, growing wildlife friendly fruit, veg, cereals and pulses to provide the citizens of Greater Manchester and beyond with fresh, organic produce.

Through this community share offer, which runs until the 3rd July, Kindling will establish a farm owned by you, its community. Helen Woodcock, one of the co-founders of Kindling Farm, says “Kindling Farm is about coming together to find practical solutions to the ecological crisis we are in. It is about hope, it is about social change and it is about creating a farming blueprint for our future, right here in the Northwest of England.”

Kindling Farm is already set up as a co-operative, and is founded on the same principles of all co- operatives: to be run by and for the local communities, with strong ethics and values around social benefit and cooperation. A large proportion of the money needed to buy this farm will be raised through this community share offer, so that communities can have a voice in the food system that directly affects them, whether by offering ways to improve their health and wellbeing, or by building greater resilience in the face of a changing climate.

Already they have begun establishing the agroforestry system for the farm – agroforestry is essentially combining agriculture with productive trees, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two. Thanks, in part, to a grant from the DEFRA Green Recovery Challenge, they were able to purchase 12,000 fruit and nut trees, half of which are destined for the farm itself, the other half of which will be donated to local community orchards.

If you would like to find out more about how to become a community investor, explore their website here email them at farm@kindling.org.uk, or head to Ethex.org.uk/invest/Kindling-Farm or pick up the phone and call them on 0161 818 8384.

Offer Closes: Saturday 3rd July 2021