What We Do
Lots of different things. One connected place.
At Fentenfenna, we bring together food, people, enterprise and nature on one working farm.
Our job is to create the conditions for those connections to happen.
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Building a stronger local food system.
We grow, gather, process and make food, but we're also interested in everything that happens around it.
We've developed infrastructure and partnerships that can help local growers reach local markets, reduce waste, strengthen emergency food provision and make good local food more accessible.
Food Hub · Growing · Processing · Local supply chains · Wasted Apple
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A place to participate, learn and belong.
Farms can be places for much more than farming.
Fentenfenna creates opportunities for people to gain experience, learn practical skills, volunteer, work and spend time as part of a working community.
We currently welcome people through internships, work experience and partner organisations, and we're developing more ways for people to find their place here.
Work experience · Internships · Volunteering · Skills · Partner placements
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Small businesses are part of the ecosystem.
Fentenfenna is home to a growing mixture of rural businesses and enterprises.
They bring different skills, knowledge, tools, machinery and ideas to the farm. Having them together means resources can be shared, problems solved and collaborations can emerge naturally.
We're interested in what happens when rural enterprise is treated as part of a place rather than simply somewhere renting a unit.
Workspace · Shared resources · Skills · Collaboration · Rural livelihoods
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The farm has to work for more than us.
Everything at Fentenfenna ultimately depends on the land beneath it.
We're working to improve biodiversity, soil and landscape resilience while exploring productive ways of using land that works with nature rather than against it.
That means observing, experimenting and learning as much as it means managing.
Biodiversity · Regenerative land use · Soil · Water · Habitat · Climate resilience
Underneath all this, there's some serious work going on.
We've developed a number of connected workstreams at Fentenfenna. Each has a purpose of its own, but they're deliberately designed to reinforce one another.
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Exploring how land, infrastructure, enterprise and community can create long-term value together.
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Creating affordable homes and workspaces that help people and rural enterprises thrive.
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Developing local food infrastructure, from emergency provision to routes to market.
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Connecting organisations working across food, health, community and rural development.
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Creating routes into volunteering, learning, skills and employment.
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Building a sustainable trading enterprise around surplus fruit.
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Capturing what we're learning and sharing it with others.
Fentenfenna works because lots of people bring something to it.
Our tenants and enterprises bring specialist skills and knowledge. Partners bring expertise and connection to new audiences. Placements bring new perspectives and energy. Growers, makers, neighbours and collaborators all shape what happens here.
The farm is a community.