WATERPROOFS and wellies at the ready for a farm walk that offers the chance to make local connections and share knowledge, innovation and experience within a relaxed environment.

Soil Association licensees Andrew Whitley and Veronica Burke are holding the event from 4pm to 7pm on Wednesday, September 10 at Bread Matters, Macbiehill Farmhouse, Lamancha.

The farm visit includes refreshments, (including sourdough bread made from locally-grown wheat), an overview of the organic agroforestry and innovative crop research and a guided farm walk. Places can be booked online through Eventbrite.

Bread Matters is best known for its artisan bread-making courses held in the farmhouse baking studio with its wood-fired oven. It is a pioneer in community-supported artisan baking and in using slow fermentation to make nutritious, digestible bread with a low glycaemic index.

Andrew began creating the organic agroforestry scheme at Macbiehill Farm in 2010 and has planted approximately 6,000 trees and bushes to date.

A rotation of cereals, grass and vegetables thrives in the broad alleys between strips of trees, which are grown for food, (nuts, berries etc.) for shelter, and coppiced for timber for the wood-fired oven and wood-burning stoves in the farmhouse. Geese graze the alleys and orchard and bee hives are a recent addition to the diversity. The farm generates energy from a wind turbine, photo voltaics and a passive solar roof.

Supported by the Duchy Originals Future Farming Programme, this event is one of many during Organic September, a month-long celebration of all things organic - part of the Soil Association’s Small Change, Big Difference campaign.

Ben Raskin, Soil Association head of horticulture, said: “There is always a lot going on at Macbiehill Farm, especially linked to the Scotland the Bread wheat trials - Andrew and Veronica are definitely innovators. Like many organic farmers they take the best of traditional knowledge and combine it with the latest techniques, blazing the trail in modern sustainable farming. I never miss an opportunity to see what they are up to; where they lead, others will follow.”