# Banter 118:  06May26 Improving Local Food Productivity with Jo Boswell

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/LaMTIRXZ1Ec>" %}

Video Timeline:

00:00 - 21:00 Presentation by Jo

21:00 - 55:56 (end) Q & A

***

### Presentation - Banter 118 06May26

No separate presentation for this session - the video is the presentation

***

### Meeting Summary - Banter 118 Local Food Productivity

May 06, 2026 11:51 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536

### Quick recap

This meeting featured Josephine Boswell from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight discussing their transition to organic farming and sustainable practices. Josephine explained their B-Corp certification journey, mob grazing system using Highland and Belted Galloway cattle, and implementation of worm farms and composting systems to create vermicast for soil regeneration. The discussion covered their challenges with soil recovery taking 5-10 years, climate change impacts including extreme weather affecting farming, and their efforts to educate the public through workshops and school visits. Participants asked questions about goat management, wormery applications, government support for climate adaptation, and the balance between raw food production and value-added products like relishes. The conversation highlighted the difficulties of organic farming, including higher costs and the need for diverse revenue streams through education and tourism to support the business model.

### Next steps

Next steps were not generated due to insufficient transcript.

### Summary

#### Garlic Farm Climate Action Meeting

Graham hosted a meeting with participants including Frank, Barbara, Sean from Climate Action Wendover, and Josephine from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight. The meeting began with casual conversation about travel plans and introductions, with Josephine confirming she would represent the garlic farm in place of Barnes who was unable to attend.

#### Garlic Farm's Organic Transition

Josephine Boswell, impact lead at Garlic Farm, discussed the farm's transition to organic practices and B Corp certification. She explained their mob grazing system using Highland and Belted Galloway cattle, which helps maintain healthy land and reduce vet bills. Josephine also outlined the farm's comprehensive operations, including a shop, restaurant, market garden, and accommodation, all aligned with their sustainable mission. She emphasized that while these certifications require additional effort, they ultimately lead to financial benefits and improved staff retention.

#### Soil Nutrient Density Farming System

Josephine explained their farming operation's focus on increasing soil nutrient density through a 5-year rotation system across 10 hectares, with 2 hectares cultivated at a time using cow manure and cover crops. She detailed their closed-loop system that processes restaurant food waste through a Rhydan composter and worm farms to produce vermicast, which is used to create compost tea for soil regeneration. The market garden currently uses a no-dig approach to address compacted soil issues and focuses on high-value crops like salads, greens, and herbs, with plans to expand based on profitability while maintaining educational workshops and restaurant sales as key income streams.

#### Sustainable Farming and Soil Recovery

The meeting focused on sustainable farming practices and soil recovery, with Josephine sharing her experiences managing a farm on the Isle of Wight. She explained that soil recovery takes 5-10 years with proper management, noting significant improvements in worm count and infiltration over the past three years. The discussion covered various topics including goat management using electric fencing and collars, wormery operations for processing food waste, and the challenges of transitioning to organic farming. Josephine highlighted the lack of direct climate advice from DEFRA to farmers despite funding climate-resilient projects. The conversation also addressed the balance between producing raw food and value-added products, with Josephine emphasizing the importance of diversifying income streams and considering the holistic purpose of farming operations beyond just financial returns.

***

### Chat - Banter 118 Local Food Productivity

00:46:16 Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: worth watching <https://www.sixinchesofsoil.org/>\
00:46:45 Barbara Evans Help and Kindness/Feeding Dorset Partnership: Reacted to "worth watching https..." with 👍\
01:09:27 Barbara Evans Help and Kindness/Feeding Dorset Partnership: Thank you so much Jo, that was fascinating.\
01:09:41 Barbara Evans Help and Kindness/Feeding Dorset Partnership: Thank you everyone

***

#### audio-transcript:

93\
00:13:50.530 --> 00:14:09.249\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Right, well, let me just start the ball rolling by saying, hello to everybody, and today we are having a chat from Joe in the garlic farm on the Isle of Wight, which is one of our major tourist attractions, amongst other things, but she's got much more important things on her mind than tourism.

94\
00:14:09.640 --> 00:14:14.240\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And I went there and had a fantastic evening.

95\
00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:29.910\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: a couple of weeks ago, when we were treated to the story of what they've been doing to increase their food productivity, and then moving into market farming and organic farming, and all sorts of things. So, hopefully we're going to get fascinated by that.

96\
00:14:30.510 --> 00:14:40.820\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So, Joe, I think we've reached the magic 5 minutes, which is the limit I give people. If you care to take over, introduce yourself, and tell us what you're going to talk to us about, and then we'll go from there.

97\
00:14:41.330 --> 00:14:42.070\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yes.

98\
00:14:42.070 --> 00:14:51.219\
Josephine Boswell: So, hello everybody, my name's Joe Josephine Boswell. I am a member of the garlic farm family, so I grew up on the garlic farm.

99\
00:14:51.400 --> 00:14:55.670\
Josephine Boswell: And I have been away,

100\
00:14:55.960 --> 00:15:00.450\
Josephine Boswell: Since the age of about 16, and moved back 3 years ago.

101\
00:15:00.570 --> 00:15:10.299\
Josephine Boswell: to join the family farm, as impact lead, so I manage all of our social and environmental impact. That's quite,

102\
00:15:10.890 --> 00:15:16.090\
Josephine Boswell: I guess because we're a B Corporation, I'll talk about that a little bit more…

103\
00:15:16.540 --> 00:15:22.370\
Josephine Boswell: That's a sort of a more hefty task than it might be in other, companies.

104\
00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:31.309\
Josephine Boswell: And I think coming back to the farm, for me, was a much easier decision, given the way the farm was moving towards

105\
00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:47.750\
Josephine Boswell: I've been an eco-warrior, for want of a better word for it, my whole life, and the gear to organic was something I've been sort of banging the drum about for a long time, so when the farm started to move in that direction, I knew it was,

106\
00:15:47.900 --> 00:15:49.950\
Josephine Boswell: It was, you know, a more welcoming…

107\
00:15:50.110 --> 00:15:55.909\
Josephine Boswell: place for me to come back to. So rather than sort of shouting from the sidelines, I'm now…

108\
00:15:56.030 --> 00:16:00.080\
Josephine Boswell: Involved… deeply involved in that, which is really, really great.

109\
00:16:02.070 --> 00:16:17.690\
Josephine Boswell: I… my… my personal journey to… through, I guess, through life has always been around food. I've worked in, I've worked in food, whether it be my own businesses, running festival and catering operations.

110\
00:16:17.740 --> 00:16:36.450\
Josephine Boswell: or, in big, sort of, multinationals, like managing Carluccio's, so I've had a real, different ends of the spectrum view into food, service. And then more recently, with the… with COVID, like so many people, my whole festival

111\
00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:46.479\
Josephine Boswell: operation was sort of put on hold for a couple of years, and I took it as an opportunity to move into something I was more passionate about, which is growing food organically.

112\
00:16:48.700 --> 00:17:07.390\
Josephine Boswell: And I worked as a, managing a market garden in Bristol in a very deprived part of the world called, Parkcliffe, where they have many food deserts, and the operation was growing organic food with a veg box scheme, and supporting people in the community to work,

113\
00:17:07.390 --> 00:17:18.190\
Josephine Boswell: you know, with their hands outside, so we did a lot of green social prescribing, and, working with vulnerable people, basically, to improve their health through, through gardening. So that…

114\
00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:35.649\
Josephine Boswell: is my sort of journey back to… and then I had children, and then came back to work on the farm, and then most recently, in the last few months, I have been, I guess, realizing a dream, which is to set up a market garden on the farm.

115\
00:17:35.690 --> 00:17:38.519\
Josephine Boswell: To grow food for the restaurant.

116\
00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:47.260\
Josephine Boswell: However, that is a very small part of what the garlic farm is doing, and I'm going to talk a little bit about

117\
00:17:47.260 --> 00:17:59.120\
Josephine Boswell: Well, a lot, really, about our journey to organic, how we, yeah, how we're managing our land to improve the soil, why we got there, etc.

118\
00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:10.810\
Josephine Boswell: So, I guess going back, to… I mean, almost to my granddad. My granddad moved down here in the 50s, classic conventional farming, you know, using all of the…

119\
00:18:10.810 --> 00:18:24.110\
Josephine Boswell: All of the… all of what was available to them to grow food for the world, which was what they believed was their, it very much was their, mission, to the detriment, as we all now know, of the soil.

120\
00:18:24.170 --> 00:18:27.330\
Josephine Boswell: And so, in recent years, we have been

121\
00:18:27.580 --> 00:18:38.689\
Josephine Boswell: as a family… as a family ownership group, which we became in… over COVID, it was a real decision from the sort of top-down of what do we want the farm to stand for and be about.

122\
00:18:42.080 --> 00:19:04.840\
Josephine Boswell: which I think is the most important thing, really, for any business, to figure that out. And for us, it was to improve, to look after the land we have been, you know, entrusted with, and to leave it in a better way than we found it. And so the journey began towards organic, first of all. We're Pasture for Life certified. We are B Corp certified, which means we do business for the good of

123\
00:19:04.840 --> 00:19:07.409\
Josephine Boswell: Of people and planets, as well as profit.

124\
00:19:07.410 --> 00:19:15.349\
Josephine Boswell: I don't know if anyone has come into B Corp… the B Corp logo, or knows what B Corp is. Anyone?

125\
00:19:15.360 --> 00:19:16.790\
Josephine Boswell: Vote, no.

126\
00:19:18.330 --> 00:19:38.160\
Josephine Boswell: You have an idea, Frank? Yeah. It's a big… it's a rigorous, certification, which you don't take on lightly. It took us 5 years to become certified, and we are looking to become recertified in January, and it's a… it's a big investment, but we believe that it's,

127\
00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:43.179\
Josephine Boswell: it's… it's worth… it's worth it. Frank, did you have a question?

128\
00:19:43.180 --> 00:19:45.909\
frank deas Killearn: No, no, no, I was just… I'm aware of BCOR.

129\
00:19:45.910 --> 00:19:49.049\
Josephine Boswell: You're aware of people, yeah. So…

130\
00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:57.260\
Josephine Boswell: Yes, so all of those things, our journey towards a better soil has been partly, well…

131\
00:19:57.660 --> 00:20:14.719\
Josephine Boswell: hugely fueled by our fertilizers, which is our herd of cows. So obviously, in an organic system, you've got to find a way of fertilizing the land that doesn't come from chemicals, and we use our, ever-growing herd of cattle,

132\
00:20:14.830 --> 00:20:17.899\
Josephine Boswell: Highland and Gelted Galloways.

133\
00:20:17.930 --> 00:20:28.230\
Josephine Boswell: We use a system of mob grazing, so, basically only letting the cows eat a small section of a field at a time.

134\
00:20:28.230 --> 00:20:41.540\
Josephine Boswell: for 24 hours, and then moving them on. It's quite hard to explain this in, words, it's quite… it's easy when we're looking at a field, but if you imagine you take a field, and you split it up into long strips.

135\
00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:46.709\
Josephine Boswell: Using, electric fences, You allow the cows onto…

136\
00:20:47.770 --> 00:20:57.120\
Josephine Boswell: to one strip of land for 24 hours. Now, what that does is it means that they are eating that grass. Essentially, they're taking the head off that grass once.

137\
00:20:57.500 --> 00:21:14.170\
Josephine Boswell: So, when grass is cut, it does stimulate root growth and growth, but if you keep hacking away at it, you will stress the plant out. So, the idea with mob grazing is you are only cutting that grass once, or the cows are biting it, and then allowing

138\
00:21:14.650 --> 00:21:30.159\
Josephine Boswell: and then you move them on to the next strip of land, so therefore allowing the land they've been on, and they've been pooing on, to recover and regenerate. Now, we basically do that system across our entire farm.

139\
00:21:30.220 --> 00:21:39.409\
Josephine Boswell: And more recently, we have been given, because of the way we've been managing the land, or Barnes has been managing the land, we've teamed up with the

140\
00:21:39.580 --> 00:21:54.219\
Josephine Boswell: Wildlife Trust, who… we are looking after land for them as well, which is great for us because it means that we can have higher quantities of cattle, great for them because they know that their land is being managed in a way that they are aligned with.

141\
00:21:54.400 --> 00:22:00.779\
Josephine Boswell: And it basically allows us to sort of increase our acreage without having any more land.

142\
00:22:02.710 --> 00:22:14.240\
Josephine Boswell: So, yeah, the transition to organic is sort of… is past and done, but it's an ongoing process that, you know, we're very passionate about,

143\
00:22:14.860 --> 00:22:33.190\
Josephine Boswell: And we have seen the benefit of this system of managing our cattle, so since turning organic and using this mob grazing system, just to be clear, that means that our cattle are outside the whole year round. We're not putting them into any kind of, shelter over winter, so they're outwintered cattle. And…

144\
00:22:33.290 --> 00:22:37.449\
Josephine Boswell: By grazing them in this way, and sowing

145\
00:22:38.310 --> 00:22:55.119\
Josephine Boswell: the fields in which they're grazing with a variety of different crops, they are getting a much more varied diet, and therefore, we see the vet bills massively reduced, they're not being pumped full of antibiotics, you've got healthier cows, healthier land.

146\
00:22:55.200 --> 00:23:03.399\
Josephine Boswell: It is a win-win situation, but as you can imagine, it does take quite a lot of management, people management, although with the right kit.

147\
00:23:03.490 --> 00:23:18.750\
Josephine Boswell: the right electric fences, quads with machines on the back to roll out the fences. You know, you are looking at a one-man… a one-man operation to manage large, large quantities of cattle and land.

148\
00:23:18.790 --> 00:23:25.349\
Josephine Boswell: So we also, have a herd of goats, which…

149\
00:23:25.460 --> 00:23:36.949\
Josephine Boswell: So both the goats and the cattle are raised to, provide meat for our restaurant, so we are aiming for our restaurant to be 100% self-sufficient in beef and goat meat.

150\
00:23:37.340 --> 00:23:40.369\
Josephine Boswell: And in time, with, like I said, with…

151\
00:23:40.490 --> 00:23:46.740\
Josephine Boswell: with the using of the Wildlife Trust land, we hope to be able to increase our herd to such a…

152\
00:23:48.140 --> 00:24:03.649\
Josephine Boswell: point where we can sell the meat also in the shop. We have an on-site shop and restaurant. I should have explained, really. I'm sort of presuming everyone knows about the garlic farm, but the garlic farm consists of a large shop, restaurant.

153\
00:24:03.780 --> 00:24:19.340\
Josephine Boswell: Farm that's free to access, a market garden, large online and wholesale presence and seed garlic operation, and we have accommodation as well at the farm for, families in yurts and cottages.

154\
00:24:19.410 --> 00:24:29.259\
Josephine Boswell: So it's a complex, mix of things, all run by… there's three members of the family running them, with their partners.

155\
00:24:29.410 --> 00:24:32.280\
Josephine Boswell: And…

156\
00:24:32.710 --> 00:24:41.339\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah, everyone is aligned in the sort of organic, sustainable mission, which is very important to bring all of those pieces together.

157\
00:24:41.460 --> 00:25:00.190\
Josephine Boswell: And, you know, everyone has to be believing in this, because it takes extra effort, as anyone who's farmed organically or grown organically will know. And that applies also for the B Corp certification. You are requiring a lot of your teams to go the extra mile to

158\
00:25:00.830 --> 00:25:12.620\
Josephine Boswell: be more careful with their energy use, be more careful with their, waste, look after their teams better. But what we've found is, with all of these certifications.

159\
00:25:12.970 --> 00:25:17.610\
Josephine Boswell: They end up, in the long run, saving you money.

160\
00:25:17.940 --> 00:25:37.539\
Josephine Boswell: And I think that is a really, really important point for any business or organization to look at if you're going to switch to something or take on something, is, you know, is it financially viable? Is it financially beneficial? And, you know, arguably, we are doing these things because we care about them.

161\
00:25:37.540 --> 00:25:49.170\
Josephine Boswell: But we're a business, and if they weren't financially beneficial to us, we wouldn't, we wouldn't continue. Because a lot of people look at something like the B Corp certification and think they wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, but actually.

162\
00:25:49.800 --> 00:25:58.320\
Josephine Boswell: In the long run, you're, you know, you've got a higher retention of staff, you're looking after them better, you're reducing your energy costs massively,

163\
00:25:58.460 --> 00:26:01.509\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah, this… the sustainable road.

164\
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:06.079\
Josephine Boswell: It's sustainable in all… in all senses.

165\
00:26:06.580 --> 00:26:17.369\
Josephine Boswell: So, am I… have I got… is everyone… yeah, everyone's sort of keeping up? Sorry, it's a lot of… we'll stop for some questions at the end, Graham, I suppose.

166\
00:26:18.300 --> 00:26:23.730\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah, okay. So… a fi…

167\
00:26:24.110 --> 00:26:39.410\
Josephine Boswell: a couple of things about our, sort of, organic fertiliser options. On the… we've got the cows, which do an enormous amount of our work for us. We've got the different kinds of herbal lays, so the different planting schemes that we're using in the fields.

168\
00:26:39.480 --> 00:26:46.510\
Josephine Boswell: So they in themselves are, you know, giving different root depths, different plants giving off different,

169\
00:26:47.170 --> 00:26:51.500\
Josephine Boswell: Working differently with the microbes in the soil to increase the,

170\
00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:54.679\
Josephine Boswell: Increase the nutrient density of the soil.

171\
00:26:54.830 --> 00:27:10.930\
Josephine Boswell: and the plants on top of it. We have our… in all of this operation, we have our garlic in 2 hectare plots on a 5-year rotation. So that's 10 hectares of garlic growing fields.

172\
00:27:11.850 --> 00:27:15.520\
Josephine Boswell: Two hectares, grown at any one time.

173\
00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:18.369\
Josephine Boswell: And that allows 5 years for those

174\
00:27:18.510 --> 00:27:23.940\
Josephine Boswell: other fields to recover with only… solely the input of cow

175\
00:27:24.070 --> 00:27:27.860\
Josephine Boswell: Cows and cover crops, to fertilise them.

176\
00:27:28.980 --> 00:27:32.420\
Josephine Boswell: In the Market Garden.

177\
00:27:32.550 --> 00:27:43.660\
Josephine Boswell: a huge part of the, I guess, the business model is to be a closed-loop system, so not buying in… eventually, not buying in any, inputs from outside.

178\
00:27:43.660 --> 00:27:54.719\
Josephine Boswell: And part of that is driven by our food waste operations. So in the restaurant, we have a large, busy restaurant in the summer, doing up to 600 covers a day.

179\
00:27:55.040 --> 00:28:00.250\
Josephine Boswell: you can imagine that's an awful lot of food waste, and that was one of the first things I was

180\
00:28:00.360 --> 00:28:06.069\
Josephine Boswell: keen to tackle when I first got back here. So we have what's called a Rydan composter.

181\
00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:17.490\
Josephine Boswell: This is a sort of huge, if you can imagine, a huge sort of tumbler, or tombola. Food waste goes in one end with a mixed

182\
00:28:21.020 --> 00:28:23.719\
Josephine Boswell: Shredded cardboard, sawdust.

183\
00:28:24.020 --> 00:28:37.030\
Josephine Boswell: It gets turned, and out of the other end of the tumbler comes… within 10 days, you get a kind of partially broken down food stuff, or compost.

184\
00:28:37.270 --> 00:28:49.340\
Josephine Boswell: We could then put that into a maturation bin, and within 3 months, that would create really great compost. But actually, our system at the farm, because we've teamed up with the worm farm.

185\
00:28:49.590 --> 00:28:58.250\
Josephine Boswell: Is that we have 3 industrial-sized worm farms, where all of the food waste that comes out of the… or compost, if you like.

186\
00:28:58.360 --> 00:29:04.670\
Josephine Boswell: that comes out of the Rydan, goes to the worms, The worms digest it.

187\
00:29:04.850 --> 00:29:12.560\
Josephine Boswell: And what comes out of that is a very, very fine, it's called vermicast. It's essentially worm castings.

188\
00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:32.359\
Josephine Boswell: the best thing you could possibly apply to your plants or your soil. And so, how we use that is we either make a compost tea, which… a little sort of tea bag full of vermicast, which goes in each watering can on the market garden scale, or we make a big vat of tea with sort of an aerator.

189\
00:29:32.390 --> 00:29:44.529\
Josephine Boswell: Or we haven't, but we intend to use that on a field scale by putting it in a huge IBC on the back of a tractor, so about a kilo of vermicast teabag.

190\
00:29:44.610 --> 00:29:48.230\
Josephine Boswell: on an IVC at the back of a tractor, and then sprayed onto the land.

191\
00:29:50.340 --> 00:29:59.609\
Josephine Boswell: What that is doing is… if you have soils that have been massively degenerated, they are lacking microbial life.

192\
00:29:59.940 --> 00:30:09.610\
Josephine Boswell: And you can tell that by just putting a spade in the soil, on various, bits of our land, certainly, that were heavily farmed, conventionally farmed.

193\
00:30:10.120 --> 00:30:21.269\
Josephine Boswell: So what you're doing with these teas is you're providing microbial life, so the vermicast is full of microbes, if you imagine that food waste is passed through the gut of a worm.

194\
00:30:21.570 --> 00:30:36.369\
Josephine Boswell: full of beneficial microbes. You then add that to water with some food, like molasses, or… and some fresh compost, and you're basically making a concoction

195\
00:30:36.420 --> 00:30:54.270\
Josephine Boswell: that is going to increase the number of microbes by feeding them, and then you are applying that to the land. It's not witchcraft, it's proven science, and it's an excellent way in an organic system of

196\
00:30:54.480 --> 00:31:05.940\
Josephine Boswell: in, regenerating, bringing back the soils, along with, you know, it's not one fix wonder. You've got cover crops, you've got, you've got the

197\
00:31:06.860 --> 00:31:23.460\
Josephine Boswell: the cows, and you've got these bio… they're called biostimulants. And don't get me wrong, they won't work as fast as whacking on a load of fertilizers, but they won't damage the soil, they'll increase the soil, and once we get the soil back to

198\
00:31:23.700 --> 00:31:27.210\
Josephine Boswell: You know, a better state.

199\
00:31:27.220 --> 00:31:45.549\
Josephine Boswell: then it's easier to manage it going forward, but the turnaround from where we're at, particularly in the market garden, my struggle is that the land was so heavily cultivated that we had all of that rain, and now it's just gone solid like a… kind of like a block of cement.

200\
00:31:45.550 --> 00:31:51.510\
Josephine Boswell: the way I'm dealing with that for this initial year is I'm doing no-dig, a no-dig approach.

201\
00:31:55.120 --> 00:31:56.340\
Josephine Boswell: the ground.

202\
00:31:57.500 --> 00:32:11.819\
Josephine Boswell: I'm gently levering the, soil to aerate it without, you know, a plow would essentially just turn it upside down. That is not… that would damage all… any soil life that was in there.

203\
00:32:11.940 --> 00:32:14.770\
Josephine Boswell: So… the process…

204\
00:32:15.710 --> 00:32:30.879\
Josephine Boswell: As with the broadforkers, you're just breaking up the land enough so that the compost you put on top, and any of the vermicast or any of the amendments that you put on top, will eventually make their way down through the soil, and the worms, ideally, will do the work.

205\
00:32:31.250 --> 00:32:45.299\
Josephine Boswell: The worm farms are an amazing, contribution from… from the worm farm, my friends at the worm farm. They, kindly haven't asked us to pay for them, because we're sort of modeling them and prototyping them.

206\
00:32:45.550 --> 00:32:54.789\
Josephine Boswell: And so far, I'm… I'm massively impressed by what… I mean, worms will save us, if nothing else will. So if we can…

207\
00:32:54.920 --> 00:32:58.219\
Josephine Boswell: I really think that this sort of…

208\
00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:05.550\
Josephine Boswell: I'm quite passionate about composting. I think that we need to look at composting in a big way in communities,

209\
00:33:06.740 --> 00:33:24.800\
Josephine Boswell: as a form of community bringing together, but also as a way of providing communities with great quality compost to then use on their market gardens or in their gardens. But anyway, that's a sort of… that's a bit of a… a bit of a sideline, although compost is essentially at the center of… of our operation when it comes to the market garden.

210\
00:33:28.250 --> 00:33:35.180\
Josephine Boswell: I think, yeah, the last bit, so I guess where I'm with the market garden currently, what I'm looking at is trying…

211\
00:33:38.690 --> 00:33:44.919\
Josephine Boswell: Very, very high, high-value crops, like salads,

212\
00:33:45.430 --> 00:33:48.709\
Josephine Boswell: Greens and herbs and edible flowers.

213\
00:33:50.860 --> 00:34:08.709\
Josephine Boswell: And I hope that in time, once we've sort of really mastered those and shown we can turn a profit, we'll eventually modularly increase the size of the garden, growing different things, because essentially we do want it to be a model for people to look at and be inspired.

214\
00:34:08.730 --> 00:34:16.579\
Josephine Boswell: And learn how to… a huge part of the income for the garden is through, educational visits.

215\
00:34:16.659 --> 00:34:20.350\
Josephine Boswell: Workshops, lessons.

216\
00:34:20.719 --> 00:34:34.330\
Josephine Boswell: residential week… weekends, that kind of thing, as well as selling the veg to the restaurant. But anyone who's ever sold veg knows you need to sell an awful lot of it to turn a profit, so looking at other income streams is very important.

217\
00:34:34.710 --> 00:34:48.760\
Josephine Boswell: So, yes, I think… I don't know how long you expect me to talk for. I… I think maybe some… if there are any questions, that would be great. Otherwise I might… you might get a bit waffly if it wasn't waffly already.

218\
00:34:51.170 --> 00:35:00.559\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: That was a lot of fun, Joe, thank you very much. I do have a couple of questions before the rest of the world pitches in, if I may. And…

219\
00:35:01.140 --> 00:35:12.270\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I just wondered how long it takes to turn around the soil from its current exhausted condition to what you would call reasonable again. Are we talking years?

220\
00:35:12.270 --> 00:35:14.610\
Josephine Boswell: Very much so, yes.

221\
00:35:15.230 --> 00:35:16.260\
Josephine Boswell: Well…

222\
00:35:16.810 --> 00:35:30.890\
Josephine Boswell: Yes and no. We're talking years for the… it depends, like anything, you know, if I was there tending to it every hour of the day, doing absolutely everything that it required, it would probably be a lot quicker, but…

223\
00:35:30.910 --> 00:35:40.159\
Josephine Boswell: If you're looking at… it is a long game, so across the… you're probably looking at between a 5 and 10-year period to really see

224\
00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:52.960\
Josephine Boswell: A huge change, but we have seen change in the last 3 years with how we've been managing the soil in terms of increased worm count, infiltration, both really good.

225\
00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:53.470\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: And we couldn't.

226\
00:35:53.470 --> 00:36:02.090\
Josephine Boswell: easy ways to look at improvement of the soil. But yeah, it's certainly a long game rather than a quick fix.

227\
00:36:02.620 --> 00:36:14.489\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Which is actually, I think, very inspiring. It's lovely to know that there are people out there who are saying, not only is this saving us money, but it's also saving the planet, and it's taking a long view. Wonderful.

228\
00:36:14.490 --> 00:36:15.410\
Josephine Boswell: When I think…

229\
00:36:15.510 --> 00:36:21.239\
Josephine Boswell: So just on that, one of the things that we, discussed as an ownership group was

230\
00:36:21.560 --> 00:36:23.320\
Josephine Boswell: There's a, kind of.

231\
00:36:23.460 --> 00:36:39.009\
Josephine Boswell: in the Indigenous culture of looking at, any decision you make and how it impacts eight generations into the future. We don't quite go that far, but it is about thinking about the future generations rather than

232\
00:36:39.650 --> 00:36:44.039\
Josephine Boswell: That's, you know, rather than this one.

233\
00:36:44.430 --> 00:37:01.420\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And the other question was, I know, sort of, you have a long-term aim of getting these principles in use all the way across the country, the more, the better. But do your education, your workshops, do they take people from the North Island, or are you just dealing with local people?

234\
00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:05.049\
Josephine Boswell: I'm… I'm sorta… so…

235\
00:37:05.180 --> 00:37:24.989\
Josephine Boswell: I get… we've got some DEFRA funding, which allows me 25 visits… pays… pays for 25 visits, and I'm… I'm certainly giving Isle of Wight schools the first dibs on that, but I take… no, I take educational… if it's an educational visit, I don't mind where… I don't mind where they come from. I'm very passionate about

236\
00:37:25.030 --> 00:37:32.149\
Josephine Boswell: inspiring young people on the island, because we have a great rural… we have an opportunity here with a lot of great,

237\
00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:42.649\
Josephine Boswell: land to, you know, grow more food, which we don't currently do, but that doesn't mean, you know, I'm interested in that happening across the country.

238\
00:37:43.350 --> 00:37:49.760\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I've got a bunch of other questions, so let me move on to other people. So, Sean, would you like to have a go?

239\
00:37:50.020 --> 00:37:58.240\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yeah, Joe, that's fantastic, thank you very much. I've got loads of questions, but I'll… maybe other people will ask some as well.

240\
00:37:58.860 --> 00:38:11.930\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: I loved your mention of goats at the early stage there. Can I ask how you keep them? Because, I'm kind of representing a parish council, and, it…

241\
00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:25.640\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: We have the Bucks Goat center in our area, but they're very much constrained within tight fences, and they're really just for kids to go and pet more than anything else.

242\
00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:29.160\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: How do you stop them escaping?

243\
00:38:31.320 --> 00:38:36.810\
Josephine Boswell: Not with, not without difficulty. We've recently,

244\
00:38:37.510 --> 00:38:47.099\
Josephine Boswell: Invested in some, what are essentially, like, collars that give them a slight jolt when they move out of the area that you want them to be in, which work very well.

245\
00:38:47.100 --> 00:38:47.490\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yep.

246\
00:38:47.490 --> 00:39:02.669\
Josephine Boswell: a lot of electric fencing, and a lot of time, a lot of people management, really, from Joe, who looks after our… looks after our goats for us. And they are as… they are the most fragile part of the operation in terms of

247\
00:39:04.280 --> 00:39:08.980\
Josephine Boswell: You know, we are constantly assessing whether it's worth our while having them.

248\
00:39:09.460 --> 00:39:19.790\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yeah, we… I was wondering whether, you know, sort of a public entity could have them on bits of scrubland to, you know, what… what… what do they eat?

249\
00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:21.430\
Josephine Boswell: Anything.

250\
00:39:22.270 --> 00:39:24.220\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: So, I was wondering if that could…

251\
00:39:24.220 --> 00:39:24.580\
Josephine Boswell: including…

252\
00:39:24.580 --> 00:39:25.290\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: We use it.

253\
00:39:25.290 --> 00:39:31.499\
Josephine Boswell: all the good stuff, so I wouldn't… for example, I wouldn't put them anywhere near the market garden unless I could, you know.

254\
00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:43.640\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: stick them in a bit of scrubland. One question, then I'll hand over again. On the wormery side, could you imagine that that could be used

255\
00:39:43.770 --> 00:39:45.340\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: with,

256\
00:39:45.440 --> 00:40:04.420\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: not so much food… I mean, I'm sure we could generate food waste, but not so much food waste, but we've got lots of parkland and forestry and that sort of thing. Can wormeries work with, I don't know, loads and loads of ivy, or they just couldn't survive…

257\
00:40:04.530 --> 00:40:06.609\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: I mean, obviously mixing it up, but…

258\
00:40:06.610 --> 00:40:09.180\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah, they do…

259\
00:40:09.400 --> 00:40:18.980\
Josephine Boswell: They would take a mix of that stuff. I think there are things that they definitely prefer, but, I mean, people are using wormeries to eat dog poo, so.

260\
00:40:18.980 --> 00:40:19.580\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Really.

261\
00:40:19.580 --> 00:40:27.269\
Josephine Boswell: to process dog poo, so they are… there's complexities, and you'd have to, you know, you can't suddenly take a load of worms that have been eaten food

262\
00:40:27.590 --> 00:40:44.639\
Josephine Boswell: and then just feed them ivy, but if you were feeding them ivy from the beginning, then they might get through it. But I think goats are better… you're probably better off with goats for that. But, what I think wormeries… I think what wormeries… the purpose they could serve is this sort of…

263\
00:40:44.840 --> 00:40:48.410\
Josephine Boswell: Community, engagement piece.

264\
00:40:48.410 --> 00:40:48.750\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yes.

265\
00:40:48.750 --> 00:40:53.890\
Josephine Boswell: Higher, higher awareness around food waste. There are,

266\
00:40:53.890 --> 00:41:11.700\
Josephine Boswell: There's setups in Germany where they have a wormery at the center of a community where the food, you know, people are coming and feeding them their food waste and really, like, caring for them as a community, and then reaping the rewards of using the vermicast in their gardens or, you know, in their community gardens.

267\
00:41:11.700 --> 00:41:17.630\
Josephine Boswell: And I think that's something that we could all, you know, be getting Getting use of them from.

268\
00:41:18.160 --> 00:41:20.139\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: I think we could have a village wormery or something like that.

269\
00:41:20.140 --> 00:41:23.410\
Josephine Boswell: Absolutely, yeah, because they don't take a lot of management.

270\
00:41:23.410 --> 00:41:25.500\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think that's really…

271\
00:41:25.500 --> 00:41:27.599\
Josephine Boswell: My friends at the worm farm.

272\
00:41:27.600 --> 00:41:30.060\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: I've got them on the screen at the moment, so…

273\
00:41:30.060 --> 00:41:31.710\
Josephine Boswell: Great. Okay.

274\
00:41:32.250 --> 00:41:33.549\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yeah, thank you, thanks.

275\
00:41:34.060 --> 00:41:40.520\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yeah, there's quite an amusing bit about the goats with the collars on, on the last Clarkson's farm, wasn't there? They tried it.

276\
00:41:40.520 --> 00:41:41.160\
Josephine Boswell: Oh, yeah.

277\
00:41:41.160 --> 00:41:46.340\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: ended very fine. Frank, over to you, please. I'm sorry, Gary, I beg your pardon.

278\
00:41:48.290 --> 00:41:49.120\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: No problem.

279\
00:41:49.280 --> 00:41:54.910\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Hi, Joe. Hi. I was just wondering… as a farm.

280\
00:41:55.210 --> 00:42:04.440\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Have you been receiving any advice or guidance from DEFRA or anyone at all about how to adapt to climate change going forward?

281\
00:42:06.660 --> 00:42:14.110\
Josephine Boswell: Not directly, no. Which is kind of…

282\
00:42:14.470 --> 00:42:22.870\
Josephine Boswell: Crazy. However, having said that, we… there's something called, there's a scheme called Farming in Protected Landscapes.

283\
00:42:23.150 --> 00:42:25.889\
Josephine Boswell: Which is funding, and they're, I guess.

284\
00:42:26.140 --> 00:42:31.010\
Josephine Boswell: We're not being, sort of, advised directly by DEFRA, but they fund schemes

285\
00:42:31.120 --> 00:42:36.439\
Josephine Boswell: that are, you know, improving climate resilience, so…

286\
00:42:37.070 --> 00:42:45.650\
Josephine Boswell: you know, we've put a, we've done a kind of, project up on our downs.

287\
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:58.309\
Josephine Boswell: to, basically a water capture project, where we've, used a yeoman's plow to plow in… along the contour lines.

288\
00:42:58.750 --> 00:43:05.290\
Josephine Boswell: It's not plowing, but it's sort of subsoiling along the contour lines of the valley.

289\
00:43:05.570 --> 00:43:07.570\
Josephine Boswell: And then planting trees.

290\
00:43:07.970 --> 00:43:13.989\
Josephine Boswell: also along that same contour line, and this was funded by the likes of Southern Water.

291\
00:43:14.230 --> 00:43:21.260\
Josephine Boswell: Because they recognise that that is going to so… capture the water as it gushes down the hill.

292\
00:43:21.740 --> 00:43:33.919\
Josephine Boswell: And it's a process that hasn't been used in the UK… anywhere else in the UK, because most farmers won't plow on the angle, if you see what I mean. They'll go up and down the valley.

293\
00:43:34.300 --> 00:43:40.190\
Josephine Boswell: So… In terms of being direct… they're not sort of directly

294\
00:43:41.440 --> 00:43:52.009\
Josephine Boswell: Oh, that's basically my answer to you, is they're funding projects that prove to be resilient, you know, improving resilience, but they're not, sort of, directly educating people about how to.

295\
00:43:53.210 --> 00:43:55.690\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: But it's a bit crazy, then, that the, you know.

296\
00:43:55.940 --> 00:44:00.169\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Food security and impacts on agriculture are one of the main

297\
00:44:00.330 --> 00:44:09.549\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: you know, potential impacts going forward. And DEFRA, nobody is actually talking to farmers about it, and saying, like, you know, in 20 years' time, 30 years' time.

298\
00:44:09.660 --> 00:44:20.170\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: this type of agriculture might not actually be viable, or it's likely to… you know, this is… these are the crops that we might need to look to… to be… to be moving into, and nobody's…

299\
00:44:20.380 --> 00:44:24.680\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Nobody's actually engaging with farmers on this, from what you're saying.

300\
00:44:24.880 --> 00:44:30.000\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I find that really surprising, to be honest with you. I find that very, very surprising indeed.

301\
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:32.049\
Josephine Boswell: Well, I mean, it's the same as…

302\
00:44:32.160 --> 00:44:36.340\
Josephine Boswell: You know, really, organic farmers should be the most heavily subsidized.

303\
00:44:37.380 --> 00:44:41.119\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, I mean, I agree with that, but I mean, just farming in general, you know…

304\
00:44:41.120 --> 00:44:41.440\
Josephine Boswell: Yes.

305\
00:44:41.440 --> 00:44:49.930\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I mean, they're doing these series of films, you know, we've had presentations, like, last week on it, the People's Emergency Briefing.

306\
00:44:50.270 --> 00:44:55.279\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: And food security is one of the main topics of that. So, I mean, even getting

307\
00:44:55.440 --> 00:45:01.120\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: that… just showing that to all farmers might be something that… that could be, could be useful. I just… I just find it…

308\
00:45:01.300 --> 00:45:04.889\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I do find that very surprising, to be honest with you, you know.

309\
00:45:05.130 --> 00:45:07.570\
Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I thought there'd be much more engaged on it.

310\
00:45:08.280 --> 00:45:15.400\
Josephine Boswell: Well, yes. I mean, we are doing our best to bring other farmers on board with

311\
00:45:15.580 --> 00:45:32.409\
Josephine Boswell: the processes that we are learning about, and we host a lot of evenings, such as Graham came along too, to kind of inform people of another way, but we've… we're surrounded by conventional farming, and it's… it's a little depressing, I would say.

312\
00:45:32.820 --> 00:45:39.280\
Josephine Boswell: Fields covered in plastic and huge, great, you know, pesticides going onto them.

313\
00:45:39.680 --> 00:45:54.089\
Josephine Boswell: feels archaic to me, but that's where we're at. We're in a… we're in that, I think, squeeze point of cha… you know, I think there are younger generations farming who are trying to change things, but the old cohort are still there.

314\
00:45:54.770 --> 00:45:55.740\
Josephine Boswell: And…

315\
00:45:56.090 --> 00:46:03.920\
Josephine Boswell: there is this challenge of, you know, we're led by the demand of supermarkets, etc. And it's, as we all know, the system is…

316\
00:46:04.250 --> 00:46:06.240\
Josephine Boswell: The system is problematic.

317\
00:46:06.900 --> 00:46:07.450\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Hmm.

318\
00:46:07.950 --> 00:46:19.219\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Gary, I think it's very noticeable that on the government's PREPARE site, where they're sort of laying out what they think you should be getting ready for, they don't mention food at all.

319\
00:46:19.330 --> 00:46:32.800\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Which is extraordinary, so… but it's called in line with what you're saying. There's a huge opportunity being wasted here at the moment, but I'm glad you raised the point, thank you. Sean, back to you, please.

320\
00:46:32.800 --> 00:46:37.360\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: I, I, I think, I saw someone else's… I think Frank's hand was up.

321\
00:46:38.460 --> 00:46:43.050\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Well, in theory, the system puts them up in order, so you…

322\
00:46:43.050 --> 00:46:43.530\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Really?

323\
00:46:43.530 --> 00:46:45.740\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Putting him to it, yes.

324\
00:46:47.320 --> 00:46:49.099\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So please go ahead, Sean.

325\
00:46:49.100 --> 00:46:54.070\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Oh, okay, sorry. I was just going to mention 6 inches of soil as a… as a.

326\
00:46:54.070 --> 00:46:54.590\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yeah.

327\
00:46:54.590 --> 00:46:59.580\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: film that, It's worth watching. That's all.

328\
00:47:00.110 --> 00:47:02.250\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: in there, but you've probably all seen it anyway.

329\
00:47:03.970 --> 00:47:20.260\
Josephine Boswell: I mean, I think you do some… I think, by my understanding, you do similar things in your communities, but, you know, 6 inches of soil, we… we screened at the farm, last year or the year before. Any way to, you know, raise awareness of

330\
00:47:20.370 --> 00:47:21.620\
Josephine Boswell: these issues.

331\
00:47:21.870 --> 00:47:33.610\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: We, we, had, one of the sort of local regen farmers come along and answer questions after that, so the… the… the point there was to, sort of,

332\
00:47:33.900 --> 00:47:38.020\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Educate the public why they should be looking for higher quality

333\
00:47:38.410 --> 00:47:50.559\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: products, but also get the farmers involved. We have… we're quite a sort of agricultural community here anyway, but it is just…

334\
00:47:50.910 --> 00:47:53.089\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Changing the mindset a little bit.

335\
00:47:53.090 --> 00:47:53.750\
Josephine Boswell: Yep.

336\
00:47:54.080 --> 00:47:54.969\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: But,

337\
00:47:55.310 --> 00:48:01.869\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: yeah, it all takes time, but he, he was, John Chapman was saying that, I think he'd…

338\
00:48:02.120 --> 00:48:06.710\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Was back to profit within 3 years, or something like that, which was…

339\
00:48:07.070 --> 00:48:09.009\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Which is… he was happy with.

340\
00:48:09.460 --> 00:48:10.130\
Josephine Boswell: Hmm.

341\
00:48:11.720 --> 00:48:13.539\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Frank, it's your turn.

342\
00:48:13.540 --> 00:48:19.720\
frank deas Killearn: Thank you very much, that's really interesting. I think, you know, picking up on the point you made by others.

343\
00:48:19.810 --> 00:48:33.980\
frank deas Killearn: this type of farming you're doing tends to be fragmented and diverse. As you say, you have to find different avenues, different ways to turn a profit, and it's always easier for the government to link or respond to the lobbying of very large agri groups.

344\
00:48:34.100 --> 00:48:41.409\
frank deas Killearn: who are doing the old self-arming of lots of inputs, and manage your margin. So, unfortunately, I think.

345\
00:48:41.410 --> 00:48:42.339\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: There's a medication.

346\
00:48:42.340 --> 00:48:53.600\
frank deas Killearn: us like this, lobbying and trying to push up is probably the only way to try and respond to that. In terms of composting, then again, I think we're really irritated at Sterling.

347\
00:48:53.600 --> 00:49:07.109\
frank deas Killearn: A few years ago, it used to have composting of its green waste, and you could go to the council composting site and get bags of compost, and everyone was happy. And then they gave that up as a cost saving about 6 years ago.

348\
00:49:07.230 --> 00:49:17.019\
frank deas Killearn: And now, when we're lobbying them to get some areas made biodiverse, which means instead of cutting the grass 6 or 8 times a year, they cut it once a year, but have to do a cut and collect.

349\
00:49:17.020 --> 00:49:31.680\
frank deas Killearn: They don't want to do that, because they have to pay to take the collection, the risings, to fight for some other council who sold compost, because we no longer got the capacity to do it in-house. So there's that short-sightedness and bizarre approach, that's a challenge.

350\
00:49:31.680 --> 00:49:39.589\
frank deas Killearn: The other one that… and I don't know enough about this, I'm interested if everyone has experienced and got thoughts on it. We've had…

351\
00:49:39.590 --> 00:49:57.469\
frank deas Killearn: some pushback from people about the ideas of local composting, composting groups in terms of disease control and contamination. So, if you're not… if it's being run properly, and you're ensuring it hits the right temperatures and everything's okay, that's great.

352\
00:49:57.870 --> 00:50:08.549\
frank deas Killearn: But all it takes is one or two people who don't fully understand it, and who dump stuff in the wrong bin, or move stuff the wrong way, and suddenly you've got all sorts of potential disease. Yeah, yeah.

353\
00:50:08.550 --> 00:50:09.390\
Josephine Boswell: Reading and coal lines.

354\
00:50:09.760 --> 00:50:17.010\
Josephine Boswell: your land stuff, yeah. No, it absolutely needs the right education behind it, but I think that's another…

355\
00:50:17.690 --> 00:50:23.240\
Josephine Boswell: you know, kill… killing of us all by health and safety, you know what I mean?

356\
00:50:23.530 --> 00:50:29.779\
Josephine Boswell: Like, it's, it's a highly overly, overly, cautious

357\
00:50:30.180 --> 00:50:37.880\
Josephine Boswell: approach, because one, I don't know, one incident might have happened, I think, for the benefits that it could serve.

358\
00:50:38.040 --> 00:50:40.210\
Josephine Boswell: Done in the right way.

359\
00:50:40.510 --> 00:50:57.489\
Josephine Boswell: For example, I had a young guy from the Netherlands come and… a market gardener come and see my garden last week, and he… I said, oh, you know, I'm just struggling because a bag of… if I import compost, which I have to at the moment, because I haven't yet got enough

360\
00:50:57.490 --> 00:51:02.170\
Josephine Boswell: made myself. It costs me 80… almost, well.

361\
00:51:02.280 --> 00:51:18.350\
Josephine Boswell: If I'm buying it in bulk, it cost me about 50 quid a ton. 50 quid a ton bag, but bought in not very good quality municipal compost, and he was absolutely shocked. Do you know, it's £2.50 in the Netherlands? A ton.

362\
00:51:18.350 --> 00:51:20.129\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Lots of cash.

363\
00:51:20.130 --> 00:51:36.420\
Josephine Boswell: They have so much of it, because their systems work that you pay to deliver… you pay to get rid of your waste to them. So their income stream is the collection of the stuff, not the sale of the stuff, if that makes sense.

364\
00:51:36.910 --> 00:51:54.249\
Josephine Boswell: And this… this whole composting, piece, I think, is huge, and, you know, here at the farm, we're sending all of our… on the Isle of Wight, sorry, we send all of our food waste, all of it, raw or… raw or cooked.

365\
00:51:54.620 --> 00:51:56.279\
Josephine Boswell: to the mainland.

366\
00:51:56.410 --> 00:52:00.609\
Josephine Boswell: To a biodigester on the mainland. The energy to even take it there.

367\
00:52:01.150 --> 00:52:03.709\
Josephine Boswell: It doesn't make any sense at all.

368\
00:52:03.930 --> 00:52:14.600\
Josephine Boswell: And you're missing out on a huge opportunity, to create incredible, incredible compost, which is what we need.

369\
00:52:16.150 --> 00:52:18.660\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And that's health and safety getting in the way.

370\
00:52:18.660 --> 00:52:27.499\
Josephine Boswell: Well, to a certain extent, it's not… it's not an unreasonable concern, but there are many, many people… America's very big on… on…

371\
00:52:27.590 --> 00:52:46.059\
Josephine Boswell: kind of community composting, or these large but good quality composting operations, and it's not rocket science. Like you say, you have to keep it at a certain temperature, not too high, not too low, because if it's too high, that municipal compost that you buy has been literally cooked to death.

372\
00:52:46.380 --> 00:52:49.029\
Josephine Boswell: So it's lacking in any microbial life.

373\
00:52:49.170 --> 00:52:56.230\
Josephine Boswell: Whereas you want to get your compost over… I think if it goes over 70 degrees, then you're killing everything, the good and the bad.

374\
00:52:56.580 --> 00:52:59.229\
Josephine Boswell: But that's probably what they're asking you to do.

375\
00:53:00.120 --> 00:53:09.399\
Josephine Boswell: Because they don't… they fear the… it's like people are anti-backing their hands all the time. It's not good for you to kill every bit of bacteria on your hands.

376\
00:53:10.110 --> 00:53:11.900\
Josephine Boswell: We need bacteria.

377\
00:53:12.410 --> 00:53:13.630\
Josephine Boswell: I'm… yeah.

378\
00:53:13.930 --> 00:53:15.460\
Josephine Boswell: Different topic, though.

379\
00:53:17.290 --> 00:53:25.510\
frank deas Killearn: No, I think… I think it is… it's right. The other problem we have is, in recycling glass, the councils look at the best price for it.

380\
00:53:25.550 --> 00:53:41.920\
frank deas Killearn: And then end up shipping it down to the north of England, because they're getting a better price, and ignoring the environmental costs of trucks traveling down the M6 and M1. You think, you know, it is… it's that inability to look at the whole picture and say, what's the impact of this, and why are we actually trying to achieve forward?

381\
00:53:42.170 --> 00:53:42.870\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah.

382\
00:53:45.400 --> 00:53:53.680\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Couple of questions, Joe, which I didn't think you were going to miss out, but you'd appear to. Could you give us a figure… a feeling of…

383\
00:53:53.720 --> 00:54:09.550\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: what sort of productivity increase you've seen in the soil that has been… is starting to recover? Because you started off with just the one wormery, didn't you, to feed the, the garlic land itself.

384\
00:54:09.670 --> 00:54:15.390\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And then you discovered that it was doing such a good job that you thought you'd increase it for the market garden.

385\
00:54:15.390 --> 00:54:22.810\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah, so I've… I mean, I guess a very obvious, sign of it working is I mix

386\
00:54:23.210 --> 00:54:43.129\
Josephine Boswell: So you… I mix the vermicust with my potting compost, 20%. There's no point adding more than 20%, because it's actually just a waste of the vermicust. 20% is enough, because it's an inoculant, which means it will then, basically, the bacteria will multiply into the rest of the

387\
00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:48.459\
Josephine Boswell: whatever you put it into. So, if you add it to potting compost.

388\
00:54:48.680 --> 00:54:55.320\
Josephine Boswell: all the seeds that I've sown in that are just… I mean, it's like they're on… on crack. It's, like, really,

389\
00:54:56.620 --> 00:55:16.089\
Josephine Boswell: Probably not a very good example. I wouldn't imagine seeds on the racket look very healthy at all, would they? But, they look, like they're, like they're, you know, been pumped full of fertilizers, and that is the best example, really. And then, any of the, the garden that I'm watering with the Vermicast, as well as

390\
00:55:16.090 --> 00:55:29.060\
Josephine Boswell: Our gardener all over the site uses the spermicus to water all of the… all of the borders and the flowers, and she's noticed a huge difference, because since turning to organic, she was really struggling.

391\
00:55:29.090 --> 00:55:32.370\
Josephine Boswell: To know what she could use to feed the plants.

392\
00:55:32.450 --> 00:55:39.460\
Josephine Boswell: And she's found that the Vermicast has been better than any… anything she was using prior to the organic transition.

393\
00:55:39.990 --> 00:55:41.559\
Josephine Boswell: So,

394\
00:55:42.230 --> 00:55:50.470\
Josephine Boswell: there's that. I mean, in terms of the transition to organic and the improvement in the soil, like I say, we had a year of

395\
00:55:50.600 --> 00:55:55.899\
Josephine Boswell: quite painful, a couple of years, really, of growing… growing garlic, where

396\
00:55:56.610 --> 00:56:01.490\
Josephine Boswell: It's the weed control that's really the hardest thing to manage.

397\
00:56:01.920 --> 00:56:13.880\
Josephine Boswell: And it took, barnes went on a sort of research trip to France to visit some organic farmers down there who've been doing it for many years successfully. And, you know, at the end of the day, it's about the right… having the right kit.

398\
00:56:14.170 --> 00:56:26.610\
Josephine Boswell: And having the right conditions, I mean, this winter, we were… you know, the water was insane. And when there's that much water on the land, you can't get on to fir… to weed it.

399\
00:56:26.670 --> 00:56:43.460\
Josephine Boswell: So there are all of these challenges, but the quality of the garlic that we harvested last year was very, very good, and it's, we are hopeful for this year that the water hasn't, hasn't damaged the bulbs too much, because the fields were pretty…

400\
00:56:43.850 --> 00:56:46.199\
Josephine Boswell: Pretty sodden for a long time.

401\
00:56:48.350 --> 00:57:06.339\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: One of the most memorable lines in the People's Emergency Briefing was the statement that the weather we're seeing at the moment is the least extreme that you're going to see in your lifetime. The least extreme. So, basically, it's just going to get worse from here.

402\
00:57:06.450 --> 00:57:23.989\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So if you, you know, if the problems you're having with water, I can see why, Southern Water wants to help, sort of, reduce the flow of water, at least slow it down a little bit, so they don't just chuck it all into the solar. And, and clearly, obviously, it makes a major difference to you.

403\
00:57:23.990 --> 00:57:29.160\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Again, going back to Clarkson's farm, they're just sort of farming water for a lot of the time.

404\
00:57:29.160 --> 00:57:32.089\
Josephine Boswell: Yes, I'm finding ways to capture.

405\
00:57:32.350 --> 00:57:34.860\
Josephine Boswell: Capture those insane downpours.

406\
00:57:35.050 --> 00:57:36.889\
Josephine Boswell: It's so painful, because we've got.

407\
00:57:36.890 --> 00:57:38.820\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: We're going to have to, aren't we?

408\
00:57:38.820 --> 00:57:46.680\
Josephine Boswell: get onto the market garden to start it because it was so wet, and now I can't get a spade in the ground because it's so dry.

409\
00:57:46.780 --> 00:57:56.950\
Josephine Boswell: You know, this is the reality, and we need… we need to get on with creating these market gardens all over the country, so that people.

410\
00:57:56.950 --> 00:57:57.660\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: voice.

411\
00:57:57.660 --> 00:58:14.700\
Josephine Boswell: these challenges now, and figure out a way of dealing with them before we're in more desperate, dire straits, because we all… I really don't think that the… there's a lot of debate of can small farms feed the world, etc. I think that the purpose of,

412\
00:58:15.870 --> 00:58:25.359\
Josephine Boswell: you know, I think there are diverse… there's a diverse purpose to having small… smaller farms all over the country, and part of it is, you know, community farms and

413\
00:58:25.570 --> 00:58:34.230\
Josephine Boswell: The well-being of the people to see the food that they're growing, to manage the land themselves, is as much of the product as the food itself.

414\
00:58:36.050 --> 00:58:59.360\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yes, well, some… you were mentioning about the demands of the supermarkets, and because of their packaging requirements, they don't like knobbly vegetables, or everything has to be the right shape and size and color, and that's daft, really. And the community farms and the local market farms would obviously teach people to take what's good for taste and anything else, and who cares what color or shape it is?

415\
00:58:59.360 --> 00:58:59.950\
Josephine Boswell: Yep.

416\
00:58:59.950 --> 00:59:10.489\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Interesting. And the second question I had was, you keep talking about the cows and how they're growing in terms of numbers. What number did you start with, and where are you at now?

417\
00:59:11.570 --> 00:59:21.680\
Josephine Boswell: Well, we were given some Highland cows many years ago from some friends, and they were really just, for an attraction piece for people to look at.

418\
00:59:21.900 --> 00:59:27.740\
Josephine Boswell: And then my… it was really when my brother-in-law decided to take an interest.

419\
00:59:27.840 --> 00:59:36.630\
Josephine Boswell: And he's grown the herd from, you know, a handful to what it is now. I think there's, about 80.

420\
00:59:36.970 --> 00:59:38.190\
Josephine Boswell: Currently.

421\
00:59:39.200 --> 00:59:41.750\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So it's multiplied by 10 or more.

422\
00:59:41.750 --> 00:59:42.640\
Josephine Boswell: Yep.

423\
00:59:42.640 --> 00:59:44.470\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Wow. Interesting.

424\
00:59:45.130 --> 00:59:49.899\
Josephine Boswell: And he's become a, you know, absolutely zero,

425\
00:59:50.480 --> 00:59:57.670\
Josephine Boswell: absolutely zero experience in farming cows. He's sort of taught himself quite radically, which is impressive.

426\
00:59:57.670 --> 00:59:59.840\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I thought, tips to cancel duty.

427\
01:00:02.020 --> 01:00:04.310\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Sean, you have another question, please?

428\
01:00:04.310 --> 01:00:12.409\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yeah, Joe, could you explain a little bit about the balance between, producing, foodstuff

429\
01:00:12.640 --> 01:00:22.430\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: And selling the raw food stuff, and the process and the thinking behind turning it into value-added… bottled products.

430\
01:00:22.540 --> 01:00:34.579\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Particularly at a local level, because I kind of… if we do something locally here, move into horticulture on a piece of, you know, reclaimed land or something like that.

431\
01:00:35.530 --> 01:00:41.669\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: It's still probably going to be more expensive than going to Tesco to go and get your carrots. Possibly more expensive.

432\
01:00:41.670 --> 01:00:43.420\
Josephine Boswell: 100%, I'm afraid.

433\
01:00:43.510 --> 01:00:58.080\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: But if you turn that into carrot cake, or whatever, you know, into a relish, or something, add value to it, I can see that, you know, you can get a premium

434\
01:00:58.350 --> 01:01:06.050\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: for that, because it's locally made and what have you. We've got people, making kombucha, around here.

435\
01:01:06.220 --> 01:01:09.780\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: And, they do extremely well. Yeah.

436\
01:01:09.970 --> 01:01:11.260\
Josephine Boswell: Whereabouts are you, Sean?

437\
01:01:11.260 --> 01:01:13.130\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Wendover in Buckinghamshire.

438\
01:01:13.130 --> 01:01:14.409\
Josephine Boswell: Winded, okay, yeah, sorry.

439\
01:01:14.410 --> 01:01:15.679\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: In the Chilterns.

440\
01:01:15.680 --> 01:01:16.190\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah.

441\
01:01:16.190 --> 01:01:28.509\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: And I think there is a… there is an argument about this balance between producing food for, you know, raw food, if you like, and producing, value-added products.

442\
01:01:28.510 --> 01:01:28.930\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah.

443\
01:01:28.930 --> 01:01:35.799\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: I actually personally think producing the value-added products could have more benefit, if it feeds money

444\
01:01:35.800 --> 01:01:50.609\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: back into the… into the system. And, you know, even if it's just selling small volumes locally, like, we've got quite a lot of orchards around here that produce apple juice. They certainly make more money from their apple juice than they do from selling apples.

445\
01:01:50.610 --> 01:01:51.600\
Josephine Boswell: Yeah, absolutely.

446\
01:01:51.600 --> 01:01:59.449\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: So that's sort of… can you explain what the thinking was behind the garlic, business turning into relishes and…

447\
01:01:59.600 --> 01:02:01.750\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: What have you, or what the difficulties are.

448\
01:02:02.970 --> 01:02:06.050\
Josephine Boswell: Yes, so when I was growing up.

449\
01:02:06.320 --> 01:02:18.110\
Josephine Boswell: my… my mum started making pickles on… on the Arga in the kitchen, and that's… and that's how our whole, you know, condiment company…

450\
01:02:18.110 --> 01:02:18.670\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Thank you.

451\
01:02:18.670 --> 01:02:32.190\
Josephine Boswell: began. Purely for that, yeah, for that reason, my dad was being entrepreneurial in desperate times, and looking at every way in which we could make money out of garlic, and adding garlic to all sorts of,

452\
01:02:32.300 --> 01:02:39.879\
Josephine Boswell: other vegetables, and then charging quite a high, quite a high price, even back then, for a small jar of pickle.

453\
01:02:40.040 --> 01:02:46.939\
Josephine Boswell: what I would say about that is the market is quite saturated, because lots of cottage industries are doing it.

454\
01:02:46.970 --> 01:02:55.629\
Josephine Boswell: However, a locally made kimchi, or sauerkraut, or, you know, who is your market?

455\
01:02:55.630 --> 01:03:08.879\
Josephine Boswell: And what is your… and what is your USP? I mean, if your market is your local town, and your USP is that your vegetables were grown locally, then, you know, that is going… you're really not competing with anybody else in that.

456\
01:03:08.880 --> 01:03:09.640\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yeah.

457\
01:03:09.640 --> 01:03:16.810\
Josephine Boswell: scenario, and you're also not really going to be making the quantities of things to worry about. You know, you are going to sell what you make.

458\
01:03:18.310 --> 01:03:28.579\
Josephine Boswell: Being absolutely in the… very much the early and quite painful stages of setting up a market garden, which is,

459\
01:03:29.460 --> 01:03:35.069\
Josephine Boswell: Which is for, you know, it has to wash its face. I can't just…

460\
01:03:35.070 --> 01:03:35.720\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Tim.

461\
01:03:35.720 --> 01:03:43.299\
Josephine Boswell: The garlic farm isn't doing well enough just to be able to support a project that's just gonna, you know, hemorrhage money.

462\
01:03:43.330 --> 01:04:03.239\
Josephine Boswell: It's really challenging, I would say, to make these things work, hence what I said about, you know, looking at all the other avenues and ways, all the funding, for educational trips, all of the workshops, all of the corporate visits, team-building away days. If you're gonna…

463\
01:04:03.320 --> 01:04:05.849\
Josephine Boswell: A finding a way to make land.

464\
01:04:06.110 --> 01:04:14.909\
Josephine Boswell: work that isn't just in the… it just isn't. Like, look at our garlic farm, it is diversified to the maximum.

465\
01:04:15.380 --> 01:04:17.000\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yep. Yeah.

466\
01:04:17.060 --> 01:04:21.589\
Josephine Boswell: And I would say, yeah, just be very, very realistic.

467\
01:04:21.800 --> 01:04:25.020\
Josephine Boswell: And also, what is your holistic purpose?

468\
01:04:25.190 --> 01:04:31.929\
Josephine Boswell: Of whatever you're doing with your land, because a huge part of it might be for the well-being of the community, in which case.

469\
01:04:32.140 --> 01:04:48.209\
Josephine Boswell: you know, the… depending on what your financial rules look like, I don't know, but your outcomes are different. If your… if your holistic purpose is for the well-being of the community, then it's very different to… if you're trying to raise money for the community, then you'll have to look at it in a really commercial way.

470\
01:04:48.360 --> 01:04:49.719\
Josephine Boswell: Do you see what I mean?

471\
01:04:49.720 --> 01:04:51.090\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yep, yep, definitely.

472\
01:04:51.090 --> 01:05:09.079\
Josephine Boswell: Whereas my holistic purpose for the Market Garden is, you know, a huge part of the purpose is to inspire, educate, and, you know, entertain our guests that visit the hundreds of thousands of guests that come past. So, although you can't put a price on that.

473\
01:05:09.460 --> 01:05:15.170\
Josephine Boswell: you know, I have to remember that when I'm struggling to grow enough lettuces to sell the rest.

474\
01:05:15.170 --> 01:05:25.219\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if we can encourage people to visit Wendover, who then spend their money in the coffee shops and things like that, that's…

475\
01:05:25.220 --> 01:05:26.080\
Josephine Boswell: Exactly.

476\
01:05:26.080 --> 01:05:26.530\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: That's…

477\
01:05:26.530 --> 01:05:38.080\
Josephine Boswell: And do not… I mean, the power… I ran, I run monthly… we call them getting involved days, because we're not a charity, so we're careful with the word volunteering, but…

478\
01:05:38.080 --> 01:05:49.380\
Josephine Boswell: I run monthly Getting Involved days, and the last one I ran had 25 people turn up. Children, grandparents, parents, and it amazes me that

479\
01:05:49.770 --> 01:05:59.939\
Josephine Boswell: always has done, but I guess it doesn't because it's what I love doing. The power of gardening, or people's desire to get involved with the land, even when it's not their land.

480\
01:06:00.090 --> 01:06:00.600\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yes.

481\
01:06:00.600 --> 01:06:14.300\
Josephine Boswell: It's extraordinary, and it's very reassuring, because we're gonna have to get involved with the land if we can get our flipping hands on the land from the big landowners. But, yeah.

482\
01:06:14.300 --> 01:06:27.490\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Other question is, how do you go about engaging other entities? So, here we've got, obviously, the parish council, the county council, we've got, other parish councils, then there are charities. There's one called Lindengate.

483\
01:06:27.490 --> 01:06:35.869\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Here, which is, you know, about, horticulture and well-being. And then there are other, others.

484\
01:06:36.180 --> 01:06:48.459\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: training young people, in more urban areas like Aylesbury, how to cook well using fresh produce and things like that, and it's getting all of the different

485\
01:06:48.620 --> 01:06:50.550\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: cogs together.

486\
01:06:50.560 --> 01:07:09.439\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: to work like that, and I think that's one of the important aspects of how you get everyone… because you said, you know, what's your holistic, goal? Each one of those would have slightly different holistic goals, but if they can be all aligned, or helped.

487\
01:07:09.610 --> 01:07:20.470\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: then you, you know, and then… then I could have my worm casts, the vermer casts, producing stuff for the Linden Gate, and then going off and… yeah, like that.

488\
01:07:20.470 --> 01:07:35.899\
Josephine Boswell: Yes, and I… I mean, I see a kind of… some kind of, like, overlapping circles Venn diagram going on here, with your market garden, or your garden in the middle, and then your different organizations, and the overlap of what they will benefit from in the garden, and therefore maybe

489\
01:07:36.320 --> 01:07:50.090\
Josephine Boswell: I don't know where the finances come from, but if you're from a parish, or a county council, or whatever, but each of those organizations might want to have an investment in it, because they can see the benefit.

490\
01:07:50.160 --> 01:08:09.289\
Josephine Boswell: And so starting that conversation, that kind of focus group, I suppose, with all of those people, of whether they're interested… I mean, we're currently working on some quite large bids, which are island-wide, which is equally challenging, is bringing all the voices of the Island of Wight together.

491\
01:08:09.330 --> 01:08:16.040\
Josephine Boswell: Through the council, who are a council.

492\
01:08:16.500 --> 01:08:18.949\
Josephine Boswell: On, you know, trying to…

493\
01:08:19.290 --> 01:08:23.810\
Josephine Boswell: trying to sort of galvanize an idea, it's incredibly challenging. You do need…

494\
01:08:24.390 --> 01:08:33.560\
Josephine Boswell: And it's… in our scenario, it is being sort of driven by one person, which in a way is what needs to happen, because many voices are even harder to…

495\
01:08:34.859 --> 01:08:35.870\
Josephine Boswell: Manage.

496\
01:08:36.490 --> 01:08:37.100\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Thank you.

497\
01:08:37.100 --> 01:08:37.810\
Josephine Boswell: Yep.

498\
01:08:39.560 --> 01:08:43.450\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Does anyone else have anything that they're dying to ask, please?

499\
01:08:44.380 --> 01:08:45.180\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Nope.

500\
01:08:45.529 --> 01:09:02.770\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Joe, congratulations, you've managed to fascinate us for an hour, for which I'm very grateful, because I'm sure that the repercussions will go on for a lot longer. Thank you very much for entertaining us, for being so inspiring, and I hope everyone's enjoyed it.

501\
01:09:02.770 --> 01:09:04.390\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Yeah, it was excellent, thank you.

502\
01:09:04.970 --> 01:09:06.179\
Josephine Boswell: Thanks for having me.

503\
01:09:06.189 --> 01:09:08.989\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Well, you're very welcome, and

504\
01:09:09.549 --> 01:09:20.899\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: if I had a memory, I would tell everybody what's going… oh yes, we're going to talk next week, about how on earth you turn your community into a plastic-free community.

505\
01:09:21.019 --> 01:09:26.519\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So, and you like that, Joe, because it's local, it's what we've managed to do here in Bembridge.

506\
01:09:26.729 --> 01:09:38.609\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: But it's applicable across the country, of course. So, thank you all very much for your time this week. I hope you enjoyed it, and we look forward to seeing anybody again next week. And so it goes.

507\
01:09:38.609 --> 01:09:39.129\
Sean McCarthy Wendover Bucks: Thank you very much.

508\
01:09:39.130 --> 01:09:40.270\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: goes. Take care.

509\
01:09:40.270 --> 01:09:42.559\
Josephine Boswell: No, that was really great. Cheers.

510\
01:09:42.560 --> 01:09:43.430\
Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: available.

511\
01:09:43.430 --> 01:09:44.300\
Josephine Boswell: Bye.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://wiki.greatcollaboration.uk/knowledgebase/events/banter-sessions-inc-table-of-all-sessions/banter-118-06may26-improving-local-food-productivity-with-jo-boswell.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
