Zealand and the strong community spirit in Yorkshire
and decided: “That’s what we want to do... grow food
we trust and hopefully others will trust. And we want
to sell direct ly to t he customer.” A nd so Pipers wa s bor n.
BACK TO NATURE
After looking at 80 farms they came upon a 52-acre
dairy farm near Exeter. “I just felt I’d come home,” says
Henri. The first thing they did was fence the farm to
protect the hedgerows from being eaten by livestock.
“We’re so glad we did, because they provide shelter
and they’re corridors for wildlife; there’s so much
insect and bird life within.” The farm was soon
renamed Pipers Farm. “Piper was always Peter’s
nickname,” smiles Henri.
As Henri walks around the farm with her sheepdog,
Fly, she talks about the relationship between the
livestock and nature. “We can’t grow vegetables here
because of the soil erosion [the land is steep and bare,
soil is ea sily wa shed away], so we have to g row g ra ss,”
she explains. “And the only way to manage it is to graze
cattle – livestock build up organic matter and the »Peter and Henri met at
agricultural college in the
70s (their border collie,
Fly, came later)LIVING (^) | WISDOM