Cholwell Farm is a ten acre biodynamic holding near Dartington in the beautiful South Hams of Devon. Tucked away up a quiet lane that was once the road from Totnes to Buckfastleigh, Cholwell is the home of Tom Petherick, Melanie Eclare and their daughter Rose.
The holding is in the last few months of its two year conversion to biodynamic status under the Demeter certification scheme.
The small family farm is an experiment into what is known in biodynamics as the "farm organism". This idea was first put forward by Rudolf Steiner as the model sustainable farm. In the ideal set-up the farm is self-sufficient in seed, manure, food and fodder.
At the centre of the farm is a herd of South Devon cattle that so far number three heifers. These will be the foundation cows for a suckler herd that will provide manure and ultimately dairy products for the household.
Cholwell Farm provides the Petherick family with a huge quantity of food and cut flowers. There are also seven laying hens and a cockerel. The emphasis in the productive gardens are on annual and perennial vegetables as well as soft fruit. There is an orchard of some dozen mature apple trees and since our arrival in April 2007 some further thirty fruit trees have been planted.
The South Devon cattle will graze roughly half the farm's acreage. They will be housed in the winter to enable the manure to be collected. They have access to water from the stream and will graze pasture that has never seen a plough. The diversity in the herbage is rich with many different of species and wildflowers.
A further acre will be cut for hay with which to feed the animals in the winter.
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