n By Keith Hatch


let arable land, and a pop-up, off-grid campsite.


The farm has embraced farming


regeneratively and saw Open Farm Sunday as an opportunity to share their enthusiasm and ethos


with the public, with nearly 2000 people attending on the day.


There were long queues for tractor rides, demonstrations and the stall for locally produced ice cream, as families explored the site.


The farm was packed throughout the day and offered woodland walks, a forestry demon stra tion and a chance to plant saplings in the woodland and explore wildlife meadows and the hop gardens.


One of the most interesting demonstrations was in a large open barn given over to the hop growing team. Hops have been grown in the estate for hundreds of years, and Hampton now has the last commercial hop gardens in Surrey.


Visitors had the opportunity to learn how to string up the hanging lines that hops grow on and hear from farm manager Will Godwin. Will works in the hop gardens and explained the process of hop growing and why the farm had decided to stick with one variety of hops, Fuggles – one of the traditional varieties for the area.


Will said, “We are developing a regenerative approach to hop growing on the farm. I’m trying it out on a section of the gardens first to see how it impacts on yield. The plan is to replace chemicals with organic fertiliser from our biodigesters and have sheep in the hop gardens to graze out weeds between the rows.”


Growing hops is labour intensive with workers stringing up natural coir string onto a frame for the hop plants to climb as they grow. When they first start to grow workers also wind the hops around the strings in a clockwise direction.


Will explained that the hop rows are around 120 metres in length, and a good stringer can do five rows in a day, though they once had a farm worker who could string ten rows a day.


He also mentioned that there used to be, “Stringing Competitions in many hop gardens where farm workers would compete to be the best stringer. If you find old films on YouTube it looks like they are speeded up because the workers were so fast.”


Molly Biddell from the Estates Management Team said that they aim to engage with people through farm gates sales and school visits, but explained, “Open Farm Sunday (OFS) takes connecting to the public to a whole new level.


35 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2024


“We love it, seeing everyone get stuck in and enjoying what they’re doing gives you such a buzz. We are one of the closest OFS farms to London, and it’s great to welcome people from the city.”


Hampton Estate farm was using Open Farm Sunday this year to not only explain to the public why farming is so important with lots of information boards from LEAF, but also give visitors a chance to learn about their regenerative farming and nature restoration initiatives across the farm.


Molly said bringing people onto farm is the most powerful way to illustrate the role farming plays in wider society: “Eco-anxiety is a growing phenomenon and there is a divergence of opinion on how to best protect the planet.


“If we can illustrate first-hand that good rural land management can provide the solution to many of the challenges society faces – healthy food, access to green space, climate change mitigation and species protection, it might inspire others to get involved.


“Rural hasn’t always been seen as cool but there’s growing realisation of its pivotal importance. We need to connect people to the relevance of the rural world and show how informed choices can address a lot of environmental issues.”


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