Inside Groundswell, the Glastonbury of Farming

Jenny Jefferies gives us the lowdown from Groundswell 2024, the regenerative agriculture festival which takes place each summer in Hertfordshire.

Groundswell 2024: What Happened?

Groundswell 2024 was another inspiring, global hub of knowledge exchange around the exciting and significant regenerative movement in agriculture. The event saw pioneers, prodigies and producers coming together on the hottest day of the year so far, exploring this growing (no pun intended) subject through a selection of enlightening talks.

Whilst walking around Lannock Manor Farm in Stevenage, in late June, you couldn’t help but feel the buzz of hope and dedication that has already been given to a farming festival that is ‘by farmers, for farmers’. The Cherry Family founded this annual event seven years ago, and essentially believe – and, perhaps, more importantly prove – that ‘food tastes better when it grows in healthy soil.’

Farmers from all over the world attended the event, including John Kempfe, Guy Singh-Watson, Josef Holzer and Odette Ménard, to name but a few. A highlight was definitely Henry Dimbleby, author of National Food Strategy (2022) and Ravenous (2023), along with Andy Cato of Wildfarmed, speaking on ‘Transforming the Food Landscape at Scale, Can it be Done?’. They both shared perspectives from their experiences, challenged the status quo at every step of the food supply chain and offered viable, tangible and implementable solutions for what needs to be done next.

In parallel to this discussion, and unbeknown to me at the time, the beautiful film Six Inches of Soil started here at Groundswell four years ago. How sublime it was to listen to the three regenerative stars: Anna Jackson, a Lincolnshire 11th generation arable and sheep farmer; Adrienne Gordon, a Cambridgeshire small-scale vegetable farmer; and Ben Thomas, who rears pasture fed beef cattle in Cornwall.

They talked so fondly about the film and their experiences over their first year of farming regeneratively. A panel of regenerative royalty encompassing a virtuous circular journey also included the film director Colin Ramsay and producer Claire Mackenzie. Peter Byck of Roots so Deep (USA) also made an appearance, which offered a few poignant moments that concluded a great couple of days of communicating regen to a wider audience.

To continue the celebration of regenerative agriculture, here is a recipe from the founder of Groundswell, John Cherry, taken from my book Islands In A Common Sea: Stories of Farming, Fishing and Food Around the World.

Recipe: Oxtail Ragu by John Cherry

‘When we sold our beef at farmers’ markets there were always cuts that didn’t sell well, oxtail being one of these. It is delicious, very good value, and especially good for you if you source 100% pasture- fed meat. This excellent recipe was created by my stepson, Rollo, and we hope you enjoy it.’

• Preparation time: 1 hour
• Cooking time: 7 hours
• Serves 7 – 8

Ingredients:

• 400g carrot
• 200g onion
• 200g leek
• 100g celery
• 1 bulb of garlic 
• 200g tomatoes 
• 200g mushrooms 
• 8 pearl onions 
• Rapeseed oil
• 3kg oxtail
• 1⁄2 bottle of white wine 
• 2 bay leaves

Method:

1. Finely chop the carrot, onion, leek, celery, and garlic. Halve the tomatoes and roughly chop the mushrooms. Peel the pearl onions and set them aside.
2. Heat a pan to the hottest it will go, then add some rapeseed oil and sear the oxtail until golden all over. Don’t crowd the pan: you probably want to do this in batches, deglazing between each batch by pouring in a little water and scraping up anything stuck to the bottom of the pan (reserve this liquid).
3. Once all the oxtail is seared, set it aside and deglaze the pan again, then pour the deglaz- ing liquid over the meat. Using the same pan, sweat the onion and garlic over a low heat in oil. Add the leek, celery and half the carrot, then cook until the vegetables just start to colour (15-20 minutes).
4. In a separate pan, cook down the mushrooms in a little butter and then add these to the vegetables. Turn up the heat, add the wine and cook until most of it has evaporated.
5. Add the oxtail back to the pan along with the tomatoes and top up with water until there is enough space for the meat to move around. Add the bay leaves.
6. Cook on a low heat with just a few bubbles for 7 hours or in a pressure cooker for 2 hours. Strain and keep the liquid, remove the oxtail and pick the meat off. Discard the rest of the vegetables.
7. Sweat the pearl onions with the remaining carrot, add the meat and strained cooking liquid, then reduce it down to a ragu consistency. Serve with stiff mashed potato.

Find out more about Jenny at @jennyljefferies