NON SUCH AS THIS: a Magical Place
The idea
It all began when Fiona and Julian Cusack decided to take on the challenge of ‘rewilding’ some land in East Suffolk.
As the conversation developed, we began to think about food production. Could we play our part in restoring our ecosystem and provide food for the community…?
Nonsuch Farm was born.
Stepping away from mainstream farming methods
Since World War II, farming has become more intensive, mechanised, and reliant on chemicals as a way of increasing yields. Fields have grown ever bigger, hedges have been scrubbed out, trees felled and ponds filled in. Wildlife, and people’s relationship with their food, have diminished.
Nonsuch Farm, initially created from two intensively-farmed arable fields, is an attempt to address this.
Our goals
To produce excellent organic food within a short loop system
To create sustainable jobs and volunteering opportunities for our community
To farm hand-in-hand with nature, allowing it space to thrive.
How will we achieve these?
By creating the opportunity for crop rotation, and the sowing of cover crops.
By experimenting with natural hedge regeneration through scrumping berries and seeds.
By creating an area of agroforestry, running from north to south on the flatter land.
By introducing livestock to graze on the land and help fertilise the soil.
By digging ponds to provide habitat for amphibians, and drinking water for other wildlife.
Our hopes for the future
Engagement with the local community is at the heart of our project, and we have therefore created permissive paths to allow local people to access the countryside safely and enjoy nature. In drawing them in, we hope that they will feel a connection with the food we produce.
The COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine have brought home to us all that we need to take action - we can’t sit back and hope that others will solve the problems we face.
Our hope is to eventually create a carbon-negative business and demonstrate to others that farming in this way can work for them, the local community, and the wildlife. We would like Nonsuch Farm to feel like a magical place where people, animals and plant life can live in harmony once again.