Riverford Organic Farmers

News from the farm: A joyful awakening A wonderfully dry start to spring has allowed us to spread muck and compost, plough, prepare seedbeds, and start planting spuds, peas, and artichokes in ideal conditions. It is such a joyful contrast to the rain, mud, and delays of last year. So often, farmers are forced to prepare the land in marginal conditions, because spring plants start arriving from the greenhouses in March and can only be held in their trays for so long before being planted. Plants forced into poor-quality seedbeds never achieve intimacy with the soil, and almost invariably produce poor crops. But if we are able to be patient and get the timing right, then we are rewarded by the crop roots, mycorrhizal fungi, and soil quickly becoming one, with boundaries blurred in a complex, synergistic, and productive ecosystem. By late winter, most of the soluble, plant-available nitrogen (a critical nutrient) in the soil has been leached out of reach of crops’ roots by the winter rains. As air temperatures rise in late February, crops start sending out new leaves—but with the soil still at a cooler temperature, its bacteria and fungi are slow to recycle organic matter and make more nitrogen available to roots again. Non-organic farmers can use synthetic fertilisers—and, at least in the short term, impatience can pay off. Spring starts with the first application of ammonium nitrate or urea. The effect can be dramatic, with leaves darkening in colour and putting on significant growth within two weeks. You could sign your name on a field in ammonium nitrate, and it would stand out as lush green growth. But what’s going on below the surface is just as important as what you can see on top. Without synthetic fertilisers, organic farmers have to wait for the soil to warm up and its underground ecosystem to reactivate naturally. This is highly dependent on maintaining healthy soil with an open, aerated structure; compromised soils are the last to wake up. For over-wintered crops of broad beans, rhubarb, and so on, it can be worth risking some root damage and tilling between the rows to break up the rain-damaged surface of the soil, allowing air in to wake up the microbial life beneath. Ploughing, in the right conditions, has the same effect. Farmers aren’t known for our celebratory tendencies, but there are lots of happy people out on tractors at the moment. Long may these fine conditions continue. https://lnkd.in/eKFqw_R3 #Riverford #Guysnews #farming

Winter is the time for hedge planting. In February at Wash - Ed, Anna, Becca and an amazing team of volunteers planted 1226 whips (young trees/plants) into 150m of bank, which was created to help protect the local stream. The traditional Devon mix consisted of 7 species, including:   Hawthorn Blackthorn Field Maple Green Beech Common Privet Dog Rose Sweet Briar   These young plants are vulnerable to vole and deer damage, and would normally be protected by plastic tree guards. Unfortunately, this presents problems itself as the guards are expensive, not biodegradable and cost extra to be removed. The solution to avoid guarding has been to plant at higher density, allowing for some failure but still leaving enough to do the job. We made the conscious decision to plant a higher proportion of Hawthorn as this acts as a natural deterrent to browsing deer. #volunteerday #hedgeplanting #trees #Riverford

🚀 We're Hiring – Join Our Team at Riverford! 🌱 We’re looking for a Solutions Architect to join our Tech Team. As our Solutions Architect, you’ll help shape Riverford’s digital future.  You’ll work closely with business and technical teams to design and deliver scalable, secure, and cost-effective solutions that support our long-term goals. A key part of your role will be ensuring our enterprise systems integrate smoothly, while keeping security and best practice at the forefront. This isn’t just about technology, it’s about making a real difference in how we work. You’ll collaborate with teams across Riverford, from IT specialists to senior leaders, helping to solve challenges and put practical, well-designed solutions in place. Your expertise will guide us through change, ensuring our digital systems support the people who rely on them every day. To find out more and apply now: https://lnkd.in/e4_j89DP #Hiring #TechJobs #Solutionsarchitect #Riverford #JoinOurTeam #TechInnovation #SustainableTech #DigitalTransformation

🚀 We're Hiring – Join Our Team at Riverford! 🌱 We’re looking for a ERP Business Analyst to join our team. We’re rolling up our sleeves for a big change—introducing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to simplify processes, help teams work more efficiently, and support sustainable growth. This is a significant step for us as an employee-owned business, and we’re looking for an ERP Business Analyst to help make it happen. In this role, you’ll bridge the gap between business needs and technology, working closely with teams across Riverford to ensure our ERP system and wider technology roadmap support our long-term goals. You’ll turn challenges into opportunities—helping teams work smarter, solve problems, and make informed decisions. For more info and to apply now: https://lnkd.in/evyG9duR #Hiring #TechJobs #ERP #Riverford

🚀 We're Hiring – Join Our Team at Riverford! 🌱 We’re looking for a skilled Senior Software Engineer to join our team, driving the development of innovative customer-facing and back-office solutions. You'll work on a range of projects, from bespoke applications to third-party integrations, ensuring high-quality, well-tested software. If you're passionate about software excellence and want to be part of an ethical business, we’d love to hear from you! Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/eib_6XGm #Hiring #TechJobs #Clojure #SoftwareDevelopment #Riverford

News from the farm: Diversity, equality & inclusion - Guy Singh-Watson Despite professing liberal enlightenment, until ten years ago Riverford had a narrow, hierarchical culture. Our (largely white, male, straight, and ageing) leaders were too busy to see what we were missing. I look back with embarrassment at how unquestioningly macho our culture was, and how detrimental that was, to women in particular. It showed in our gender pay gap, staff turnover, the scarcity of women in senior positions, and people’s reluctance to speak up and challenge. Listening was rare, decision-making was narrow, and we were all the poorer for it. In the end, as part of our journey towards employee ownership and more devolved and inclusive decision-making, we employed a coach to help. To my surprise and irritation, she firmly asserted that things needed to change at the top. I needed to grow up and set a better example – or, as she put it, “Be gratuitously offensive less often” – and when I did go too far, I needed to apologise quickly and publicly. I countered (in a way reminiscent of the brattish behaviour of Trump and Musk) with: “As the maverick founding entrepreneur, surely I don’t have to follow the rules?” But she was having none of it. The first time I stopped a meeting to apologise for an outburst, the room was stunned. It was liberating to learn that being sensitive, admitting mistakes, and saying sorry is not seen as weakness. In fact, I found it life-enhancing. Other things started changing too: intensive coaching, space to talk about this subject without judgement, adjustments to how we run meetings or write job descriptions, mixed recruitment panels, a fairer process for pay increases – and above all, our leaders and managers starting to see that diversity of thought, in all its forms, is invaluable. As a result, our gender pay gap has disappeared, we have more women in senior positions, and staff turnover has halved. The way we work together has changed radically, and we are making better, more rounded decisions than ever. So we will not be joining the stampede of regressive businesses falling in behind Trump’s bullying rejection of DEI. Making the effort to listen and see the world through others’ eyes helped Riverford to become a stronger, more resilient business. I am not sure how we would have survived COVID without it. However, this is a journey without end; there is always more work to do. Co-owners across the business are driving us to keep improving – and we intend to listen to them. *Saturday March 8 was International Women’s Day - a rallying cry to act on women’s rights and move the world towards gender equality. #InternationalWomensDay #Riverford #Guysnews

We originally shared this post internally with our co-owners and thought it would also interest our wider LinkedIn community. Hear from John Richards, our Senior Farm Manager, for an update on a mild February. February is a quieter month on the farms, focused on harvesting winter crops and preparing for the new season, which begins in mid-March. This year the weather has been relatively mild in terms of temperature and rainfall with approx. 116mm of rain falling in Devon.   Sacrewell (Cambridgeshire Farm) has received around 42mm of rain. These drier conditions have allowed Neil to start ploughing the first early fields. Manure has been hauled in and stacked up, and machinery has been repaired and maintained. Meanwhile, Claudio and the team have been busy harvesting Leeks and Cabbage before the start of Cauliflower, Purple Sprouting Broccoli (PSB) and Spring Greens.   At Wash (Devon Farm), the Green Curly Kale and Winter Cabbage crops are nearly finished before the PSB and Spring Greens start to kick in. The team are currently focused on harvesting the Leek crop – good quality but rather low yielding this year, largely due to periods of poor growth and heavy weed competition.    Speaking of weeds, we’ve just taken delivery of the ‘Tickler’ - a new, bespoke machine designed to control small weeds on raised beds. It’s particularly useful for crops like carrots, parsnips, and, in our case, baby leaf salad.   Salad pack has maintained good quality and is now picking up in volume after a quiet January. Alongside harvesting and planting, the team also carries out routine cleaning and weeding of the tunnel crops which are multi cut. This removal of weeds and crop debris promotes fresh regrowth, making harvesting easier and maintaining quality. Winter is also a time to catch up on routine maintenance of irrigation equipment and the polytunnel structure.   At Norton ( Hampshire Farm) , it's quiet on the growing side, with Butterhead lettuce planted in early January now growing well and preparations underway for three tunnels of coriander to be planted next week. Alongside tunnel maintenance, labelling herb bags, and fixing/servicing machinery, Chris and Sam have been spreading 26 tonnes of high-quality green waste compost. This improves the texture and fertility of the chalky, flinty soil, making it richer and darker - easier to work and better for growing herbs, chillies, and lettuce. #Riverford #Farmupdate

We're #hiring a new Solutions Architect in Buckfastleigh, England. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Wisdom to live by: Freshly faked bread and supermarket sourfaux This week's newsletter is from Chris Young, who coordinates the Real Bread Campaign for Food and Farming charity Sustain. Don’t you just love Real Bread? The aroma, the taste, the texture. Just reading that, I bet you now fancy a golden slice of wholemeal toast, a chewy bagel, some pillowy naan… but where to get it? Convenience and affordability may lead you to a supermarket. There you might find crusty loaves stacked in wicker baskets or lined up on wooden shelves, ready for you to select and slip into a paper bag. Perhaps it’s a bit more expensive than plastic-wrapped-white-sliced, but why not? After all, the retailer is promising you traditional, wholegrain heritage wheat, artisan sourdough, pain rustique – all “expertly baked in-store today”. In truth, however, your freshly baked loaf could be a prefabricated industrial dough product, manufactured elsewhere (even overseas); it might include highly refined modern wheat flour, baker’s yeast and a cocktail of additives. It’s fine to use yeast unless the product is then marketed as sourdough – say no to sourfaux! It could also have been frozen, transported, then thawed and re-baked at a later date in the store’s ‘loaf tanning salon’ oven, merely to colour and crisp the crust, by someone who doesn’t have to know the first thing about making bread. How do they get away with it? While consumer protection legislation requires that food labelling and marketing must be honest and must not mislead, the terms above have no legal definition. Manufacturers and retailers can choose to make such claims and it’s unlikely that anyone will stop them. The law doesn’t require full ingredients lists to be displayed for food that’s sold unwrapped, either, so supermarkets typically decide not to share that information. We continue to lobby for an Honest Crust Act of updated and improved composition labelling and marketing standards, giving people the chance to make better-informed choices. For now, you could consider supporting your local Real Bread bakery, or ordering a loaf via your Riverford box. There are free recipes on our website (realbreadcampaign.org) if you want to BIY (bake it yourself), by hand or with a bread maker. #Riverford #Guysnews #Newsletter #ChrisYoung #Realbreadcampaign #Sustain

News from the farm: Partnerships & privileges In last week’s newsletter, I questioned who would do the work to regenerate our rural landscape, which has been degraded by a century of extractive farming. How can we welcome those who want to be part of the solution, but may lack the skills and understanding needed for the task in front of them? If you live in the East of England, most of the leeks, cabbages, and broccoli in your boxes come from our own Sacrewell Farm, Cambridgeshire. For many years, our farm manager, Nigel, was supported by a team of skilled, reliable Bulgarians and Latvians. In the years after Brexit, despite having the right to remain, they felt increasingly unwelcome in the UK – and last autumn, they returned home. They are proving hard to replace. There is some truth in the oft-quoted moan that “Brits just don’t want to do the work.” The gulf between modern expectations of work, and the brutal reality of an eight-hour day in a wet, windswept field with mud clinging to your boots, seems almost unbridgeable. But equally, a food system that depends on an underclass of labour, flown in to do the jobs we are no longer willing to do, is unsustainable and morally questionable. There is a new, purpose-led generation of Brits who want to join our industry, but are put off by the commercial challenges of farming at scale – as well as a lack of training opportunities and access to land. Interestingly, very few new entrants want to be commodity food producers, supplying the supermarkets. Instead, with the benefit of an outside perspective, they often spot different opportunities, which those who grew up on isolated farms may miss. Some of the most innovative and inspiring modern farms have arisen from combining the skills and expert insights of those born to farming with the challenging vision of new entrants. British farming can only be strengthened by the diversity of this new generation – however impractical some may seem initially, before they have a chance to learn. Farming too often provides poor financial returns, but many of us enjoy our daily autonomy, and the pride and sense of purpose that come with such tangibly useful work. I hope that in the future, more new entrants are able to discover these privileges, with the support and guidance of experienced farmers. We all – including our landscape – have a lot to gain from the partnership. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eCcAG6UD #guysnews #newsfromthefarm #riverford #farming #wickedleeks