Organic Food Production
From the early days when the founders grew extremely large vegetables in their modest family garden to today’s forest garden in the hinterlands of the Park, co-creation with nature and agriculturally productive ecosystems have always been at the centre of Findhorn life.
In 1994 a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme called EarthShare, based on organic and biodynamic farming methods, was established to increase the availability of local produce as well as to enhance the quality of our food. It was the first one in the UK.
Over 15 years the scheme expanded from 5 to 25 acres, including cooperating with Cullerne Gardens, the Findhorn Foundation's market garden. It spread over three sites, and provided much of the community's temperate vegetables to the Foundation’s kitchens as well as supplying over one hundred individual households.
Since Earthshare ceased to operate in 2010, other initiatives have sprung up to provide local and organic foods. A box scheme project – Roots Shoots and Leaves – recruits fruit and veg from a number of local growers and sells their produce in its online shop. The scheme takes weekly orders of what is available by Tuesdays and delivers on Thursdays.
Cullerne Gardens continues to grow food that goes primarily to the Findhorn Foundation kitchens at The Park and Cluny Hill; however, a large cart with surplus vegetables is frequently available at the top of the runway in The Park, for local residents to purchase by donation.
Furthermore cohousing clusters have shared gardens while many residents grow food around their homes.
