Our Story - Lives, Land & Lore
Willow and Lore is a farm business built from a small fifth generation family run farm, incorporating heritage experiences, a natural, grounding event space, camping accommodation options, a regenerative rare breed sheep farm and several small cottage enterprises revolving around traditional natural materials: wool, flax and willow.
We are husband and wife, Declan and Sabrina and few years ago, with two young children and another on the way, we decided that the stresses, strains and long hours of careers in engineering and social work were not aligned with the healthy and sustainable quality of family life we aspired to and with how we wanted to raise our family. We decided to take a side step onto another path, and set about building a business and making a living from our smallholding . . . you know, because starting a business doesn’t have any stresses, strains or long hours! . . . Now we are here when the kids get home from school, we are raising them free range, lots of fresh air and muddy hands and they are part of the team at Willow and Lore, learning lessons not taught in the classroom.
When we took time to properly think about it, we realised we had been missing something in our careers so far, we took this opportunity to consider what is truly important to us, what is worthy of our time, energy and resources and that gives us fulfillment in return. We came up with three things – lives, land and lore . .
. . . or to put it another way:
We aim to support the well-being of our community. Among other initiatives, we have set up the local community based not-for-profit Tenth Glen Heritage Farms www.tenthglenhf.co.uk and continue to support this project through provision of space and other resources.
We are passionate about demonstrating that heritage farming is sustainable, regenerative and community supported farming: low food miles; fresh local produce; non-intensive and diverse. Farming with the land, not on it. Read more about our commitment to the environment below
We’ve built a business around preserving our local farming heritage and traditional skills. We adopt traditional farming methods, crops, breeds and equipment, we promote traditional skills and crafts, and we share opportunities for the public to learn about and connect to our local heritage.
We feel very fortunate to have this little corner of the world to look after and we look forward to welcoming you onto our farm and sharing everything it has to offer with you.
Our Commitment to the Environment
As one of our 3 core values around which our business has been built, nature and environmental sustainability factors into everything we do and every decision we make.
Our sustainability pledge is to conserve water use, recycle waste, use renewable energy sources & protect our local flora & fauna, we regenerate our soils, increase biodiversity and support our local community.
The following are a few of the ways we have worked to fulfill this pledge over the last few years
We were one of the lucky first 10 organisations to take part in Co-operative Alternatives 2 year pilot Cultivating Community Farms program out of which the Tenth Glen Heritage Farms community project was formed. You can read the impact report from that pilot program here: CCF Impact Report
We were equally fortunate to be one of the first group of farmers on the Food, Farming and Countryside Commissions 3 year pilot NextGen Regen program and now operate a steadlily improving regenerative sheep farming model
We have also completed Tourism Northern Irelands Sustainable Business Pathway program which has helped us keep a handle on the environmental impact of our day to day running
All of the heritage farming experiences we deliver are designed around a central idea of demonstrating how traditional heritage based practices, tools, techniques and methods are not only relevant today but are low cost, easy, accessible ways of reducing food miles, eating healthy, reducing plastic waste, reducing our carbon footprint, caring for local biodiversity, getting more fresh air and exercise and mindfully maintaining our mental health.
Everything you will see or touch on the farm has been restored, recycled, upcycled, reused or reimagined, we are avid utilisers of local marketplaces, auctions and the International Synergies industrial waste resource matching service
Whether through hosting Tenth Glen Heritage Farms events and activities, holding regular free community coffee mornings during the summer or local schools outreach we are continually committed to providing our local community with access to green spaces.
We are very pleased to be part of a movement to regenerate Irelands natural fibre industry as part of an unofficial collective of farms, not-for-profit bodies and individuals, come together to grow and process flax into linen fabric and promote this environmentally sustainable alternative
As far as possible we will always buy from and partner with other local businesses. We also operate an ethical pricing structure allowing underfunded groups and projects and less well off individuals to benefit from the generosity of those with a little bit more to spare.
We take a lot of pride in being able to say that in supporting us with your business you will also be supporting our local community and protecting our environment.