Visit to Rhubarb Farm leaves gardening author awe struck

Gardening author, businesswoman and National Gardens Scheme (NGS) member Sarah Wint visited Rhubarb Farm in Langwith, on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border and was left awe inspired by the people she met there.

Sarah visited the Farm as part of her two-year tour of gardens which feature in the NGS Yellow Book of Gardens to Visit in England and Wales, in preparation for writing her new book on the restorative and therapeutic effects of gardening.

“I found the place totally amazing,” said Sarah, who spent most of a day talking to volunteers at the Farm; “Some of the journeys that people have completed since coming to the Farm are just incredible. I met Luke Kelly, a reformed prisoner and drug user who now works with convicts from Hatfield Prison that are on day-release to the Farm. Luke started out as a volunteer on the Fram and is now a paid full-time supervisor. He told me about his former problems and how the Farm had given him purpose in life, how he now wants to do nothing but help others who are in his previous position. He inspired me with his story of his granddad telling him that he should see life like a tool box, and how it’s up to him what tools he puts in it to get the job done. He has gained so much from working on the Farm and now wants to use his experience and skills to help others.”

Rhubarb Farm is a community-run enterprise that works with a wide range of young people and adults facing serious personal challenges. It offers training and volunteering opportunities to ex-offenders, drug and alcohol misusers, people with mental ill health, learning disabilities and teenagers struggling with behaviour problems, to increase their self-esteem, improve their lives and make a positive contribution to their community.
Jennie Street is Managing Director of Rhubarb Farm and says Sarah is just one of many people to have left Rhubarb Farm feeling inspired.

“We were delighted to share our experiences with Sarah and talk to her about the life-changing effects and positive outcomes experienced by the volunteers. We had a front-line child care social worker here recently who said everyone should have a Rhubarb Farm in their community,” said Jennie.

Rhubarb Farm was opened in 2011 with the aim of providing work placements, training and volunteering opportunities for people with long-term needs, through the medium of growing fruit and vegetables for market, which in turn generates income to support Rhubarb Farm’s work. From its humble beginnings in clearing a huge bramble patch, Rhubarb Farm now cultivates eight acres of land on which it grows over 35 different varieties of fruit and vegetables as well as rearing 100 hens which produce eggs for sale. Over 300 volunteers have come to the farm, of which 70 have gone on to gain employment or further education through the support they received from the skilled staff team. 

Horticultural therapy stretches back some 5,000 years and is known to have been used by ancient Egyptian physicians who were said to have suggested walks in gardens for their patients, while in the 14th century Irish monks prescribed time in the garden for those who were “troubled”. In 1798 the American professor of medicine Dr Benjamin Rush noted that “digging the soil has a curative effect on troubled souls”.

ENDS

Contact details: Rhubarb Farm CIC, Hardwick Street, Langwith, NG20 9DR
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rhubarb-Farm/222740847792024
TWITTER: @RHUBARBFARM1
Website www.rhubarbfarm.org.uk