February 2025
Many of you know Tablehurst Farm for our livestock, vegetable garden, farm shop, cafe, pie kitchen and care home. But how much do you know about the people who are at the heart of our operation?
In the first of our new “Meet Our Team” series, we will introduce you to someone who works at the very heart of Tablehurst Farm but visitors may not see or only catch a glimpse of (on a tractor) – our cattle farmer Robin Hall. Here you can read about his experiences and thoughts on biodynamic farming, and what it’s really like to work at Tablehurst Farm!
Hi Robin, can you start by telling us what you do at Tablehurst Farm?
I came to Tablehurst Farm in April 2024. My main job is looking after the Sussex cattle. My first part of the day is usually checking cattle and attending to their needs. They are housed in the winter for approximately six months. During this time, we need to bring them everything they need - food, bedding, water, minerals and rock salt. Some people might have seen the big lumps of Himalayan rock salt, which the cattle get through quite quickly. We have cattle in a few locations so my job involves a fair amount of driving around and driving different machinery.
Currently I'm not milking cows, although I did it for 10 years at Plaw Hatch Farm before I came here. My other tasks include processing chickens with the whole farm team once a week. I also provide some support to the sheep. Whenever animals need to be moved somewhere, it often needs two people. So I'll team up with Richard (our sheep and pigs farmer) for such tasks.
What inspired you to become a farmer?
I grew up in an agricultural area east of Edinburgh, surrounded by farming. My parents weren't farmers - they specialised in arts and crafts. When I was a child, I actually thought I'd been born into the wrong family because I didn't really care for the whole arts and crafts thing! I thought we should be farming as I saw it all around me, and they had big tractors which I thought were cool. When I left school, my stepmother had started a goat dairy so I started milking goats. I did that for about two years and then went to agricultural college. Unfortunately I soon lost interest because it wasn't an organic programme, which put me off quite a bit. I was having to do stuff that I really didn't agree with.
This leads nicely to the next question. What was your path to becoming a biodynamic farmer?
As so often happens in life, change came as the result of a crisis, and in this case it was the end of my marriage. I ended up moving into a caravan by my mum’s house and got a job on a Demeter certified vegetable farm in East Lothian, called East Coast Organics. They were using biodynamic preparations and I became curious about the practices, and wanted to go deeper into it. It felt like a bit of a mystery - and still does - because that's fundamentally what it is. But I'm okay with that and one sort of lives with that question. The effects of the preparations and the other practices can be discerned if you know where to look for it.
So I came to Emerson College to do the two-year full time training, and that was the first time I got to know Tablehurst Farm.
What do you find the most rewarding and the most challenging about your job as a biodynamic farmer?
Fundamentally it's about producing quality food without causing any harm. That's ultimately what any farmer should be expected to do. The communities that grow up around these farms are very interesting, with food being essential to everybody. I enjoy working with people who are experiencing the same fulfilment and satisfaction of doing something that has meaning.
As far as challenges are concerned, working outdoors in all weathers can be quite challenging. Because half the year you're in mud and the rest of the year you’re in dust! There are also increasing regulations that we need to satisfy, for example the monitoring that comes with selling raw milk.
People bring the greatest joy and the greatest challenge. At a place like Tablehurst Farm, you've got many people who are fully committed and dedicated to the areas where they work. There are so many components to this farm, and in each area are passionate people bringing different energies and different contributions to the whole. We’re all striving towards the same goal, but “abrasive” moments are inevitable. One of the things that's particularly enjoyable about this place is that many of us eat a good lunch together almost every day. The fact that we put our work aside and sit together to eat regularly is very unique.
It has been noticeable to me from the start that there is a generosity of spirit at Tablehurst Farm. There's an atmosphere of warmth towards people and having time for others, particularly for the three guys with learning disabilities at the care home. So I've been impressed by that.
What do you dream of seeing in farming and food production?
Small-scale or medium-scale mixed farming is not a new idea. It was what people did for centuries, before industrialisation and specialisation came along. Nowadays you have whole farms that are monoculture and use a lot of chemicals. So I would like to see more diverse, mixed farming operations, ideally biodynamic. This is because I think biodynamic farms differ from organic farms in that they bring with them a cultural impulse. With biodynamics, it is not just a method of farming. It's more than that. It's bringing something in culturally and socially. It’s more than growing crops and raising animals - it considers the vast cosmic implications of it all.
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