16/08/2026
People come to the farm for all sorts of reasons, and some stories are just so incredible - Leyla's is one of these! If you're considering coming along to The Community Farmer Days with your kids this season then take a read and then book onto the next farmer day on Sat 22nd August!
"I started coming to the Saturday Community Farmer Days with my mum and sister when I was 9 years old. I loved the days at the farm, getting stuck into the work, surrounded by a lovely community energy with lots of people of all ages working together. At the end of a day, we would look at a huge field completely transformed by our work; I felt powerful and that together we were making a huge difference. The people we worked with became our community and our friends. We would see them each time we came back and make new friends too. Whether it was throwing squash down huge lines of people into crates, or shovelling mulch into wheelbarrows to spread onto beds, I absolutely loved it. This was also the place where I fell in love with the countryside (having lived in Bristol), exploring badger setts, trying to catch field mice, and climbing the apple trees to try and reach the best apples for harvest. I also loved the big shared lunches where we could all relax and chat with each other, and then the feeling of leaving, feeling satisfied with a good day's work and covered in dirt, and then going home to our special Saturday pizza night evenings.
Volunteering at the farm as I grew up shaped the way I related to the land and to nature. I knew that the natural world was what I was most passionate about, so I took Environmental Science at university. As I started to explore the conservation sector, volunteering with lots of people outside was exactly where I was happiest, and my remedy for all the difficult content I was learning in my lectures. I slowly started to realise that the farm had a larger impact than I realised. I graduated last year, and a few weeks ago got the news that I had my first full-time paid job, as a conservation ranger for the Bristol water reservoirs, situated directly opposite the farm. So now I get to work in the same area and feel at home in my new job!"
