Oxford Farming Conference to put farmers’ experiences centre stage

Hearing another farmer speak openly about their business can offer a perspective that is hard to find in the course of running your own.

Their circumstances may be different, but the questions are often familiar. How do you reconcile competing demands on the farm, or take a business forward when its future is bound up with the expectations of others?

See also: Oxford Farming Conference to question farmers’ mindsets

A long-standing highlight of the Oxford Farming Conference, the Inspiring Farmers session brings personal stories to the stage, with farmers sharing the challenges they have faced, the opportunities they have pursued and what they have learned along the way.

At OFC27, Ruari Martin will discuss bringing farming and environmental priorities together at Cumbria’s Castletown Estate, while Natasha Edwards will share her family’s story of developing The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight.

For Aberdeenshire’s Claire Rennie, building Summerhouse Drinks has depended on the skills and support within the farming family she married into.

Each offers a different starting point for exploring the conference theme of “Harmony”.

Food and environment

At Castletown Estate in Cumbria, Ruari Martin wants to challenge the idea that farmers face a choice between food production and biodiversity.

As farm and estate director, he oversees a business where livestock farming and environmental management are closely connected.

Situated between the Esk and Eden in the Solway Estuary, the farm includes extensive salt marsh alongside inland pasture, arable land and woodland.

Ruari Martin © Ruari Martin

That setting shapes Ruari’s approach to managing the land, with grazing livestock forming part of both the farming system and its environmental management.

“At Castletown we manage land for farming and environment as two sides of the same coin, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts,” he says.

“We are committed to finding the harmony within our diverse enterprise mix and not manage anything in isolation.”

At Oxford, he will explain how that approach works across the estate, considering the contribution of different enterprises to the wider business rather than treating each in isolation.

Shaped by generations

Natasha Edwards © Natasha Edwards

For Natasha Edwards, the story begins with her grandmother, Norah, planting garlic cloves in her Isle of Wight garden more than 50 years ago.

Three generations later, garlic remains at the centre of a family business that now encompasses growing, food products, a farm shop, restaurant and holiday accommodation, alongside livestock.

Natasha and her husband, Barnes, oversee day-to-day business operations. Other family members have developed their own roles, including managing the holiday accommodation and growing produce for the restaurant.

“I very much look forward to sharing our family garlic farming story, how we’ve diversified our business over the years and our specific context as a farm on the Isle of Wight,” she says.

The family’s approach to running the farm has also led it to pursue Soil Association organic, Pasture for Life and B Corp certifications. That experience prompted Natasha’s Nuffield Scholarship study into farm certifications, completed in 2026.

Her contribution will trace how The Garlic Farm has developed over time, offering a perspective on building a business whose identity remains closely connected to its crop, location and family.

Family support

Claire Rennie © Claire Rennie

When Claire Rennie began selling chocolate-covered strawberries after moving to the family farm in Aberdeenshire, it was the start of a business journey that would eventually lead to Summerhouse Drinks.

Developing products for farm shops brought her into contact with customers and helped her identify a gap in the market for craft soft drinks. She founded Summerhouse Drinks in 2014, with production still based on the family’s 400-acre mixed arable farm.

Claire’s marketing experience and her husband Ross’s accountancy and engineering skills have been central to its development. The opportunity came from what they knew and could do, rather than what the farm could grow.

At Oxford, she will also describe the family support behind that growth, from making room for an expanding bottling line to helping install conveyor belts.

She will discuss how the drinks enterprise supports the farming operation, allowing them to farm with environmental priorities in mind, including working with the RSPB to protect corn buntings.

“I am looking forward to being part of the discussion at OFC27 as it brings together different perspectives from across our sector,” she said.

OFC27 takes place from 6-8 January 2027. View the full programme and book tickets at ofc.org.uk