Meet the Team

Name: Freshford Community Farm
Address: Friary

Elli Bate

Elli lives in Friary and is an enthusiastic, but not very methodical, veg grower. She is a chartered accountant specialising in small companies and not-for-profit organisations, currently working for the Soil Association. She is a councillor for Freshford parish council with responsibility for the climate and nature emergency.

Clare Hanwell

Clare has dedicated most of her career to working with children, first as an early years kindergarten teacher and later as a nanny. For the past six years, she has worked with families in Freshford.

Embracing her enthusiasm for sustainability, Clare designed and built her own off-grid eco Tiny House, where she currently resides. She also ran an organic fruit and vegetable home delivery service in Surrey for four years and spent eight years working with fresh food growing community groups in Australia.

Clare is passionate about connecting children and families to the joy of growing, harvesting, and enjoying the food they cultivate together.

Paul Jupp

Following a long career in the horticultural industry, Paul started Meadow in my Garden in 2011, and since 2020 has been running it with partner Loulou from their cottage in Sharpstone.

Meadow in my Garden is a community interest company, born out of a growing awareness and interest in the state of nature in the context of a nature (and climate) emergency. Its mission is to galvanise public engagement and action in the drive to reverse the decline in nature
across the UK. Through the sale of seeds online and at gardening events, Meadow in my Garden generates a modest income which enables work on important projects across the South-West.

Tania Pascoe

Tania has lived in Freshford for 16 years, a passionate gardener, food and biodiversity advocate. She had a career in sustainability consultancy before co-founding award-winning Wild Things Publishing with her husband. She enjoys being part of many nature-focused community work groups.

Jake Westmoreland

Jake lives in Friary and is a keen grower and gardener, growing fruit and vegetables year-round in his no-dig kitchen garden. He is passionate about transforming the way we grow food to promote food sovereignty for local communities and to ensure food is produced in greater harmony with the natural world.

A chartered accountant, Jake has co-run a sustainable lingerie brand with his wife, Georgia, for the past seven years. He is also currently Treasurer for Freshford Preschool.

Loulou Brouard

Loulou has lived in Freshford since 1985 and enjoys cooking and gardening as a way to connect with community and with nature. She has previously worked with children, teaching woodwork and pottery and as a forest school leader. In 2020 she joined Paul at Meadow in my Garden, a community interest company, promoting their love of flowers for biodiversity.

Debbie Nielsen

Debbie grew up in Copenhagen and has spent the last 20 years in London’s creative industry, running her own retouching studio. In 2020, she completed her herbalist and naturopathic studies, which led her to move to Freshford to pursue her passion for nature, health, and herbs.

Lewin Nicholas

Lewin has been establishing and co-creating gardens for almost 20 years. He specialises in wildlife & edible gardening and land management, offering design, consultation and maintenance services.

Lewin designed and established a market garden as part of a former role as an estate manager at a center for health and well-being. He is currently developing two properties in Freshford and establishing an edible food forest & market garden in Semington.

hello@freshfordfarm.org