Berry Coombe Farm

Jenny Morris farms the steep hills of Berry Coombe farm, around the north east edge of Dartmoor, where networks of tiny fields piece together the fragmented heaths, ancient woodlands and bronze age settlements that make up the moorland fringe. New to farming, Jenny set about recording what habitats were there and what was missing at Berry Coombe farm. She found some fields brimming with wildflowers and the butterflies and moths they support, while others had been depleted over the years.

With Farm Wilder, she is developing a plan of restoration and regeneration. In the coming years, she will put back more wildflower meadows, using seed from those fields still abundant and going further afield for rarer plant species missing from the farm. Where trees are absent and livestock are short on shade and shelter, Jenny will introduce agroforestry, recreating the open wood pastures that would have been a feature of the landscape many centuries ago.

Jenny keeps Welsh Black cattle and Dorset and Shropshire sheep, which have been bred to thrive on these kinds of of semi-natural pastures and withstand the wet and cold winters of West England and Wales. Grown slowly on a 100% pasture fed diet, the animals produce beef and lamb light in texture and rich in taste.