TUCKED away in the Tamar Valley, Goodh Life is a small farm producing high-quality food while looking after the land.

Run by Jade Anderson and Arthur Andrews, the farm is founded on a simple premise that food can be grown in a way that gives back more than it takes.

The name derives from the Cornish for wild, ‘goodh’ encompassing their approach to farming which combines food production with re-wilding.

Longhorn cattle and Tamworth pigs roam the land, using their natural behaviours to disturb the soil and help create a ‘woodland mosaic’; patches of pasture, young trees and shrubs that support a greater variety of wildlife.

As part of a Forest For Cornwall pilot project the farmers received financial and knowledge support to develop agroforestry alleys - a farming technique to plant rows of trees alongside arable crops.

They've also received stewardship funding to support their re-wilding work, but their vision for Goodh Life isn’t only about growing food.

Jade and Arthur are both trained teachers and run a number of educational projects with local schools and charities alongside the farming.

One project with the Real Bread Campaign gives schoolchildren the chance to take on a small patch of the farm and grow wheat, harvest and thresh it, and mill it to bake their own loaves.

They also host pupils from local primary schools through a partnership with the Bodmin-based St Barnabas Multi Academy Trust. Children spend a night on the farm, camping, picking vegetables, cooking together, and learning about the natural world.

Of course, none of this happens without selling their food to people, and one of the biggest challenges at the start was how to take food they were growing to local customers. That’s where not-for-profit local grocer Tamar Grow Local came in.

Through the Tamar Valley Food Hubs, Jade and Arthur were able to plug into an existing network of customers and support. They deliver their produce once a week, and the food hub takes care of everything else: marketing, orders and delivery, saving them time, but also giving them space to focus on the land, the animals, and their educational work.

“Tamar Grow Local is so good because it can take care of everything so we can think, learn and work,” Arthur said.

“The truth is, farming like this is hard work. It’s physically demanding and often undervalued.”

Jade and Arthur are open about the fact that it can feel demoralising when the time and care they put in isn’t reflected in the price food fetches.

There is however a lot to be proud of. Being outdoors, seeing the direct impact of their work and building something that reflects their values. And doing it in a way that keeps nature at the heart, and not as an afterthought.

“When people choose to buy local, they’re not just supporting a single farm,” said Jade. “They’re investing in a system that values food quality, land stewardship, and community over convenience and scale.”

Information on Tamar Valley Food Hubs can be found at www.openfoodnetwork.org.uk/tamar-valley-food-hubs/shop