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@madd_maiden

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———Tending to the land as the land tends to me…
✊SW Member Organiser @landworkersalliance
🧑‍🌾Agroecology Student @apricotcentre

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Samhain is upon us, and all I feel is immense gratitude for the evenings darkening sooner, and the days slowing down.

I missed the variety in the seasons when I lived abroad✨ by @madd_maiden

SOUND ON for walking to the @apricotcentre 🔊😍 by @madd_maiden

I feel empowered✨✨✨I am still floating. I genuinely feel a physical and emotional weight has been lifted since shaving my head.

It’s insane that I have kept long hair due to patriarchal bs, due to things other people have said to me, thinking it’s what made me beautiful, says who!? Beauty standards are ridiculous. We are all beautiful, no one should be setting any sort of standards.

Honestly? I feel a sense of relief that I made this decision, shedding societal expectations and embracing change.

We are pressured by stereotypes. I was being told “girls should always have long hair”. I was being told “you look better with your hair down”. I was being told “your hair is your trademark”. This idea is rooted in patriarchal notions that define beauty through appearance instead of character or capability.

Let’s embrace our authentic selves, regardless of hair length…

I am celebrating a sense of freedom and all the weight that has been lifted✨ by @madd_maiden

@generation.soil ✊🍎🍆🍓🥒🧑‍🌾

A speedy example of Josh and I preparing the soil in the polytunnel at @apricotcentre ;digging up any perennial weeds then rotavating, once prepared, we planted out 4 varieties of PakChoi, sowed some Rocket and then set up the irrigation system. We put one Sumi soaker in the tunnel, this will promote any weed growth, then we can go in and gently hoe the beds in a week or two. by @madd_maiden

Year of the horse, am I right?!!!!

I quit my well paid full time job last year.
I adopted a dog.
I started studying about Agroecology.
I started making new super intentional friendships.
I started only doing jobs that were meaningful to the environment.
I had a deep revelation in therapy which opened up Pandora’s box - life hasn’t been the same since.
I started going into a bit of a meltdown about the world.
I started questioning what I wanted.
I started questioning who I was.
I completed the level 3 counselling course.
When will I be able to afford level 4?
Am I academic enough to be able to do level 4?
I became a members organiser for SW LWA.
I moved into my van with my dog.
My relationship ended.
My van has broken down almost every week since I’ve owned it.
I took a job that isn’t meaningful but brings in money to allow me to continue to go out for pints and treat my dog to high quality treats.
The regen ag. course is coming to an end in December.

Eyebrows raise when I say I want to work in agriculture - “you know there is no money in that?”. Yes, I do know. I am not driven by money, not everyone is. I am really trying to check in on my needs, check in to see if it’s the capitalism talking…

Living in many worlds in my head right now… My mind is going at a million miles per hour… some days I am spinning out… Unsure what direction I am actually going in in this time of massive transition, and that’s just in my own little bubble, what about the whole world?

There is this expectation (from that societal pressure) that I need to know what is at the end of all of this, where will I be? What will I be doing? Why do I actually need those answers? I am peeling back layers and layers of versions of me that weren’t me, they were learnt “truths” by society and patriarchal bullshit, others’ opinions or judgements… how on earth am I meant to say where I am going if I don’t know who I am, if I don’t know what MY beliefs are, and what I have been told to believe…
Whoever I am and where ever I go, I love you and I am proud of you taking yourself on this exciting journey. by @madd_maiden

A day in the life of Madds on the land at @apricotcentre

Healthy soil holds water. Bare soil bakes. This is why soil health is not a niche interest!!!

Something I feel like I am always talking about recently is GREEN MANURES, I think understanding that we should never have bare soil…and honestly, I think everyone who grows food, eats food and/or has land should know about this!!

Green manure is not manure in the way you might think, it is a crop you grow specifically to FEED THE SOIL.. the most important thing! You sow it, it grows and then you dig it back in or cut it down and let it decompose on the surface. That is it. At the Apricot Centre, we have cut it, left it and covered it with a tarp, leaving it for at least a month, then we will plant into that nourished soil. Green manure is almost FREE, almost effortless fertility!

We’ve used buckwheat and phacelia.

Buckwheat is a fast growing summer green manure. It does not fix nitrogen but it is brilliant at drawing phosphate up from deeper in the soil and making it available to the next crop. It also smothers weeds and decomposes quickly once cut.

Phacelia is another fast grower and one of the prettiest things you can sow on a bare bed… the bees absolutely love it!!! It adds organic matter, improves the soil structure, and works well on dry soils. At @grow_share_ we also chose beautiful phacelia as one of our green manures on the empty beds..

Bare soil loses carbon. It erodes. It loses fertility with every heavy rain. A green manure keeps the soil covered, alive, and working even when nothing else is growing.

This is not a trick..! by @madd_maiden

A day in the life of Madds on the land at @apricotcentre

A few weeks ago at the Apricot Centre we were prepping the polytunnels, barrowing in compost and getting beds ready for planting. Simple, physical, very important, and in my opinion, extremely satisfying work! AND LOOK AT THE WORMS in this delicious compost

Ever since getting really into growing, after going on a weekend course with @charles_dowding about 4 years ago I started learning the importance of good compost…

Good compost is alive. Finding worms in your compost is a really good sign. It means your compost is alive and working well. Worms, bacteria and fungi breaking down organic matter and turning it into fertility.. yay! That process is the carbon cycle in action!!! In every unit on the level 3 course at the Apricot Centre we talk about the carbon cycle in one way or another… it’s an important thing to be constantly considering. It is thought about a lot in regenerative agriculture… Carbon that was once a plant returns to the soil and feeds the next one. Nothing wasted… why aren’t we all thinking like this?

Getting the beds right at the start of the season is setting yourself up for the best results you can offer. This means the plants have everything they need from day one. Healthy soil, healthy roots, healthy food.

Beds are filled. Tunnels are ready. Let’s grow. Yeeee🪱🌿 by @madd_maiden

It’s a quiet act of resistance…Against systems that have told us who gets to take up space, who gets to have a voice, who gets to feel at home in their own body and in the world. by @madd_maiden

MY BEST FRIEND. by @madd_maiden

✨Grow Share Collective ✨ by @madd_maiden

A day in the life of Madds on the land at @apricotcentre !! 🌱👩‍🌾

“Seed is the first link in the food chain.” - Vandana Shiva 🌱

Spring has well and truly arrived and the focus of the afternoon this week was more seed sowing (of course!). There’s something special about this time of year… it fills me with enthusiasm…trays and polytunnels filling up, soil under my fingernails and the quiet optimism that comes with each teeny tiny seed✨

Sowing carefully into soil blocks and seed trays, thinking about root strength, good germination and giving each plant the best possible start. Heat mats are key for early sowings, helping maintain consistent soil warmth and encouraging strong, even germination …especially while the nights are still cool. We aren’t all lucky enough to have heat mats, but I would definitely invest in them if I had my own polytunnel!

THEN very importantly …it’s the daily rhythm of care: bottom watering the youngens and sprinkling the slighter older ones almost every day… bottom watering makes the seeds draw moisture up from below…It keeps roots searching downward and avoids disturbing delicate seedlings from above. Especially when they are tiny seeds that just have a sprinkle of soil on top!

Simple but important work!!! So much of the season begins with these small, patient acts. by @madd_maiden

I know I am on the right track when this is a day of work. I got rain, wind and hail, but it was beautiful ✨ by @madd_maiden