On the day we speak, Jane Scotter is in her flat near Heckfield Home Farm, on the 400-acre estate that supplies the renowned Heckfield Place hotel in Hampshire. “I’ve had a sort of change of life,” she says. “I’d been a consultant here for about six years when they offered me the position of head grower, and I thought, why not? I’d recently become a grandmother and needed to be in London a lot more, and I realised that my experience and expertise could be put to much better use here than digging leeks out of frozen ground.”
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She’s certainly done more than her fair share of that. In 1996, Jane left her job as a partner in Neal’s Yard Dairy and upped sticks to Herefordshire, where she bought Fern Verrow, a smallholding with a small farmhouse dating back to 1732, with the idea of growing fruit and vegetables. “It was a purely romantic notion,” says Jane. “I’d only ever grown houseplants before – and those, badly.”
Someone asked me the other day what I would do when I retire,” says Jane. “I’m never going to retire. Why would I stop doing something I love?
With no other income, there was no question that the plan had work, so she and her then partner set about figuring out how to farm organically. After a first season experimenting, they approached organisations including the Soil Association, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Biodynamic Association for help, and it was the latter that helped them most.
Based on Rudolf Steiner’s (of Steiner School fame) philosophies, biodynamic farming is not dissimilar to organic farming in its focus on soil and plant health, and biodiversity, but acknowledges that other elements – water, air, the sun, moon, planets and stars – play an important part too, and seeks to harness their effects.
“When you first read about it, it can sound complicated,” says Jane, “but I’m a very practical person and to me, it just makes sense. When you’re outside working with plants and seeing how insects and animals and the weather interact, it seems obvious that larger forces are at play. There’s always much more to things than we think.” Many of the processes required are deliberately slow and time-consuming, which Jane appreciates for the chance for reflection they afford. “You realise you’re part of nature and connecting with it,” she says.
Within three years the farm was Demeter-certified and Jane was driving down to London every Friday (an eight-hour round trip – “I don’t know now how I did that,” she says), to sell at markets there. Chefs and food writers, including Gardens Illustrated columnist Nigel Slater, were soon waxing lyrical over the vitality and vigour of her produce – a seasonal beauty parade of cabbages and radicchio; rhubarb and tiny broad beans and an enormous variety of squash and apples, to name but a few.
But it was tough going. Jane was working seven days a week; the weather was a constant trial and there were other challenges too. “If there was a protest march and London Bridge was closed, which happened not infrequently, people couldn’t get to the market and I’d be left with unsold stock,” she says.
You realise you’re part of nature and connecting with it.
Then, one day in 2014, she received a life-changing phone call from vegetable-led chef Skye Gyngell. Skye, formerly of Petersham Nurseries and then just starting out at central London restaurant Spring, was looking for a farm with which to work, in the way that Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in California had pioneered. “It was quite amazing,” says Jane. “I loved Skye’s approach, and she just wanted me to do what I’ve always done – and she promised to buy it all.”
Skye – also culinary director at Heckfield Place – is the reason behind Jane’s latest role, and over the years the pair have developed an extraordinary connection that goes far beyond most chef-supplier relationships. “We have very similar thoughts on quality, beauty and the enjoyment of working hard and doing something fantastic,” says Jane. “I grow things I think Skye will like that I know she can’t get anywhere else, and she sends me pictures of something she’s just discovered and asks if I can source seeds. We call it the ‘fairy dust’ – that extra little something, like white strawberries, green peppercorns or three-coloured amaranth.”
Thanks to Jane’s direction and input, Heckfield Place was certified biodynamic in 2020 (the UK’s first hotel to be so) and she’s clearly buzzing at the opportunities her new role affords. “Just as at Fern Verrow, we’re striving to be the best biodynamic farm in the country – not to beat anyone else, but because that’s what we’re passionate about,” she says. “We’re looking at converting more land, injecting more colour and beauty into the landscape around the farm, and training and development for the team, which is just wonderful.”
Slowing down is clearly not on the cards. “Someone asked me the other day what I would do when I retire,” says Jane. “I’m never going to retire. Why would I stop doing something I love? The newness – the first potato, the first tomato – the thrill of looking at a field of healthy, beautiful plants; it never gets old.”
Useful information
Jane teaches a course on growing produce at createacademy.com. Find out more about her work at heckfieldhomefarm.com
