The Farm
1,000 acres of agricultural land on the outskirts of oxford, serving the local community and the environment
The farm
How we farm
The most wonderful thing about farming is seeing the seasons change and watching something small grow into something delicious and nourishing.
At Rectory Farm we grow arable and horticultural crops over 1000 acres of land. The land in this part of the world is sandy at the top (by the PYO fields) but heavy clay at the bottom. Asparagus love free-draining sandy soil, and so we grow ours in the sandiest land (close to the appropriately named Sandhills area of Oxford).
We grow all our crops conventionally, using plant protection programmes when we need to produce the very best quality crop. We use a network of underground irrigation pipes across the farm which deliver water from our storage irrigation reservoirs to our potatoes, strawberries, raspberries and all our other PYO crops.
Environment
Across our farming practices we are working towards the NFU’s Net Zero goal (achieving a balance between the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere) by 2050.
We ask you to help us reduce waste by purchasing all of our fruit and vegetables: even the wonky ones taste just as good! We sell a lot of ‘seconds’ in the shop (like discounted trays of jam strawberries and raspberries) during the busiest cropping periods, and we also use a lot of ‘imperfect’ fruit in our café for smoothies and baking. Bring your own punnets and carrier bags with you whenever you visit, and only pick and buy what you need.
Across the wider farm we are planting hedgerows, grass margins and wildflower mixes to create more wildlife habitats for all creatures that call Rectory Farm home.
Our plans
Farm life never stands still, and we are constantly innovating and developing – all with serving and supporting the local community in mind.
We are currently planning to grow more flowers for PYO, and to continue to expand our range of food and drink from small, local producers in the Farm Shop. Underpinning all our projects and plans is our overall commitment to protecting this very special parcel of land for future generations.