Glasbren (the Welsh language word for ‘Sapling’) was founded to offer accessible pathways into permaculture skills, nutrient-dense local food and to explore the role community-scale farms could play in ecological, social and cultural regeneration.
In its first years, it established a 3-acre, holistically-designed, living landscape of food, from which it fed up to 50 households weekly through a Community-Supported veg box scheme.
Through the pandemic and a cost-of living crisis, it partnered with organisations including Social Farms and Gardens, UWE Bristol, the local council, food bank, charities and wellbeing hubs to pilot a solidarity veg box scheme and explore the role farms could play in tackling inequality, food poverty, waste habits and diet-related health issues. Glasbren offered free workshops, videos and resources in cooking with the seasons and food growing, also engaging children and local schools. Through this, it has organically nurtured an engaged permaculture community-of-practice through regular and open communication, volunteer programmes, community events, feasts and open days and through nurturing strategic partnerships, locally and nationally.
In 2023, the organisation was selected to become the long-term guardian of a 134-acre National Trust farm with a mandate to work for nature, people and the planet. The new site is just nine miles from the original farm and, drawing on its existing community network, Glasbren plans to create a community hub, an accessible and secure source of local food, and to become a beacon for what farms like this could be as vehicles for regeneration.