We can’t help but think about what we’re going to do for energy when it’s getting so expensive. Instead of burning oil and gas, we’re looking at other ways to keep the lights on and keep warm, and we’re setting up more and more solar panels – a few of our buildings are now self-sufficient in solar energy, and we use 100% renewable energy when we have to buy it in.

elephant grass for our boiler

We’re now in our third year of growing miscanthus (elephant grass) which we use to heat a building where lots of us work. We planted out a couple of our fields where the soil isn’t so good because the miscanthus is pretty easy to grow. Another good thing about it is that the rhizomes grow more and more shoots each year, so you only have to plant it once.

In the autumn the leaves drop off, giving the soil some mulch to help it along, and at the end of the winter we harvest the stalks. Then the plants get shredded and left to condition in a barn we’ve built for it, and there are special air pipes under the pile to keep it cool and dry. When the miscanthus is dry enough, a tractor takes a trailer full of it and drops it into the special boiler we’ve fitted to our building.

It’s a bit of an experiment because not many other people are doing it (we have compared notes with a few other adventurous souls though) – but, touch wood, it seems to be working…

solar panels for our milk bottling plant

Some good friends down at our milk bottling plant near Crewkerne in Somerset are getting very excited about renewable energy. For starters we’ve helped them fill an 8-acre field with solar panels which power the building and the machines inside it.

“That’s a blot on the landscape,” you may be thinking – but our friends worked closely with the local council to choose a field that’s tucked away a bit. They also spaced the panels out and lifted them up a bit so that they can bring rare breed sheep in to graze in the field too. The combined sun and shade creates two environments, which we’re told is going to be even better for biodiversity than the field was before.

So: free electricity from the sun, a better environment for wildlife, and you can still use the field as farmland. That floats our boat. It could also be a great opportunity for farmers to diversify.