Operation Farm

09/11/2025

We are looking for up to 5 people to join us next growing season, either at Kindling Farm on Merseyside or at Kindling Market Garden in Gtr Manchester. We have full-time, part-time and seasonal Grower opportunities with both temporary and permanent posts. For more information visit: https://kindling.org.uk/news/join-our-growing-teams

13/09/2025

Today 👇 🍎 👇

03/09/2025

Apple pressing season is here and we’ve got everything you need to get started in our handy toolkit 🍎
The 12 page document includes:
• ✅ Box of Tricks Checklist – Make sure you’ve got all the essentials: press, scratter, buckets, muslin cloths, bottles, and more.
• 🧼 Fruit Washing & Sterilising Guide – Learn the best ways to clean and prep your apples to ensure a safe and tasty final product. From rinsing to sterilising techniques, we’ve got you covered.
Grab your kit, gather your apples, and let the magic begin!
Tag us into your event flyer and we’ll share for you.
Toolkit 👇
https://operationfarm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/community-apple-pressing-toolkit-1-web.pdf

15/08/2025

What happened to some of our Young Op Farmers?
Well here’s a special update…….

We’ll start with Rosie, (2nd from left) A levels in the bag, she confirmed her Technical Theatre degree at Lincoln Uni yesterday 👏
We all remember Eric, right? Second from right if you don’t know, well he’s just secured a place at Oxford no less, studying Law. Bravo 🙌
There’s Sara going into the 2nd year of her Graphic Design degree at Birmingham Uni 👏
And on the right there’s George, a 3rd year Environmental Science student at Stirling Uni 🙌

We once showed them how to bake buns and pick apples, now they’re carving out their own paths in the world. Watching them grow into who they are today fills us with pride🥹

Pic from Aug ‘23

14/08/2025

🍎 It’s a Cracking Year for Apples! 🍏
The trees are bursting with fruit and it’s shaping up to be one of the best apple harvests in years! Whether you’ve got a few trees in your garden or access to a local orchard, now’s the perfect time to get your community group ready for some good old-fashioned apple pressing.
To help you get started, we’ve put together a handy guide covering everything from gathering apples to pressing, bottling, and celebrating the season together.
Click the link below, we also have a limited number of paper copies too 👇
https://operationfarm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/community-apple-pressing-toolkit-1-web.pdf

21/06/2025

Plant sale over at Friends of Waterloo Park - Ashton today folks

05/06/2025

We're bundling up & sending out copies of Issue two of our 'Earth Up' zine, covering earth-friendly food growing practices for small scale growers. Over the next few weeks these should find their way to community growing groups and allotment sites in Tameside and a few further afield too :) There’s loads of great info inside from some brilliant contributors, all of who are involved in nature friendly community food growing around Greater Manchester.

Read about:
*Insights into the wider benefits of using a food waste composting system, by Raddon Stephenson from The Caritas Lalley Centre Allotment ;
*An inspiring account of sustainable resource use to develop the Our Space Garden at The Vale in Mossley by Jayne McLean Kremer;
*The whys and hows of seed swapping by Jo Payne from Platt Fields Market Garden
*Dan’s 10 Ds - top tips for apple tree pruning from Dan Hasler Manchester Fruit Tree Coop ,
*The benefits of growing annual veg in polycultures and one approach to doing it, based on a workshop by Teresa Pereira from The Northern School of Permaculture | Better by Design.

Huge thanks to all these amazing people who generously shared their knowledge and experience to help and inspire other small scale and community growers in using sustainable, earth friendly and often budget friendly practices, and to The National Lottery Community Fund for supporting the development and printing of this zine.

Printed copies will be limited once they've gone out to the various groups, but fear not ;) it's available to view online and to download to print at home via the Operation Farm website as well! Happy reading!📖🪱🦋🍎🌳🌿🥕🥬

31/05/2025

Operation Farm toolkits launched
This week we launched a suite of toolkits aimed at supporting community food organisations of all kinds to engage in projects and activities. The toolkits cover:

* Food growing
* Community kitchens
* Community apple pressing

They are aimed at a range of groups, from those just starting out to more advanced organisations and include checklists, starter guides, case studies and handy tips and advice. Authored by community cooking facilitator Ali Shockledge and community grower Anna Seward, they are a distillation of over 15 years of on the ground project delivery and experience.

Food is a common resource we all value and need and we really hope that with these guides we can inspire other organisations to use food as a channel to engage with all kinds of different people in their community.

Download the guides here: https://operationfarm.org.uk/2025/05/31/operation-farm-toolkits/

The guides are free to download and share, please credit us if you reference information and let us know how you've used them via email or social media.

Huge thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund who supported this work and thanks to everyone who contributed to the writing of the guides and all the activity that informed them.

30/05/2025

Thanks to everyone who came to the Zine & Toolkit Launch and End of Project Celebration last night, your support and involvement was very much appreciated!

We'll do a separate post launching the new publications but you can find them all on our website.

Here's some pics from last night.

28/05/2025

The zines and toolkits are back from the printers, they'll be available tomorrow evening!

28/05/2025