The Georgian Manor Estate Hotel and Home Farm Completes Three-Year Conversion to Holistic Approach to Agriculture.
Heckfield Place, the award-winning Georgian manor estate turned luxury hotel in Hampshire, England (about an hour outside of London), has achieved 100% biodynamic certification; becoming the very first hotel and farm estate in the United Kingdom to receive this designation.
This pioneering accreditation culminates a three-year process of conversion to biodynamics, an alternative form of agriculture that adopts a “closed loop” and holistic approach to farming–eschewing the use of chemicals to regenerate soil health to preserve the land for future generations, and to produce healthy and nutrient-rich foods. As biodynamic growers, Heckfield uses the cycle of the moon to determine when to carry out cultivations. For growing a root crop such as carrots, the team works when the moon is in an earth constellation (goat, bull or virgin). For leaf crops, such as lettuce and spinach, they cultivate when the moon is in a water constellation (crab, scorpion or fish). For flowers, the focus is when the moon is in an air constellation (twins, scales or water carrier) and to encourage fruiting, the moon will be in a fire constellation (ram, lion or archer).
Heckfield’s Farm now provides in myriad of ways for the hotel: from flowers, beautifully arranged by its floral consultant Kitten Grayson Flowers along with its in-house florist, to rotating arable crops and organic produce that inspire the seasonal menus at the hotel’s restaurants Hearth and Marle, led by Culinary Director Skye Gyngell, who champions a root-to-plate ethos.
In 2020, the Heckfield Home Farm opened its own micro-dairy to produce milk, cream and butter for the hotel and local community from the estate’s Guernsey herd, along with 90 sheep and 20 pigs. An average of 400 chickens and 20 beehives provides eggs and honey.
The farm serves as a shining example of the self-sustaining relationship between the land and the house and captures the essence of the hotel’s unique approach to luxury hospitality in its role as custodians for the 438-acre estate to ensure a sustainable future for the land on which it resides.
“Being certified as biodynamic allows us a clearer framework and positive intent; if we choose chemical-based agriculture as the program for our soils, we will destroy the very life we all depend on,” says David Rowley, Head Market Gardener, Heckfield Estates. “Alternatively, we can choose to feed our soils, encourage all the microbiology and the beings and cycles, seen and unseen, picture the farm 100 years in the future–what would we like our grandchildren to see?”
For more information about sustainability at Heckfield Place and its Home Farm, please visit their website.
ABOUT HECKFIELD PLACE:
A Georgian family home dating to the 1700s, Heckfield Place has been lovingly restored to its classic origins and rewoven into its surrounding 400 acres of farmland, ancient heather and woodlands. The estate’s farm, two walled gardens and orchards nourish renowned chef Skye Gyngell’s epicurean cuisine, bringing the outside gloriously into the property’s three restaurants–Marle, with its outdoor balcony overlooking the property, the Sun House, a unique space for up to 30 guests in the Upper Walled Garden, and the open-flamed Hearth. Aiming to be as sustainable as possible, the estate has a biomass energy center to power hotel water and central heating; an aerobic digester to process all recyclable waste and provide compost for the garden and pellets for the biomass energy center; harvest rainwater and capture spring water. As part of the Assembly, the hotel’s event rooms can host up to 120 guests and the new state-of-the-art, Dolby Atmos surround sound cinema can accommodate 67 viewers. There is also an extensive wine cellar and tasting room, as well as the full service Little Bothy Spa.
