Ep. 033: An Agriwilding Evolution with Matt Swarbrick

Matt Swarbrick, a farmer in North West Wales, shares with us the journey of Henbant. Using the principles of holistic decision making and agriwilding, they’ve created a thriving ecosystem that enables them to produce delicious nutrient dense food and magical spaces for both people and nature. Enjoy Matt’s warmth and passion as he paints a picture of the beautiful world they are creating. 

Your Hosts:

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/
• Chloe Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloe-constable-24155821b/
• Website: https://www.grangeproject.co.uk
• Podcast Journey Page: https://www.grangeproject.co.uk/wilder-podcast

Grange Project Contact & Social Media:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grange.project/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/grangeproject
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GrangeProject
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/

Our Guest: Matt Swarbrick, Henbant

Matt Swarbrick is a permaculture inspired farmer at Henbant in North Wales. An ecologist and filmmaker by background he and his family and the Henbant team are on a mission to prove that with a small farm you can produce good food, financial profit, build soil and biodiversity, build a community and enjoy it all at the same time. Henbant has an 80 share CSA scheme and produces enough eggs, beef and veg for 80 local families from amongst a diversity of silvopasture systems. They are now working with the Wildlife trust to explore the space between ecologically intensive farming and maximum biodiversity enhancement; agri-wilding Henbant’s watershed. Henbant runs a range of courses in and is one of Europe’s leading models of small scale regenerative agroecology.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-swarbrick-322503289/?originalSubdomain=uk
• Website: https://www.henbant.org/

Listen out for:

[00:00:00] Tom and Chloe update on the project, focused on food production focused developments.

[00:06:48] Matt introduces himself and his background.

[00:12:30] Matt describes their journey to Henbant and the layout of the farm. 

[00:17:25] We discuss their approach; holistic decision making and the concept of agriwilding.

[00:24:33] Tom and Chloe question Matt about the food Henbant is producing including the importance of agroforestry.

[00:30:11] We discuss risk, entrepreneurship and the value of diversification.

[00:35:58] Chloe asks about how people are invited to join the system at Henbant.

[00:39:16] Matt tells us about the courses that are run from Henbant.

[00:43:42] We question Matt about the future vision for Henbant.

[00:47:40] Chloe and Tom reflect on the interview and what resonated most for them.

Mentioned in this episode:

Visit & Stay at the Grange Project

Would you like to escape the trappings of the modern world and wake-up in the morning to one of the best views in South Wales, where only the birds are noisy? We have two beautiful and sustainably built ‘tiny homes’, carefully located in secluded locations across our 80 acre rewilding project.

Visit Grange Project