It’s been a wonderful period of growth and change for The Fold. While you’re busy getting ready for the festive season, I invite you to sit down with a cuppa while reading about the exciting things we’ve been up to in 2025.
Before I begin, please note that the café and the rest of The Fold will be closed on Wednesday 24 December, so our staff can be with their families for the holidays. Most areas of The Fold, including the Veg Shed, will re-open on Monday 5 January, but the café will not re-open until Saturday 10 January. The car park will remain open for those who want to enjoy winter walks on the nature trails.
We’ve enjoyed some amazing successes in 2025, including the huge popularity of our Artisan Markets, held on the first Sunday of every month, offering a great selection of talented local artists and delicious food.
All year long we’ve been building a cosy vibe in our café and there is now a real buzz around our consistently delicious food, much of it grown here on the farm, alongside fabulous coffee and yummy treats. We’ve been so touched by the glowing reviews our customers have left us (“Beautiful people, beautiful ethos, wonderful food!”)
The Fold Community Farm has a new Head Grower! Jude brings a wealth of experience and is planning some fantastic new fruit and veg for 2026. We’re so pleased at the success of our onsite Veg Shed and customers are really enjoying the honesty shop experience. The farm team are building a refurbished glass house for more exotic produce and we’re planting some agroforestry out in the fields. This improves soil health while providing you with more fruit!
Volunteering is also growing at The Fold. Many new people are coming along to enjoy the benefits of growing good organic food together, and volunteers are also helping us care for the environment by joining our Nature Crew. Please do get in touch if you’d like to be part of our volunteering community.
As a not-for-profit organisation, embodying our values is at the heart of everything we do. On a daily basis, we support organic farming and nature regeneration, healthy and delicious local food, and wellbeing and creativity. Beyond this, we’re hugely proud to host training camps run by UK-Med, a humanitarian medical aid charity providing assistance in places such as Gaza and Ukraine. It’s a big honour to support this vital work. We’ve also served as a drop-off point for donations to Maggs Day Centre, supporting people who are homeless or vulnerably housed. Thanks to all of you for your generosity in supporting this initiative.
You may have noticed a few extra sales events in the Market Barn this year as we stretch our wings and try out new ideas. Alongside two popular Vintage Fayres, we hosted two Magic Print Fairs showcasing a wonderful range of print artists. We also held a huge jumble sale for Candy’s Hounds greyhound rescue, helping them cover their kennel costs for a whole year. And in keeping with our ethos of reduce, reuse and recycle, we introduced popular Second Hand Sales in the spring and autumn months which we’ll repeat in 2026.
In addition to all of this, we’ve been delighted to host a beautiful range of wellness and creative classes and workshops throughout the year. It truly warms my heart to see the variety of activities being offered at The Fold by such interesting and inspirational people. You can always find full details on our website calendar. We’ve also recognised a growing need for men’s spaces, and we are currently organising a range of free or donation-based offerings in the new year to address this gap.
We’d really like to add more children’s nature-based activities to the calendar in 2026, particularly during the school holidays, so if you’ve got some ideas, please email Jo at reception@thefold.org.uk
Our onsite retail and makers community has continued to grow, with new premises for sustainable soap maker Small Kindness, and we’re very pleased to welcome Wellth and Wild, a beautiful new herbal apothecary and natural health store. This is a wonderful complement to the therapies offered in our Natural Health Centre.
Finally, I am personally delighted to have been appointed Managing Director of The Fold. This has allowed our Founder, William Tooby, to enjoy sabbaticals in India and time to focus on his next project, Fold Granary. We hope to be selling his heritage wheat flour in the Veg Shed very soon! We’re deeply grateful for Will’s vision and years of dedication to our organisation, and he very much remains part of the Fold as a member of our Board of Directors. His talented wife Awantika has been teaching a range of Indian singing, music and yoga classes at The Fold as well.
All of this growth and change has kept our staff and volunteers feeling like busy bees in a very busy hive! I feel very honoured to be working with these wonderful people.
The biggest thanks goes to all of you for continuing to support our efforts at The Fold. Thank you so much for being part of our community and helping us fulfil our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and the planet. We send you our warmest wishes for peace, love, and joy this holiday season.
