Our
Story
Our
Story
Story
Henry and Leslie Astor met in New York City in the late 1990’s, married in 2001, and spent many years living in Brooklyn where they had three young sons. Eventually Henry felt the pull to return to the family farm where he grew up, and to raise his boys in the countryside he loved so well and roamed so freely as a child. In 2012, they returned to Bruern, where they settled into country life with aplomb.
In 2018, Leslie started Fifield Road Apothecary, making by hand a range of cold process soap and bath products. Concurrently she began to take an interest in local hedgerow plants, and started studying Western herbal medicine. Today she continues to make botanical, plant based skin care products, and also offers foraging walks and home medicine making workshops on the farm in her role as a community herbalist.
Henry, meanwhile, took the reins of the estate from his father. Working alongside Bruern’s longtime farm manager Matt Childs, Henry began to look at ways to diversify the estate. Today Bruern grows a variety of heritage and traditional grains; has a thriving farm shop and cafe; and has a flour mill that serves local bakers. Cottages on the estate are rented to families who live and work in the community.
Henry, Leslie and all who are part of their estate work to uphold the principles that underpin the ethos of the farm: building a healthy ecosystem in which to grow healthy food, and strengthening their ties to the local community by offering a place to eat, meet and engage in workshops and events.
How we farm
The land farmed at Bruern is split between permanent pasture, rotational pasture and a continuous cropping system with a living mulch understorey. We work with various partners in assisting and developing new schemes that help our soil to improve in its structure, therefore allowing us to produce healthier crops.
The majority of the permanent pasture is part of the flood plain for either the River Evenlode or Littlestock Brook. Historically it was classed as an environmentally sensitive area, latterly being managed as low input grassland under a Countryside Stewardship agreement. The flood plain is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The grassland is grazed with native Longhorn cattle and Dorset sheep. We work in partnership with other local producers who graze their cattle and sheep throughout the year, including two young farmers keen to build their livestock business. Giving others access to land is an important principle for us.
Over the past few years, we have been restoring some of the grassland to wildflower meadows with the help of Glorious Cotswolds. Glorious Cotswold Grasslands is an exciting and ambitious project which aims to create the largest network of wildflower-rich Jurassic limestone grassland in the country.
The rotational pasture is a mix of longer and shorter term herbal leys and shorter term hay leys. These have been added to the arable rotation to try and help improve soil structure and increase soil fertility. Integrating grazing livestock into the arable rotation will help increase soil health and carbon sequestration.
We currently grow wheat, barley, rye, spelt, heritage wheat, buckwheat, beans, linseed, sunflowers, peas and canary seed.
We follow conservation agricultural practices, with direct drilling, cover cropping and diverse rotation to help improve soils, reduce inputs and prevent the build-up of weeds, pests and diseases.
All work is undertaken in-house, along with contract farming agreements with neighbouring farmers.
