Past Collaborators

Past Tutors & Facilitators

Caroline Aitken

Caroline Aitken is a permaculture teacher and designer and director of Whitefield Permaculture courses and design consultancy. She teaches and speaks at venues around the UK and is passionate about soil regeneration, agroecology and healthy, sustainable food. She has previously worked in horticulture, small-scale farming, green catering, illustration and design. Her current work involves designing permaculture and agroecology systems for farms, estates and eco villages, and she was the Programme Development Lead on BSc Regenerative Food and Farming at Schumacher College, Dartington. Caroline currently lives on a smallholding with her family on the edge of Dartmoor, Devon where they produce fruit, vegetables, honey, eggs and firewood for their home. She trained and worked with Patrick Whitefield (author of The Earth Care Manual) for several years and co-authored Food From Your Forest Garden with Martin Crawford. She is currently completing a PhD. (Permaculture Design / Forest Gardening)

Scott Baines

Scott Baines began to learn earth and survival skills in the wilds of Scotland, Canada, USA, Sweden and Norway. Being in contact with First Nations and Sami brought him a realisation spiritual and physically. This learning led him to the (early coined name) Rewild movement where he joined a collective and formed a tribe living in the wilderness in Scandinavia from here they organised DIY wilderness gatherings to create an environment for learning to happen. He returned to the UK to study sustainable land use, with leading Permaculture and Arborist teachers. Naturally through the Arboculture learning, Scott was drawn to Forest Gardens and Agroforestry systems, he went on to work on many different community projects in creating edible landscapes. (Woodland Management)

Ben Gibson

Ben Gibson is the founder and head grower at The Fungi Folks, a mushroom farm nestled in the hills of South Wales. He was initially captivated by the medicinal potential of many native fungi, and has since fallen deeper down the Fungal rabbit hole progressing from his bedroom cupboard laboratory onto the farm where he now runs The Fungi Folks. (Mushroom Cultivation)

Alice Cutler Clarke

Alice Cutler Clarke has around 20 years experience working for social and environmental justice and is interested in how people can work together collectively. She co-founded of Trapese Popular education collective, Do It Yourself, Handbook for Changing Our World. She worked at Bristol Refugee Rights for 11 years where she was Head of Services. She has just completed an MSc in Public Health and is now working with Kindling on violence prevention programmes. She is also on the board at Windmill Hill City Farm. She has lived for ten years in housing cooperatives in Bristol. (Co-ops)

Brian Williamson

Brian Williamson has been leading the coppice restoration program in Westonbirt, National Arboretum for the past twenty years, having started his coppicing life as a full-time hurdle maker and charcoal burner. Previous to this he worked in mainstream forestry and wildlife conservation. He was a founder member and early Director of the National Coppice Federation (NCFed) and regularly leads workshops and seminars on the benefits of coppicing'. (Woodland Management)

Sophia Foster

Sophia Foster has over 20 years work experience of project development work with marginalized groups. Designing projects, such as, an inner-city health project, social and therapeutic growing projects, and community art projects. For the last 7 years she has worked with a grassroots land-based community of people in recovery who use their Lived experience to shape the solutions needed to create change and sustain a culture of wellbeing. She is passionate about co-designing structures and processes needed to support healthy collaborative working within horizontal groups, and the development of collective social and ecological skills needed for a resilient future. She is often to be found participating at The Haven. (Community Engagement)

Ruby Scott-Geddes

Ruby Scott-Geddes is a foraging teacher, multi-disciplinary artist and creative educator currently based in Bristol, UK. Their foraging workshops share knowledge of wild food, medicine and craft, and nurture creative and personal connection to nature: "I think there’s a lot of power to be found in foraging and spending time in the natural world: it’s a source of rest, community, inspiration, and can be a reckonable act of resistance against oppressive systems that seek to dominate through division. Spending time within –and as part of– entangled ecologies reminds us we are whole, and allows us to imagine and to create more liberated futures." Ruby also works as a freelance mycological & botanical illustrator, creating illustrated foraging ID posters and other printed goods, and works by commission for organisations dedicated to social and environmental justice. (Foraging / Creative Practices)

Joey Callender Wood

Joey Callender Wood is a chef and social enterprise co-ordinator, supporting and training refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, people experiencing homelessness and mental health difficulties, in kitchen settings. She has seven years experience working as a chef and baker in commercial and community kitchens, as well as project, volunteer and event management. As a socially and environmentally conscious chef and teacher, she is keen to continually learn and improve practices at the grass roots level to work towards sustainable and just food systems for all. She is Community Food, Volunteer & Engagement Manager for Coexist Community Kitchen. (Fermentation / Community Engagement)

Yaz Brien

Yaz Brien has been involved in grassroots organising and social movements in the UK and Americas for over two decades, bringing a queer, anti-racist and feminist perspective to all the work they do. They hosted a radio show on Bristol’s Ujima Radio for 5 years with a focus on active hope - covering topics related to the many intersecting crises we face, but rooted in conversations with people taking action within their local communities. Since 2019 they have worked for Transition Network to amplify stories of community led change from all over the world. (Transition Towns / Collective Visioning)

Brithdir Mawr Community

Brithdir Mawr Community Stewards of a 80 acre farm, they aim to live their lives working with, rather than against nature: they keep goats, ducks, chickens and bees, they produce fruit and veg in poly-tunnels and gardens working to organic principles. They coppice wood for fuel, bake bread, preserve produce, and use their own materials such as wood and willow for craftwork. They take care of the land, recycle and conserve resources. They use compost loos and are off the grid for electricity and water. This community are currently in a period of transition. (Permaculture / Living in Community)

Natalie Baker

Natalie Baker is a highly talented living willow weaver from the Willow Bank. (Living Willow Installer)

Chris Vernon

Chris Vernon has previously worked as a climate scientist with the Met Office, he is a chartered engineer, member of the Institute of Physics and holds a Ph.D. in glaciology focusing on the Greenland ice sheet. Chris also holds masters degrees in computational physics and Earth system science, and studied energy systems and environmental decision making with the Open University. He now lives with his partner and two children in West Carmarthenshire on a One Planet Development in a self-built, off-grid, zero-carbon house. They produce seed commercially, have a two acre orchard, keep bees, chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks. He is also a director of Cwm Arian Renewable Energy and Wales Seed Hub and a member of One Planet Council, a voluntary organisation which supports and promotes the One Planet Development policy. (Permaculture Homestead)

Nicky Scott

Nicky Scott is a founding member of Proper Job, one of the UK’s first community reuse centres nestled on the northeast edge of Dartmoor in Devon established in 1995. They are a Charity that aims to keep reusable items away from landfills, by putting them on sale in an Aladdin’s cave of pre-loved treasures. Nicky is on the CitCN (Composting in the Community Network) and has been supporting community composting since 1995 and specifically in-situ composting of food waste with school kitchens and businesses since 2005. Nicky has designed, lectured and spoken at many conferences about small-scale composting systems. He’s authored various books - mostly on composting! He is the chair of Growing Devon Schools Partnership. (Composting)

Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton is a locally based forager and author. He's written a number of books including The National Trust's First Time Forager, the best selling Booze for Free and his spiritual, scientific and experimental delve into our past New Wild Order. He's been teaching on the Shift course for well over a decade and in Bristol for two, he specialises in teaching about the edible, medicinal and mixological uses of local, everyday plants and getting to know yourself through connecting with your local landscape. He's a keen and active member of the Association of Foragers and the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild. (Foraging)

Rowan Sawday

Rowan Sawday (Diz Undone) is a British rapper, poet and musician from Bristol, England. Though rooted strongly in hip-hop traditions, his work draws inspiration from old folk music, recognising the common ground shared by songs of the people from any point in history. Having struggled with his own mental health, which he spoke about publicly using his musical platforms, he now teaches and facilitates a Mixed Mental Arts™: seven week mental resilience course with Mycelium. (Regenerative Toolkit : Mind / Body connection and practices)