It is begging us, you see, in its wordless way to do something.

It is begging us, you see, in its wordless way to do something is a triptych made in collaboration with farmer Hannah Darby for Stories from the Fen Edge at Glatton Church. Cambridgeshire.

We spent a morning together on her favourite tractor drilling cover crops direct into stubbles just days after harvest. As we talked we wished for long absent rain and their success. Cover crops protect the ground over winter while also providing important nitrogen to the soil.
Soil is central to what Hannah is about, it’s what these drawings are about.
Rough Farm, before it was a farm, was a seabed or at least a boggy marshland. Drained, it’s now a permanently shrinking fertile, fragile, place of peat, rich in organic matter. A challenging and challenged land.
“The problem is it’s not meant to be farmed.”
The morning in the tractor saw us cut, by way of the drill, small grooves, less than 5mm deep, for tiny seeds. An action that hardly disturbed the soil but still caused it to billow.
“It just wants to blow away, we move it as little as possible.”
Hannah, unlike many others, is attempting something new though a collaboration – a working with the Fenland. Cover crops are one example. Another is Companion Cropping, where two relevant crops are grown together increasing biodiversity, improving soil structure and reducing the need for artificial inputs.
“Peas on their own fall over due to the wind. Oats act as a support, offering the tiny swirling pea fingers something to cling to. Both ripen at the same time, we combine them together”
Later, we scoop up handfuls of the harvest.  “Poats!”
It’s old wisdom, brought here by a woman who thinks and cares deeply. It’s not extractive rather a welcome, much needed, medicine.

Charcoal, carbon, pencil, pencil crayon, watercolour on Somerset Paper. 38cm x 56cm