Since 2019, third-generation beef farmer Stephen Morrison has been on a journey. Stephen and his wife Heidi, an arts psychotherapist and artist, have transformed their family farm in Hartwell, Co Kildare into a site where people can connect to nature and one another.

“It’s a proper working farm, that’s the beauty of the place. We’re not shying away from the fact that we’re farming but we’re bringing in nature too,” says Stephen, who manages grass-fed cattle. “I don’t see this big divide between nature and farming. I think the two should work together.”

Stephen started the transition to organic farming three years ago and was appointed as an ‘Ambassador for Nature’ from the organisation Farming For Nature. Over the past year, Stephen diversified further, getting involved in social farming with Social Farming Ireland.

Social farming offers people who are socially, physically, mentally or intellectually disadvantaged the opportunity to spend time on a family farm and participate in activities such as gardening and planting. Social farms often place an emphasis on organic agriculture and the ecological value of the farmland.

Farming for nature

The training for social farming is a blend of online and in-person classes, ensuring that farmers have the appropriate policies and procedures in place. They are then linked up with a representative from an organisation in the health and social care sector.

“[They will] go to Social Farming Ireland to find a farm and then they’ll come down with people and walk around. I’ll explain what we would be doing and if they like that, they’ll come on board,” explains Stephen.

“Social Farming Ireland understands what farming is like,” says Stephen. “You obviously have to commit to it [the programme] but if there’s a serious thing going on the farm or the weather is bad, it’s flexible.”

“Friday is my social farming day because there isn’t cattle going to the factory.”

Stephen says what he enjoys most about social farming is seeing people “grow in confidence, learn a new skill and stay with the job until it’s done.”

The area on the farm that Stephen has designated for social farming almost feels like a community garden, with raised beds bursting with dark green kale and leeks and a polytunnel where tomatoes and strawberries grow during the summer.

“We put in a line of blackberries, elder, blackcurrants, raspberries, plum trees, cherry trees and apple trees, and we put a hazel hedge right round it,” says Stephen.

Stephen’s venture into social farming marries with his established and continuous commitment to farm in a conscious and sustainable way.

He has always been drawn to nature, a love passed on from his father who was a keen birdwatcher, but he says that the intensity of farming changed how he viewed the land.

“The whole drive was production, production, production. I just seemed to be producing an awful lot of slurry and I didn’t really like the farm anymore. It’s more than a field of grazing cattle, it’s a resource that can benefit people in lots of different ways,” says Stephen.

Another turning point was learning about climate change and the environment from his oldest son Ben who studied zoology at college.

The first thing I’d say is stop worrying about the neighbours’ opinion about you. Once you stop getting concerned about what everybody is thinking, it clears you up a lot

One of the first steps that Stephen took was to plant native trees and stop cutting hedgerows, which he describes as an “easy win” for nature. The farm now has around 18ac of native forestry comprising of rowan, thorn, hazel, oak and holly.

“If you were walking through Ireland thousands of years ago, these were the trees you’d see,” says Stephen.

Each part of the farm holds a memory, and the recently developed forest garden builds upon them.

“This was the paddock where the rams went all winter. Then we put up a set of football posts and the children used to play in here,” he says, pointing.

It is also where Stephen and Heidi got married 27 years ago.

Over the years Stephen has hosted farm walks for Bord Bia and Teagasc, including the visit of the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos and the United States Minister for Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. On walks, Stephen says it is the forest garden that “really gets people’s imagination going”.

“Every tree here is a fruit or a nut tree. Blackcurrant bushes, raspberries, plum, pear, apple, hazelnut, Spanish chestnut, birch – and the idea with the birch is we’ll start tapping them for syrup in a few years’ time. People remember having an orchard at the back of the farm but a lot of them are in disrepair.”

The Hartwell stream that flows through the farm is another nature haven. A rewilded river corridor, it runs alongside a wooden glen that Stephen planted as a teenager and a wild bird area with cherry and hawthorn trees.

“If you come down here in May, the birdsong is just incredible,” says Stephen. “For me, it is a nature super highway. I saw my first kingfisher here last year.”

Stephen has fenced off the watercourses on the farm, which he writes about in his contribution to The Farming for Nature Handbook.

At the top of the farm, where Stephen keeps his nine Highland cattle, he has dug out a network of ponds to provide a habitat for aquatic species. “It’s a very important environment,” he says. “It’s got well over 30 mosses and lichens.”

Health and wellbeing

Separate to the social farming, but nonetheless mirroring its vision, is Soearth Projects – a mental health wellbeing service founded by Heidi.

“We bring creativity and nature together for wellbeing and health,” she says.

For four years, Heidi has ran programmes for healthcare professionals or charity bodies, like Embrace FARM, allowing groups to experience the farm. She also runs self-care days, wellness walks and weekend retreats, and has her own private practice.

“Anything sensory, anything tangible helps people to relieve stress straight away and then it helps them to open up, share and reflect,” says Heidi.

“Environmental art therapy uses nature to connect in with a person’s thoughts and feelings.”

Soearth Projects

The Soearth site is purpose-built for indoor and outdoor workshops, with huge glass panelling.

“The concept is just to be inside feeling like you’re almost outside — but to have a bit of heat,” says Stephen.

The focal point of the space is the roots of a pine tree hanging from the ceiling, which the family excavated during the pandemic.

Stephen and Heidi have a compelling vision for their farm in Kildare, with plans to create a wetland area and build an art studio in the yard.

For those new to the arena of social farming, it might seem far-reaching, but Stephen says that any farmer can become a social farmer.

“The first thing I’d say is stop worrying about the neighbours’ opinion about you. Once you stop getting concerned about what everybody is thinking, it clears you up a lot,” he says.

“I’ve had chats with different people on the same journey as myself and the first step that you take is the hardest. After that, it gets easier and easier.”

“The main thing to get your head around is it’s not us and nature. We’re a part of it,” he says.

“But really you’ve got to be thinking about the next generation and the ones after that and what you’re going to leave behind you.”

Social Farming Ireland is a national network which aims to progress the commissioning of social farming so it becomes an established and accessible support for people across the country.

Irish Country Living speaks to Helen Doherty, the national coordinator for the Social Farming Ireland programme.

“Social farming offers people who have disadvantages of any description, be them social, mental, physical, the opportunity to spend time on an ordinary working farm for the therapeutic benefit of being on that farm,” says Helen.

Participants usually attend one day per week for an average of ten weeks.

Helen says uptake from farmers and the health and social care sector has been huge.

“There’s absolutely a growing interest in social farming because the outcomes that are being delivered for people are fantastic and it has been transformative for some people, changing the direction of their life. Going to the farm every week provides benefits that go well beyond the farm gate.”

Social Farming Ireland delivered placements to over 1,000 people in 2024.

Find out more about Stephen and Heidi’s work at soearthprojects.com and visit socialfarmingireland.ie.