Meet the Team
Elli Bate
Elli lives in Friary and is an enthusiastic, but not very methodical, veg grower. She is a chartered accountant specialising in small companies and not-for-profit organisations, currently working for the Soil Association. She is a councillor for Freshford parish council with responsibility for the climate and nature emergency.
Clare Hanwell
Clare has dedicated most of her career to working with children, first as an early years kindergarten teacher and later as a nanny. For the past six years, she has worked with families in Freshford.
Embracing her enthusiasm for sustainability, Clare designed and built her own off-grid eco Tiny House, where she currently resides. She also ran an organic fruit and vegetable home delivery service in Surrey for four years and spent eight years working with fresh food growing community groups in Australia.
Clare is passionate about connecting children and families to the joy of growing, harvesting, and enjoying the food they cultivate together.
Fiona Firmin
Fiona has lived in Freshford since 2013. She loves being outside in the natural world and is an enthusiastic grower of vegetables and fruit.
After a career in Nursing and Health Visiting she moved into Therapeutic Horticulture to follow her passion. She worked on a Horticultural project with rural homeless and vulnerable adults, growing vegetables and flowers for subscriptions before retiring in 2022.
She is a great advocate for the positive effects of working outside on our health and wellbeing.
Tania Pascoe
Tania has lived in Freshford for 16 years, a passionate gardener, food and biodiversity advocate. She had a career in sustainability consultancy before co-founding award-winning Wild Things Publishing with her husband. She enjoys being part of many nature-focused community work groups.
Jake Westmoreland
Jake lives in Friary and is a keen grower and gardener, growing fruit and vegetables year-round in his no-dig kitchen garden. He is passionate about transforming the way we grow food to promote food sovereignty for local communities and to ensure food is produced in greater harmony with the natural world.
A chartered accountant, Jake has co-run a sustainable lingerie brand with his wife, Georgia, for the past seven years. He is also currently Treasurer for Freshford Preschool.
Debbie Nielsen
Debbie grew up in Copenhagen and has spent the last 20 years in London’s creative industry, running her own retouching studio. In 2020, she completed her herbalist and naturopathic studies, which led her to move to Freshford to pursue her passion for nature, health, and herbs.
Neil Kennedy
Neil has lived in Freshford since 2018, having previously lived on a small-holding in North Devon for over 20 years.
He has worked in the food industry for most of his career, primarily in the dairy sector. Neil is Chairman and co-owner of Crediton Dairy Ltd in Devon, which was founded in 2013 following a management buy-out.
A keen cyclist and self-described “under-gardener” to his wife Jackie, he and Jackie have together created a terraced walled garden from their challenging hillside plot over-looking the Frome valley, which they now open as part of the National Garden Scheme.