Marina Brown-O’Connell was the Director of the Apricot Centre and author of Designing Regenerative Food Systems – and why we need them now
Marina’s husband, Mark O’Connell, and his family and colleagues, would like to let you know of Marina Brown-O’Connell’s passing.
Mark O’Connell writes – We love her dearly and we celebrate and grieve, held in the love and the healing we have received with her in recent times.
Marina studied Horticulture at Bath University and later Ecology at Essex University and Process Oriented Psychology internationally. After travelling the world visiting kibbutzes and cauliflower farms she came to Dartington Hall in 1986 where she accepted a job in the gardens team with a small thatched office just below the Tilt Yard. From there she designed and developed School Farm, planting the orchard and training YTS and unemployed professionals into the 90s. It was at this time she developed a good link with the newly founded Schumacher College and in particular was inspired by passionate women eco-activists such as Vandana Shiva, Helena Norbert-Hodge, and Julia Ponsonby who included Marina in her books Gaia’s Kitchen and whom Marina admires in her research and cooking of climate-friendly food.
Marina had a powerful hands-on approach designing farms and working closely with the soil and land. She designed our original 4-acre Apricot Centre Farm in Essex which transformed from a bramble patch to a vibrant biodynamic fruit farm in 10 years. She developed a deep approach and understanding to working with and healing the soil, but also understanding this as a two-way relationship and feedback loop. She (we) worked with land healer Patrick McManaway on the original Essex farm and during the last 8 months we’ve again worked with Patrick on the whole Dartington project intertwined by her health and healing. It seems they are deeply interconnected (more on that another time). Patrick feels that Dartington is doing well now and in many respects this means that Marina too is doing well. Let’s watch for signs.
Every time we have left a piece of land Marina describes it as a deep personal loss as if of a member of her family. We were delighted when the Essex farm was taken on by Peach and Pippin in a similar spirit. They continue to sell food at the Stoke Newington Organic Farmers Market (Growing Communities) where Marina sold her fruit and flowers for over 11 years.
In 2015 we received the significant opportunity to return to Devon and worked closely with the Biodynamic Land Trust to integrate our work at Huxham’s Cross Farm with agroforestry and therapeutic work with children and families (where possible in Nature). We have developed a large and expanding team with Bob, Rachel, Dave and so many others bringing forward an evolving and collaborative vision.
The Apricot Centre at Huxhams Cross Farm will be 10 years old next year and this is the point where Marina says the whole thing comes together in a big explosion of abundance (gestures with her hands). In Essex Turtle Doves appeared, and incredible dawn choruses, and Marina suggested to me that next year will be a significant one in Dartington and maybe the explosion is already starting?
She wrote her book “Designing Regenerative Food Systems – and why we need them now” which weaves together her extensive understanding of climate change, ecology, agroecological approaches and trauma/healing, in an accessible and pragmatic way. And having co-designed Huxhams Cross Farm she recently developed regenerative land-based food curriculum levels 1-4 with Rachel Phillips.
Marina has recently talked of the completions of circles. She sees this in the Microbiome Garden which connects the food, gut, macro/microbiome, community, children and wellbeing in one space. The farm itself is becoming a larger whole system which holds and demonstrates the many aspects of agroecology in one living “classroom”. And then there’s the newly emerging local food hub (CROP @ Cider Press) in Dartington which Marina has co-developed during her illness with local partners and South Hams District Council, supporting the local food economy and community.
Remember Marina as a “bish bash bosh” kind of person. Her incredible teaching gift has always been simple and direct and humorous. She has been letting us know we need to communicate the learning in simple and direct ways for example through three simple meals a day and through a farm and garden.
Her teachings live on through all the incredible students, apprentices, land custodians and colleagues who have learned through her and explored with her. To you she sends her blessings to bring this out into the world.
Please come and feel the soil, enjoy the land and garden through your senses, be curious, taste, sense, play and wonder in the Biodynamic Farm and Microbiome Garden. We will make ample opportunities for community and wider circles to connect in this way.
You can connect with Marina anytime she says, through picking a bunch of flowers and placing it on your table and have a conversation with her, or through the land anywhere, particularly through the farm. (This is a FREE PERMACULTURE design offer with Marina by the way so please do take her up on this. You can share your dreams and project ideas with her and see what comes back!) She and I would also encourage you to connect with the non-consensus or dreaming realms and “FOLLOW YOUR BLISS”.
Designing Regenerative Food Systems – and why we need them now