In 1994, Martin Crawford put trees into a two-acre field on the Dartington estate. Thirty years on, the food forest he built there is widely described as the finest in the temperate world and the Agroforestry Research Trust, which Crawford founded in 1992, propagates and trials edible plants from a working research site at Littlehempston, in the South Hams of Devon. The trust works across three sites: the leased two-acre Dartington forest garden started in 1994, an eight-acre Dartington trial ground for fruit and nut trees added in 1995 and the Littlehempston site, acquired in 2011 and where the day-to-day work now sits. Across them, more than five hundred edible species are grown: perennial vegetables, fruiting shrubs, nut trees, and a forest garden greenhouse trialling subtropical species in a frost-free microclimate. The work has produced things that are hard to find elsewhere - the rare native Devon sorb apple (Sorbus devoniensis) and Eastern European black locust cultivars first sourced from the Hungarian Forest Research Institute. In 2026 the trust handed its commercial plant nursery to Fran Welch, a former ART worker, who now runs it from the same site as the Edible Canopy. The trust itself continues to publish Agroforestry News, the quarterly journal Crawford has been writing since 1992 and ships seeds (many harvested from its own plants) by mail order across the UK. Crawford still leads tours of both Dartington and Littlehempston through the 2026 growing season; bookings tend to fill well in advance. This is not a farm shop, rather a working research station you can buy from.

Social Media

https://www.instagram.com/agroforestryresearchtrust/ https://www.facebook.com/agroforestry.co.uk/

Can people visit or buy direct?

Yes, there are two ways. The trust ships seeds, books and journal subscriptions by mail order through agroforestry.co.uk; seeds go to UK addresses only, with publications delivery as set out on the trust's ordering page. In person, the Littlehempston site and the older Dartington forest garden are open only on Crawford-led tours: four Littlehempston tour days in 2026 between May and August, plus further Dartington tour days between April and October. All tours can be pre-book through the website and tend to fill up well in advance. The on-site Edible Canopy nursery (run separately by Fran Welch) sells plants from ediblecanopy.com.

Website

https://www.agroforestry.co.uk

Address Summary

Littlehempston, Totnes, Devon