Last week I was struck by a comment in the article I was reading in Country Living.

“if you don’t know flora and fauna in the countryside, you won’t notice it when it’s gone”

This got me thinking about life here at Middle Coombe Farm and the rich diversity of flora and fauna in every corner of the estate and the varied habitats we are able to support. It also saddened me that they had assumed “when it’s gone”.

As an organic farm and estate our ecological philosophy that is the very backbone of everything we do. We strive daily to understand our environment so that we can not only value it but share this wonderful corner of Devon with our guests and future generations. It also got me thinking how many of the plants and animals we have on the farm I could identify – and in true form, I tested myself as I went about the rest of the day and was surprised how much I really take for granted, almost blind to it.We have been delighted to be able to provide a sanctuary for hundreds our native species – from the common to the more endangered and have records of how this has changed.

After so many years it has become second nature and we have proven that being sensitive to the environment does not mean dropping our high standards or compromising on quality. We offset as much carbon as possible through our solar panels and woodchip boilers fuelled by wood grown in the woods. We recycle everything and are plastic-less as much as possible – even our cutlery is VegWare.  All our toiletries are natural and our list of suppliers share our values – the list goes on. All this work means that one of our guests has a footprint 78% lower than the industry standard and we can continue our work as guardians of our precious countryside.

And before you ask how many species I could identify why not come and try for yourself – and thank you Country Living for opening my eyes to how lucky we are to have a rich environment on our doorstep.