I have dithered about whether this should be called ‘Gather loves: cheese’ because I’ll be honest, I do. Cooked cheese particularly but I am very very partial to a ricotta. A Neal’s Yard Dairy newsletter led me to the Westcombe Dairy website, and thus to this utterly wonderful film. I was late for work because of this film. Surprising, fascinating, beautifully filmed, it made me laugh out loud and it made me want to eat a lot more cheese. I was also hanging on to see if Gather member Mel Calver made an appearance, as this is her family business.

But why am I recommending this to you though? Because it is all about soil. 

There is a theme throughout the film of the revolution that has happened, that is happening, about how traditional practices of growing are being questioned. (I combine horticulture and agriculture here, because they intertwine in a sort of catwalk/high street influence. They may look different in terms of scale and magnitude, but you can see how one follows the other.) There is such tenderness and respect shown towards the soil and the need to promote diversity, such care taken in terms of the plants and every single aspect of the networks of production that I was left both moved and hopeful.

The second short film I have watched this week was from Campfire Stories, led by a wonderful filmmaker Matthias Olsson. I am not going to write a lot about this yet, as I am still thinking about so many of the things that it brought up for me and some of the incredibly profound shifts and subversions that Brigid LeFavre so lightly and casually mentions. I could feel these in the deep recesses of my internalised-capitalist mind, and I felt a rising desire to jack in my job and just work with the soil and grow food and flowers in line with the cosmic forces. Oh. Wait there…

I’m still having house insurance though. I live under thatch.