The Apricot Centre at Huxhams Cross Farm is a regenerative, diverse, biodynamic farm, just outside Totnes in the Dartington Parish.
Regenerative Business
The Apricot Centre has regenerated fields across 13 hectares (34 acres) at Huxhams Cross Farm that were intensively done to industrial agriculture for 40 years, to establish a thriving, diverse business which has become a significant local employer and training centre as well as a provider of quality, healthy food and wellbeing services.
It now operates a Biodynamic Farm, growing fruit, vegetables and cut flowers for a local market; Regenerative Land Based Training; a Wellbeing Service and OFSTED registered Adoption Support Service, and a Permaculture Consultancy.
The Apricot Centre has pitched to our Community of Dragons event on two (and a third!) different occassions, as their business has developed and grown.
2017 - pitched for investment in site infrastructure and new customers as production from our fields was scaling up and we were becoming established on the local scene.
2019 - Dartington Mill, as one of three local businesses in a joint venture to take on the mill business piloted as Grown in Totnes to a new commercial level. The other partners being The Almond Thief bakery and Old Parsonage Farm & Dartington Dairy.
2019 -Social forestry project to connect young people with mental health issues or those who have experienced trauma and their families to the woodlands on the farm, with forestry, conservation, and therapeutic activities.
We asked for support to build an oak shelter
We recognized the need for an all-year-round shelter for participants' comfort and wellbeing. This shelter facilitates school visits, Pupil Referral Units, group work, residentials, sensory green gym, training, community volunteer days, farm clubs, and more.
The community support generated by the event secured us the oak timbers, reduced-cost labor, and financial aid to build a timber shelter benefiting children, families, Farm Clubs, Forest Schools, asylum seekers, and adults with PTSD.
A Big Thank you from the Apricot Centre.
"We express our deepest gratitude to the Community of Dragons organisers and the entire community for your immense support in bringing the Apricot Centre's vision to life.
The shelter exemplifies community power and the significant impact of the Community of Dragons on local enterprises in their start-up phase."