Ben Raskin

I discovered growing on a vineyard in Italy in my late twenties and have now worked in horticulture for 25 years. For 12 years I grew vegetables, including running a walled garden at Gravetye Manor in Sussex and setting up the market garden at Daylesford.

I now combine a range of work, predominantly as Head of Horticulture and Agroforestry for the Soil Association, but also implementing a 200-acre agroforestry planting at Helen Browning’s Eastbrook Farm in Wiltshire. I write gardening books for children and grownups, and if I can fit it do a little private consultancy.

For the last couple of years, I have co-chaired the Defra Edibles Horticulture Roundtable and I’m on the boards / committees of three great grass roots organisations; The Organic Growers Alliance, The Farm Woodland Forum and The Community Supported Agriculture Network UK.

Hobbies include singing in a folk band, walking the kids (and dog), knitting. Lock down has justified investing in a table tennis table, enabling me to relive my childhood glory of winning a school competition age 10 – my first and last sporting achievement.