ESB at Oxford Real Farming Conference 2026

We had an amazing time at our first Oxford Real Farming Conference 2026, connecting with hundreds of like-minded people committed to changing the way we live on the land sustain ourselves in balance with nature.

We came away enriched from sessions exploring the frontiers of soil science, food access, international solidarity work, and a pesticide-free environment for the more-than-human world. We reaffirmed our belief that seeds are central to the future of food and farming.

We also contributed a session to ORFC in collaboration with the Land Stories Collective based in Bristol. Our session titled "Growing Solidarity: Za’atar and the Seeds of Palestine" was an opportunity to share our work in raising awareness of Palestinian rights to seed and food sovereignty. Since 2024, Exeter Seed Bank is twinned with the Palestine Local Seed Bank through a project initiated by the Land Workers Alliance. For our session we focused on Za’atar, the herb and spice mix that runs deep in the culture of Palestinian daily life.

Our session opened with the sharing of za’atar, Palestinian olive oil, and flatbreads (provided by a local bakery in Oxford called Za’atar Bakes).

In the session, Johanna Korndorfer from Exeter Seed Bank introduced our twinning with Palestine Local Seed Bank (PLSB) and the networks of solidarity and fundraising we are building in support of the reconstruction of Palestine Local Seed Bank’s facilities, which were largely destroyed in July and December of 2025.

The cultural and political status of Za’atar was put into a critical framework by Dr Michal Nahman from Land Stories Collective, exploring the complex history and economy of Za’atar in the context of settler colonialism. Sally Azzam from Land Stories Collective, having just returned from Bethlehem, shared her personal story as a Palestinian and Israeli citizen and brought wild and domesticated za’atar for the session’s attendees, seated at tables, the opportunity to see, smell and taste their differences.

Mandy Biscoe from Exeter Seed Bank introduced her ceramic artwork, shaped like a Yakteen gourd, a Palestinian vegetable, as a vessel to collect stories, messages, seeds, and ephemeral for and from Palestine. Participants in the session shared feelings and connections and tastes to a place under intense pressure and precarity. Mandy invited them to write messages and words of hope to relay back to our friends and contacts at the Palestine Local Seed Bank. In a moment of ritual, the participants rose from their tables and placed the messages one by one into the vessel.

 As with our other fundraising events, we offered participants the opportunity to take away a small seedling pot and seeds of wild poppies and the herb za’atar to grow themselves. These were seedling pots made in workshops with our local Palestinian community in Exeter and the seeds ethically sourced from Winnow Farm.

All funds raised go toward the reconstruction of the Palestine Local Seed Bank.
We would like to share a note of thanks to Carla from ORFC, ORFC volunteers, Leonie N from GM Freeze her endless support, Ellen at Winnow Farm, Za’atar Bakes in Oxford and our collaborators near and far.