We are not a 'Maison', we are a FARM.

I will never quite forget the first time we were told, by an august incumbent luxury brand that we were 'not a Maison', we were 'not a House'. It was meant to put us in our place, we were too small, we were not really luxury, etcetera etcetera.

We could have a lot of discussions about what a House might be, and who gets to define it... but why? We have always followed what we know to be good and true and radically on the side of a shared healthy future for the planet and its people. 

Which means no, we are not a Maison. We are a Farm.

We are a FARM. 

What does this MEAN?

We put the earth first, we put soil first, we put future generations first. This is how we make our decisions, this is how we design, this is how we manufacture and communicate and live.

What does this LOOK LIKE?

• We don't have a supply chain, we have a symbiotic ecosystem of partners, some provide us with their waste (like the London Fire Brigade), others receive our donations (like The Fire Fighters Charity).
• We manufacture our own products across two sites where everyone is paid a Living Wage. We don't subcontract to a factory where we have no idea or control over how people are treated or compensated.
• We bought a farm and relocated here to restore a degraded ecosystem and put everything that we do at E&K quite literally at the heart of a farm.
• Our HQ is a straw bale building with a glulam timber frame, these materials have locked in local carbon and ensure that we are extremely efficient.
• We have a solar panel system with batteries and an MVHR, and in just our first year with this system we are almost entirely self-sufficient.
• We use heat pumps, and not fossil fuels for heat
• We planted a vineyard and more than 3000 trees in our first year here and have never ploughed or used pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or synthetic fertilizers - we are operating by entirely regenerative principals. We aren't 'part' regenerative or regenerative when it is convenient. We will be storing carbon in our own soil and trees... we aren't offsetting.
• We constructed a wetland system to gather and store rainwater and also to treat our own waste and waste water, turning something our water companies think is a problem into a source of nutrients for carefully selected flowers, reeds and trees.
• Our humanure? That is separated out and in partnership with worms and time becomes vermicast - a natural fertilizer, the original black gold.
• We build our own compost from local wastes like food waste, ruminant manure and wood chip. In the same way that Elvis & Kresse is working on the circular flow of materials and capital, the farm works by cycling nutrients back into the soil with compost and compost tea (also brewed on-site).
• Our whole aim for the farm is to build soil health. Healthy soils produce nutrient dense foods, retain more water (drought resistance), and sequester more carbon.

Want to learn MORE?

• Come and see us - we offer all kinds of workshops and experiences.

And just to be clear - our farm is also our home. We live here, our Vineyard manager and his family live here, and we have a cottage so that you can come and stay here.... why be a House when you can be a Home, a Farm, an ecosystem that is being restored to abundant biodiversity. It is time to think beyond outdated definitions, which are restrictive and reductive. If we want to do more, and be better, we have to think bigger.

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