Our COUNTRY LIFE
‘WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CRUCIAL TO THIS INDUSTRY’
Caroline Alexander and her husband William head up Castle Farm in Shoreham, Kent. It includes the largest acreage of lavender in the UK, as well as arable crops, beef cattle, a PYO apple orchard, pumpkins, hops, dried flowers and a farm shop. They have three grown-up children.
‘Farmers are brilliant at problem-solving’
My father was a publisher with a passion for education and environmental issues. Even as a child, I enjoyed the company of farmers, and I was a frequent visitor to our local cattle market. I studied architecture followed by landscape management – I met my future husband at the college where he was studying agriculture. I then had a career advising farmers on wildlife conservation and tree planting, as well as organising farm open days for the public. Eventually I settled down on the farm, which has been in my husband’s
