In episode six of Peas in a Podcast, host Harry Adams sits down with Peter Lemmey of Liberty Farm — a small, organic dairy farm six miles south of Yeovil, where around 25 to 30 cows graze freely every day of the year, are milked just once a day, and keep their calves for three months. It is, in almost every way, the opposite of modern industrial dairy farming. And that, Peter explains, is entirely the point.
Peter's family story is a wonderful one. His father, a man who changed schools every year as a child because of his own father's work, found one constant in his life — six weeks every summer on Uncle John's farm in Kent. That love never left him, and eventually he and Peter's mother scraped together enough money to buy Liberty Farm. What followed was decades of farming evolution — from chasing yield with the latest techniques, to a quiet but radical decision in the 1980s to step back, let the cows eat grass, and farm the way nature intended. Peter, who admits he told his dad it would never work, has since become one of its most passionate advocates.
The conversation covers a remarkable amount of ground. Peter speaks with real candour about the shocking reality that at least 50% of dairy cows in the UK never go outside, about the insanity of cutting down Brazilian rainforest to grow soya to feed cows that evolved to eat grass, and about the industrial farm visit that turned his stomach. He talks about the extraordinary transformation he witnessed when Liberty Farm went organic — fields growing richer and more abundant than anyone believed possible — and about the slow but encouraging shift he's seeing in conventional farming as some of those organic principles begin to filter through.
He also touches on the family farm inheritance tax debate — thoughtful, fair-minded, and characteristically honest — and shares the hopeful news that Liberty Farm is just beginning to make ice cream.
Warm, funny, deeply principled, and full of the kind of straight-talking wisdom that only comes from a lifetime working the land — this is a conversation that will make you think very differently about the glass of milk in your hand.
Find out more about Liberty Dairy here - https://libertydairy.co.uk/
Find out more about Jurassic Coast Media at - https://jurassiccoastmedia.com.
Find out more about Bridport Food Matters at - https://www.bridportfoodmatters.net/
Peas in a Podcast is brought to you by Bridport Food Matters and Jurassic Coast Media. This limited 8 part series was recorded live at the 2026 Bridport Food Festival. If you're interested in helping us fund future conversations through the sponsorship of new episodes: please reach out to bfm.comms@gmail.com with the subject heading "Let's get talking!" for more information.
🎵: Epidemic Sounds - "I'm the Only One For You" by Mercy Street.
