Meet Poppy Rogers, filmmaker turned farmer, mother, and one half of Do Good Things. From their smallholding in Devon, Poppy and her partner, Seth, grow real, natural food for their local community, guided by a slow, sustainable, and deeply community-led approach.
Their way of life feels closely aligned with our own ethos at Beyond Nine, intentional, thoughtful, and rooted in care. We were drawn to Poppy’s journey immediately and couldn’t wait to spend time learning more about the path that led her here.
On a bright spring day, we visited Poppy at her smallholding in Devon. Surrounded by animals, open skies, and the rhythm of the land, we talked about her move from city life to the countryside, the shift from self-sufficiency to community food sovereignty, and the small, everyday choices that can quietly make a big difference.
Poppy wears the Berlin Tan Seersucker Dress
Can you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
Hi, I’m Poppy —and like many women— I have many roles in life. I'm a filmmaker, farmer, and new mother. Somehow these different roles all fit together, and I think the common thread between them is that I love new challenges and have always valued freedom and independence.
In my early 20’s, my partner and I bought and renovated an old narrow boat so we could afford to live in London to start our careers in the film industry. I’ve never had a “proper” job — I’ve always been freelance/ run a small production company with my partner. After ten years working in London, with a growing unease about our lifestyle and dependency on a system we didn’t really believe in, we took the leap and moved to a smallholding in Devon. The initial dream was to be self-sufficient — grow our own food, raise animals, be energy independent — but that dream quickly evolved into running a community centred project where we grow with and for our community, because we realised it wasn’t fun or sustainable to do it alone— community is everything. And in the autumn I became a mother, choosing to birth my daughter at home on the farm, which was the realest, most magical thing I’ve ever done. In all of these roles and life choices, freedom has been the driving force, but freedom is a lot of work!
Poppy wears the Tyler Tobacco Knitted Vest, Lila Bone Jersey Top & Remi Mid Blue Denim Jeans
As a filmmaker, farmer, and mother, no two days can be the same. What does a typical day look like for you?
You’re absolutely right, and due to these different roles, days often start out one way and end up very different to what you had planned. But most days start early — with a young baby and needing to get out and feed the animals and water seedlings. We currently have a gaggle of geese who are laying eggs, a flock of chickens and next week we’re getting more pigs — three lovely little weaners. We also have three hives of bees, but we’re waiting to see if they all survived the winter (bees hate the wet and it’s been a very wet winter).
Breakfast is always homemade and often more elaborate than we have time for, but we love food! Wednesdays are harvest days, so we both get out into the market garden to harvest salad, greens, and whatever else is ready. Seth will go and deliver that to our local farm shops and pubs, while I take the dog and baby for a walk.
We’ll likely spend a few hours doing emails and calls for upcoming collaborations with exciting experts (in composting, agroforestry, biochar, etc.) whose knowledge we share alongside our own journey. We also still run our production company, focusing on clients in farming, sustainability, and nature-led living. Happily, we’re able to offer more expertise than the average production company because we’re living these things for real.
On the best days, we’ll be done in the office by lunch and get back out in the field to chip away at the truly endless list of tasks, which often includes weeding, seed sowing and transplanting, cleaning out animals, working on multiple DIY projects (we’re currently building a sauna down by the stream), etc. Invariably, an animal or two will break out, or we’ll find something that’s broken and needs urgently fixing, which will take up a huge chunk of the afternoon. Then it’ll be time to harvest something for dinner and collapse in a heap, ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
Poppy wears the Berlin Tan Seersucker Dress
What inspired your move from filmmaking and life in London to farming in rural Devon? What continues to ground you in this life?
The main driving force for the huge change was feeling like our lifestyle didn’t align with how we knew we should be living — eating seasonal, naturally grown food, spending more time outdoors than in, living in close rhythm to the natural world. I think a lot of us feel this way, an underlying unease about how unnatural our days are, relying on delicate systems out of our control. Now, you don’t have to uproot your whole life to fix these things like we did, there are many smaller, easier steps towards this, but I suppose we were up for a big new challenge as well.
Poppy wears the Kera Mid Blue Denim Dress
We make feel-good clothes for every stage of womanhood. Which parts of your approach to life feel aligned with that philosophy?
Going through pregnancy and now postpartum and breastfeeding for the first time, my body has been on an incredible journey. I’m in total awe of my body… but I’ve needed such different things from my clothes. Just like Naomi (Beyond Nine’s founder), I hated the look of all “maternity” clothes, so I avoided buying any, I just wore dungarees in varying sizes, including some from my mum that she wore when she was pregnant with me in the 90’s. This approach meant no waste and less chance of losing myself in the process of becoming a mum. Now I just wear the same dungarees with a belt!
Poppy wears the Tyler Tobacco Knitted Vest, Lila Bone Jersey Top & Remi Mid Blue Denim Jeans
Farming is intentional and all-consuming. How do you balance work, motherhood, and time for yourself?
Balance truly is the key. And that’s not something I profess to have figured out, but I have learned that I can try and do it all, but I can’t do it all at once. And for now, our daughter takes priority. So we’re setting aside more time to just enjoy being a family, spending time in the garden, not worrying about how much there is to do, and occasionally even leaving the farm and going to the beach!
Poppy wears the Remi Rust Stripe Denim Jeans
Since becoming a mother, how has your relationship with nature and your sense of responsibility towards it evolved?
Since becoming a mother, I’m even more aware of the choices I make and my impact on the land, and more widely, the world. It can be overwhelming thinking about how much I have to learn about permaculture, regenerative agriculture, indigenous practices… but really it’s relearning and remembering, because we all used to have a close relationship to the natural world, to the seasons and our food. And if we can inspire people to rebuild that broken connection, I think that’s the first step to getting people to care enough to fight to protect it.
Working on the land and being a mother, you also start to think longer term. This winter we planted 300 trees on the farm. I will not be here to see most of them reach maturity but my daughter will hopefully walk around the forest we’ve planted. How amazing is that! As humans, we think so short term, and that’s largely what’s gotten us into this climate crisis. Greed and short term thinking. We are trying to remedy that , on a tiny scale, on our little farm.
Community is central to our work at Beyond Nine and you’ve talked about fostering this within farming. How does community show up in your work, and how does it influence your day-to-day?
When we left our city lives, we thought we wanted to run away, to check out, log off, and become fully self-sufficient. So that’s what we did, but it didn’t take long to realise that self-sufficiency is a misguided aim, a myth even. I don’t think humans are meant to do it alone, we’re stronger together, sharing skills, pooling resources. So we changed our goal from self-sufficiency to community food sovereignty. Now we are embedded deeper than ever before in the community. We regularly hold volunteer days and on-farm events, growing food with and for the community, teaching and learning skills from each other. It brings so much more joy than being self-sufficient ever would. Community is where it’s at.
Poppy wears the Kera Mid Blue Denim Dress
You’re working to challenge a broken food system through farming and storytelling. For anyone feeling disconnected from nature or unsure where to start, what’s one small step they could take to make a difference?
Even better, I’ll give you three steps you could take today. If you’re feeling frustrated with the status quo and disconnected from nature and the food you eat:
Sign up to your local CSA / veg box scheme and start eating seasonally. Riverford is the best known one, but there are lots, try to find your most local one.
Join a community garden, there are so many out there. We have learned so much from volunteering at one of our local community gardens. And if you can’t find one, maybe you can start your own?
Start growing your own food… it’s spring, so it's the perfect time to start. It doesn’t matter whether you have a big back garden, a little balcony or just a windowsill, there is always something you can start growing to suit your space, whether it’s veggies, herbs, or microgreens. Don’t be worried if you have no experience — YouTube exists! And as soon as you start growing, you start taking back a little bit of control, which is the most empowering feeling.
