Obituary for Marina O’Connell, biodynamic teacher, farmer and gardener

We are all sad to hear that Marina Brown-O’Connell passed recently on Monday the 9^th  September. She died peacefully in the company of people she loved, close to her beloved land in Dartington. Marina will be celebrated by her friends, family, colleagues and admirers for years to come. She will be very much missed and we pass on our respects and sincere condolences to her family. 

Marina became aware of biodynamics from her horticultural training days at the University of Bath, over the years she worked ever more with it, deepening her understanding, practice and sharing of these methods. She was a master at combining it with the permaculture approach and getting people to look at agro-ecological systems of all sorts and making the best of bringing them all together.

Marina creatively combined her many skills and always incorporated educational and therapeutic opportunities for children and young people within the horticultural and farming settings that she created. Marina developed a number of brilliant projects including School Farm and the Apricot Centre, which was originally located in Suffolk, and then moved and grew in Devon. Through her enthusiasm and inclusivity, she brought many people into contact with farming and growing, biodynamic and permaculture methods. She gave young people the opportunity to give their best, to learn and engage with nature, life and food.

A lifelong learner, Marina also gained a Masters Degree in Environment and Society from Essex University, studied biodynamic farming, agroforestry and many related subjects. She shared her learning through adult education, teaching permaculture design courses, as a tutor for the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, as a lecturer at Suffolk Agricultural College, as teacher and lead educator at Apricot. She loved to share her enthusiasm and knowledge, both of which were powerful.

In 2015, Marina and team took on the tenancy for Huxhams Cross Farm, Dartington, secured by the Biodynamic Land Trust. She led and worked with an embryonic team to design the new farm, integrating permaculture, biodynamics and agroforestry into an overall strategy for the land, business and community. Since then she has developed numerous trainings, grown a thriving consultancy working with landowners and farmers across the UK and nurtured and developed the team and Centre to become one of the UK’s foremost training and demonstration centres for biodynamics, permaculture, agroforestry, food centre and community development. With her team she managed to get funding for level 2, 3 and 4 hands-on ecological farming and horticulture diploma run by the whole Apricot Centre, benefiting all of Devon and beyond.

Her thoughtful and practical contribution to the ecological, regenerative farming and horticulture sector cannot be overstated, and her great wisdom and insight was brought together in her 2022 book “Designing Regenerative Food Systems: And Why We Need Them Now”.
Truly a life well lived and shared; Marina’s wide-ranging legacy will reverberate through all who connect to the Apricot Centre and be remembered with love and fondness by all who knew her. Her memory will also be found in new regenerative farms and smallholdings, in meadows and hedgerows, shelterbelts and agroforestry systems, in Community Supported Agriculture schemes and the many projects devised and rolled out by her students, friends and community.

Gabriel Kaye ( Executive Director Biodynamic Assoication)