In episode five of Peas in a Podcast, host Harry Adams sits down with Hannah Dyke of Pineapple Estate — a 100-acre family farm in the heart of West Dorset that has diversified remarkably to survive and thrive in the modern agricultural landscape.
Hannah's journey is a fascinating one. A farmer's daughter through and through, she left the family farm to work in post-harvest research for flower supermarket suppliers, before moving into financial risk mitigation and climate change analysis for Tesco — assessing the impact of climate change on global crops. But somewhere along the way, she realised she was tackling the problem from the wrong end. Drawn back to the farm and increasingly obsessed with soil health, she has since trained as a soil lab technician with the Soil Food Web, and is now building a community laboratory on the farm — the Landscapes Lab — in partnership with National Landscapes, dedicated to water pollution research and citizen science.
Hannah speaks with remarkable clarity and passion about the deep connections between soil health, food security, nature, and climate change — and why she believes that food and nature don't have to be in competition with each other. From rewilding the farm's natural wetlands and building ponds, to connecting with the Brit Valley Project's network of 50 landowners creating wildlife corridors across the landscape, Hannah is doing extraordinary work in her own backyard.
She is candid about the challenges too — particularly the lack of clear government policy leaving farmers feeling insecure and unable to plan — and refreshingly honest about the fact that coming home and planting ten trees on a hundred acres felt more useful than telling growers in other countries to plant a hundred million for carbon credits.
Thoughtful, warm, and genuinely inspiring — this is a conversation about what it looks like to think globally and act locally, and why the Bridport community gives Hannah real hope for the future of food.
Find out more about Pineapple Estate here - https://www.pineappleestate.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.
What is Peas in a Podcast | Live at the Bridport Food Festival?
From soil to plate and everything in between. Peas in a Podcast digs into our local food system, hearing from the people who grow, bake, keep, and share it, and exploring what we can all do to make good food healthy, sustainable, and accessible for everyone.
Peas in a Podcast brings together the farmers, bakers, beekeepers, and food makers at the heart of our local food community to talk honestly about what's working, what's hard, and what we can all do to make good food healthy, sustainable, and accessible for everyone.