A COMMUNITY forest farm is on course to produce gourmet mushrooms this year, becoming the first of its kind in Monmouthshire.

Stephen Powell, of Llwyn Ffranc Farm, near Abergavenny, who has started selling firewood and homemade apple and sloe jelly at farmers’ markets, said there is huge demand for shiitake and oyster mushrooms which he is planning to cultivate as the farm’s signature crops.

Mr Powell believes it could make Llwyn Ffranc the most important community-owned farm in the county.

The former journalist, who has lived on the farm for ten years, set up the farm as a not-for-profit society last year and initially sold cordials and orchard fruit.

He began selling apples and sloe from his woodland at Abergavenny Farmer’s Market and recently decided to combine the two to make a jelly. “It takes me two days to make and is proving popular,” he said.

His vision is to develop the farm, which combines foraging, farming and forestry and open a restaurant called The Forager in a converted barn.

A community share scheme has attracted 103 investors from as far as Australia and is following in the footsteps of a similar scheme at Moelyci Farm in Tregarth, North Wales.

Mr Powell, who is planning to buy 50 acres of woodland through the share offer, has already raised more than £40,000 in pledges.

He said: “We aim to create a viable model of community farming for the 21st century and begin selling oyster mushrooms next year.”