TV chef converts double-decker bus into farm on wheels

17 September 2025

Jonathan HolmesChew Magna

The Pony Farm Bus will visit schools and community groups to educate people how food is grown

BBC Eight people, a mixture of men and women, stood outside a colourful double-decker bus. The bus has the words "pony farm bus, growing awareness one stop at a time" on the side. There are wheelbarrows full of apples and a portable pizza oven outside — The Pony Farm Bus will visit schools and community groups to educate people how food is grown

An old double-decker bus has been converted into a mobile farm to help educate people where their food comes from.

The Pony Farm Bus, a joint project by The Pony restaurant in Chew Magna and food distributor Arthur David, will take the vehicle out to community groups and schools to run workshops on food and cooking.

The vehicle, donated by First Bus, includes a greenhouse, a hydroponics system, kitchen and dining areas and a demonstration space.

Owner of The Pony, Josh Eggleton, said: "We want to create learning opportunities - but the main thing is to incite a sense of fun and purpose."

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"We've got loads of schools and grassroots organisations coming here, but it wasn't lost on me that not everybody can get here.

"We wanted to take the growing and cooking on tour into Bristol and Somerset.

"Our globalised food system is disconnecting people from the land, this brings a sense of local food into areas that have lost that," Mr Eggleton said.

He also plans to use the bus a a pop-up shop, offering food on a pay-what-you-feel basis, and aims to take it out at least three days a week.

Tim Jones, kitchen grower at The Pony, will provide plants for the bus

Tim Jones, gardener at the Pony. He is wearing a grey newsboy hat, and blue overalls and a chequered jacket. He has a grey moustache and a short cropped beard, and is standing in front of rolling green countryside — Tim Jones, kitchen grower at The Pony, will provide plants for the bus

The Pony's kitchen grower, Tim Jones, said he had found it "rewarding" to educate children.

"They come here and get their hands dirty, some of them for the first time.

"We can bring this glorious Chew Valley into areas which haven't had the opportunity to visit.

"There's no mystery in supermarkets, but there is mystery in gardening, people suddenly realise beyond the supermarket that places like this exist," he said.

The bus will be formally launched at the Fōda Festival on 27 September at Bristol's Arnolfini, with a series of free workshops for members of the public.