Abel Pearson

Abel is the founder and project lead of Glasbren. He is a resident and National Trust tenant at Lords Park farm, and grew up just a few miles from Glasbren HQ. He’s a food grower and passionate permaculture designer and educator, listening for the stories we need to reconnect to land, food and seed. He believes in food growing & foraging as a rich, exciting and accessible pathway to a deeper relationship with the living world, as a livelihood that’s in service to the Earth and for building a thriving culture, healthy communities and ecosystems. 

He’s a permaculture educator and nature-based facilitator, trained in the Work that Reconnects and the Naturewell approach to nature-based health and wellbeing, and has worked locally, nationally and internationally in delivering courses and workshops for organisations such as Coed Lleol, Earthed, Paramaethu Cymru, the Landworkers’ Alliance, the Global Diversity Foundation, the Ecodharma Centre and Cynefin Permaculture.

He loves to tell stories, and communicate the vision and values of Glasbren. He works part-time as Communications Coordinator for the Landworkers’ Alliance, a grassroots union of agroecological farmers, foresters, food producers and landworkers, and sits on the advisory board of the Agroecology Comms Network. He loves to write, tell the old stories around a fire, explore rivers and coastline in his canoe & run wild trails in the mountains. Abel writes a weekly Sunday morning newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

Luisa Neumann

Luisa is a director of Glasbren, resident and National Trust tenant at Lords Park farm, and is Project Lead for our nature-based ‘Little Stewards’ sessions for children. She is a published writer, yoga & meditation teacher, experienced homesteader, forager and herbalist and a wholehearted mother. Over many years in India, Luisa not only immersed in meditation, but also learnt the pillars of intuitive cooking & trained in Ayurvedic pregnancy counselling, exploring how natural remedies, healing practices & meditation can nurture our health. 

Luisa has many years’ experience  working with children in an educational capacity. She brings a wealth of experience in safeguarding, pedagogy, inclusivity and holistic ecological education to creating a rounded, safe and grounded programmes for children in nature. She has run zero-waste workshops, vegetarian cooking classes and permaculture sessions for children and is unwavering in her devotion to living a zero-waste, organic and low impact life, rediscovering ways to live and eat seasonally, simply & within our limits and developing a felt, intuitive, whole relationship with our wild human selves.

Luisa brings unwavering passion, vision and insight to the Glasbren mission, and a strong voice in holding us to our founding values and objectives. 

Steffan Lemke-Elms

Steffan is a food grower, peasant chef, social entrepreneur, and co-director of Glasbren.

Steffan has worked on organic vegetable farms since he was 13 years old and has also run social enterprises for most of his adult life. He founded Reboot, recycling discarded wellies at Glastonbury Festival to support those working on landfill in Romania and parts of Africa. He co-ran Small Steps, auctioning celebrity shoes for charity, and working in communities in Uganda and Kenya. He also co-founded The Warren, our local, organic restaurant. His experience and keen eye for promising social enterprises and social entrepreneurs has led to him being chosen recently to sit on the awards selection committee for UNLTD.

   He now works as Social Enterprise Development Officer for Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services (PAVS), supporting social enterprises and community projects throughout West Wales with governance, finances, fundraising, key relationships, volunteer engagement and training.

   Steffan believes he brings an ability to connect community to food, through the sharing of knowledge of how it’s grown and how it’s cooked. He is passionate about making nutritious food accessible to all - with no exceptions. He believes that community strength is the way forward in creating a more cohesive society which in turn creates a fairer society.

Laura Lumsden

For Laura, the newest director on our advisory board, community has been the central theme of her working career, creating spaces for people to gather and connect with each other, or working on projects that strengthen her community. This has ranged from supporting creative speciality coffee training projects, community cafes, helping to establish local transition groups, sitting as a trustee for her local village hall and most recently working in the position of Events Coordinator at Sero, Carmarthen’s community environment centre.

Laura works as an independent funeral celebrant, and is a proud mother and environmental campaigner, committed to doing everything she can to create the bright possible future that all our children deserve.  She lives in a multi generational household on a smallholding in Llangain with her 2 children, husband and parents, called by a vision of connecting with the land and nature, living in a way that was in harmony with the Earth and its natural boundaries.

Laura’s happy place is with her animals or in her garden, among her plants and the insects and birds. She loves to cook, and gather her family and friends around a table or fire.