Grow it Global on Fernhill Farm!

We're looking for volunteers during the festive period to help Grow it Global. As part of the ‘Send a Cow’ initiative Grow it Global is an exciting new education project involving thousands of pupils, who will visit UK farms for practical, fun sessions on sustainable development, food issues and climate change. We're looking for help to get African ‘Keyhole Gardens’ ready on the farm.

 

A Keyhole Garden is a type of kitchen garden that is part of Send a Cow's natural gardening training in Africa. It gets its name from the shape of the keyhole that you see when viewing it from above. The design incorporates a central 'basket' where compostable waste is placed and water is poured which in turn feeds the surrounding plants. They have many different forms, and are epecially useful in areas where good soil is scarce, often supplementing diets with nutritious vegetables.

In the spring an African farmer will visit Fernhill Farm to give demonstrations of gardening techniques that are easy for children to adopt at home or at school.

Could you spare a few hours on Saturday 27^th December 10am-2pm to get involved in this unique global project? There will be hot drinks and food from the Glory Hole Garden at Fernhill ready for you and all the tools and instructions will be provided. If you would like to find out more details please contact Jen Hunter on 07903 584695, mail@fernhill-farm.co.uk or www.fernhill-farm.co.uk 

The Mendip Mind

Ladies Night Success

We held the Ladies Night at Fernhill last weekend. Huge success. Over 100 ladies came along to share food, drinks, shopping, music and chatting. This was all in aid of nearby Priddy Pre-school. Here are a few snaps from the night. And yes there were even men enjoying themselves!

The Mendip Mind is off for a lie down after all that. Got to get my strength together for the Active Mendip Christmas Party this Saturday.

 

Meet Mendip Meat

Get your orders in for our amazing meat boxes - just right for family get-togethers, Christmas parties and the like. All the meat is reared at Fernhill Farm to the highest natural standards. We're not officially organic as our herds are used to graze different areas on Mendip and although these different sites are generally nature reserves the owners, like Somerset Wildlife Trust have not got organic status because they're not in the line of meat production.

We've got;

Aberdeen Angus Beef Boxes - 10kg boxes at £8/kg. Selection of Fillet, Sirloin and Rump Steaks, Braising Steaks, Mince Meat, Prime Roasts and Slow Roasts. 

Shetland and Shetland X Lamb, Hogget and Mutton Boxes  - at £7kg. Selection of legs, shoulder, chops and breast. Whole and half lambs available.

Pedigree Saddleback Fresh and Cured Pork Boxes. Mixed boxes from £7/kg - £10/kg. Chops, roasts, gammons, bacon sausages, hams, salami and chorizo.

Please place your order with Jen on 07903 584695 jen@fernhill-farm.co.uk

Available from 17th November onwards.

 

Here's a bit of feedback from our Woolly Weekend. 

We welcomed 4 families along and transformed 120kg of fluffy sheepskin off-cuts into colourful patchwork and luxurious woven rugs. Mums and children grappled with peg looms to weave strips off their favourite colours to make dense, warm, cosy bed rolls and bum rugs. They took all these home to treasure. 

There wasn't any time for felting this weekend and sadly our spinning lady (she does stand still sometimes ;-) was ill. So the dads continued contentedly sewing patchwork masterpieces using large suture needles and thick leather threads. 

Fun in the fluff den entertained younger ones and until a candlelit dinner with lots of drinks enticed the weavers away. Fantastic food from Jon the Chef left everyone warm and cosy. The teenagers then put on an impromptu play on 'the love of wool to take the chills away', a great little play.

We've also been donated an old piano that makes a fabulous echo around the wooden barn while many fingers fiddle and play!

The Mendip Mind - here to stay and play

 

International Fernhill

Back from paradise now to welcome international visitors. On the 30th October we were pleased to welcome a delegation of regional agricultural advisors, from Vietnam, led by the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Investment! They were on a study tour in England. Their interest with Fernhill lay in the way our farm has engaged with the public through farm diversification. The methods we use to source and use national and regional grant funding, like Environmental Stewardship, were talked about a lot. Our WET reedbed system for purifying waste water and our other sustainable features like the wood boiler and wool insulation were also keenly discussed. 

We took them on a farm tour to see the saddleback pigs, the grassland and woodland management systems, the Aberdeen Angus beef production and how we're establishing a new orchard. Then back to the Camping Barn for an innovative lunch.

Jon, our resident chef cooked a Mendip/Vietnamese style lunch - pork, veg and noodles went down a treat. Digestion was helped by local cider. Our guests remarked that 'the meal was the best they had had during their stay.'

The Mendip Mind

     

Welcome to Paradise

The Mendip Mind and family are off sunning themselves on a beautiful island this week. Normal service will be resumed next week. In the meantime have a look at the new pictorial tour of the accommodation barn on our website.

The Mendip Mind

Meaning is in the person not the word. But these are a few words we're using to describe our accommodation as we're struggling for a better name for our 'camping barn'; arcadian holistic warm cosy hyggli (Danish, pronounced 'hoogly', no direct translation but it's the feeling you get when safe, comfortable on a big warm sofa during a winter's evening with a cup of hot chocolate and a smile on your face) woolly woody relaxed earth contented natural entertaining nook touch look welcome comfy family sharing happy flexible double pond settle glory source home conscious insulation projection meeting fair calm underfloor instinctive sustainable curious different adventure practical simple peaceful plateau story tale eat meal content rest breath curve dry envelope local history myth friendly unusual untreated free kindling art paint russet tranquil undisturbed content stable soft sheltered protected listed generations full pleasurable satisfying

See if our meaning fits your meaning, stay at Fernhill Farm

The Mendip Mind

Woolly Weekend

It's a Woolly Weekend ahead! We've gathered a selection of materials, tools, ideas and wool enthusiasts to get creative with a mass of fleeces and sheepskins. All we need is you! Try your hand at spinning, knitting, crocheting baby booties or use a peg loom to make a bum rug or double bed roll. Try your hand at delicate felt making or go bigger and make a mighty wall hanging. There really will be something for every age and ability. 

And all this will be happening in the unique camping barn. Prices start at £40 for the Woolly Weekend. To book or for more details contact Jen on 07903 584695 or jen@fernhill-farm.co.uk

The Mendip Mind

Digital Training Farm?

Viral campaigns, email marketing, rss feeds...the Active Mendip bunch are holding their first training seminar here next week to explain all of this. One of the members is a lecturer for the Chartered Institute of Marketing as well as running a communications company and organising the CLIC24 mountain bike marathon. Busy bloke. He's going to do an overview of Digital Marketing for the members and others. 

Digital marketing is crucial during the credit crunch. Effective marketing is definitely vital now and digital stuff can be virtually free - you've got a website haven't you? Make sure it' working effectively for you, that's what we're looking at now. Updating all the images to reflect the changing farm adding new downloads etc. Dead important at the moment.

If you want to come along the seminar is next weds 9am - 12noon, costs £30, what a bargain! Call the Active Mendip secretary to book a place on 07590 687537 or email jim@vmcg.co.uk

The Mendip Mind - digitally developing the farm!

Dress Like Today is Important

Today is really important. Today, right now, is reality. This means it's really important. So dress like it matters. Those people who have a grip on life are conscious people. They are awake and aware. They don't let life be a random set of events that happens to them. We should all make our life's a series of stimulating challenges, rewarding and enriching and with a conscience.

We dress like it matters on Mendip. We dress for the weather and with a conscience. We shear our Shetland sheep, which has some of the most amazing natural colours and produces the finest fleece for spinning, knitting and weaving. This gets turned into men's jerkins, children's jackets, boot liners, scarves, boas, rugs and on.

We're not saying you have to go around looking like some country bumpkin with some scratchy woolly on (our fleeces are spun to be smooth), just think about what you're wearing. Does it reflect you well? I saw some boots the other day, not my style but trendy, made from old bike bits - inner tubes and tyres. That matters

People are also booking their Christmas experience at Fernhill Farm. It will matter big time if you haven't booked your party yet and you find every is already booked. 

The Mendip Mind  

ABC CBA

ABC CBA - a wise man once told me this phrase. It stands for All Been Changed Changed Back Again. For this sums up the weather at the moment. Mind you I don't worry about the weather changing it's when the weather stops that I'd begin to worry!

ABC CBA also sums up the new barn. One minute there's a group of youngsters in there learning about farming, the next it's a workshop on spinning sheep's wool and tonight it's a venue for the latest 'Lads Nite Owt'. Apparently that's an informal business network meeting, and yes women are invited. We always new the barn would be multi-purpose, we can section different areas off, remove the sleeping areas, bring in more seats, feed 1-100 people or more. It really has All Been Changed Changed Back Again. Whatever you want from the barn I'm sure we can provide it. 

Here are some shots from inside the barn to wet your appetite. Get in touch with us if you'd like a proper look around.

   

Charcoal, Saddlebacks and Best Wishes

What's the best way to keep warm over winter? Make charcoal. Standing next to the burner on cold winter days on top of the Mendip plateau is the green way to get a glow on. Alex from Chew Valley Charcoal is taking up residence at Fernhill Farm. He takes wood from loads of local woodlands, helping those small woods that are in desperate need of tending. Visitors will be able to take away bags of charcoal and get that Mendip glow in their own home or on the BBQ!

Talking of winter, we're holding a Ladies Christmas Fair in the new barns in aid of Priddy Pre-school. It will be on November 29th. We're after any stall holders who want to sell their wares. Get in touch with us for more details. 

We're selling pedigree Saddleback Maiden gilts and some weaners in the coming weeks. Get in touch with me to discuss prices etc. If you have no idea what a pedigree Saddleback gilt is go to www.saddlebacks.org.uk to discover the wonderful world of Saddlebacks.

Best wishes to the 3rd brood of house-martins who've set of on the epic journey south. We always take it as the sign that summer has nearly arrived on Mendip when the house-martins come back. Til then I'm off to stroke my Saddlebacks!

The Mendip Mind

We Love Wet Summers!

Well, to be more precise our waste water treatment process, commonly known as a reedbed,  loved the wet summer. Back in April it was just a field, a few months later we've got a wetland system that treats all our waste water. Filtering it down through a series of ponds full of native plants and thousands of willows around the edge. The willows have grown 6ft in as many months. You can almost sit and watch them grow. The amount of wildlife around the ponds is fantastic. Standing water is a rare habitat on Mendip, water just seeps through the limestone geology normally, leaving great caves but few ponds. So the reedbed is cleaning our water and providing an incredible home for wildlife.

We had the Mendip Hills AONB Service Sustainable Development Fund panel up today for a guided tour of the reedbed and wood burning boiler, which they helped to fund.  They also got to have a bowl of home made soup in the new barn that was opened a month or so ago. More about the the semi-circular barns next week though.

The Mendip Mind

Fernhill Farm Launches Camping Barns

Andy and Jen invite you to the opening of our newly refurbished camping barns and to enjoy a Fernhill Farm Experience.

Have a go at sheep shearing, or try your hand at making breads, wool rugs or charcoal.

Explore the glory hole gardens, find the frogs, feed the piglets and relax by our dragonfly pool.

A day full of activities in association with Active Mendip with home-cooked food and entertainment.

Each day from 12 noon and into the evening on 12, 13, 14 August.

For more information and to book text 07712 616797 or 07903 584 695 or email us at mail@fernhill-farm.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you. 

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