Letters from the Children

Alongside our 'normal' farm life, the accommodation barn and being an active part of Active Mendip we're  also involved in the Send a Cow and Grow it Global campaigns. You've 

probably seen in past blogs that we've had Jane over from Africa to help local children understand global farming. We thought we'd share with yo

u some of the 

letters the children sent about their visit to Fernhill Farm with Jane.  

"Dear everyone at Fernhill Farm,

Thank you for letting us visit your Farm. I really enjoyed seeing the animals, making tip taps and bag gardens

. I also enjoyed digging up the mole hills and the tour around the farm.

 

I learnt that pina

pples grow on trees, Ugandan boys and girls sleep in separate huts, they had to walk two kilometres to get 

water and a child had to grow their own food and sell them for clothes.

 

Yours sincerely

Joe

Longwell Green Primary School"

 

"Dear Jen,

I am writing to say thankyou for inviting me to your farm. I really enjoyed the trip.

 

The thing i enjoye

d the most was the tip taps and making it. I liked the African dance it was really fun and funny and walking around the farm.

Thankyou again

Ryan

Birdwell School"

 

"Dear Jen,

Thank you for having us around your farm it was really fun. My favourite part was making the tip taps.

 

When we were doing gardening I liked planting the runner beans and peas and when Jane was carrying the bottle of water on her head.

I like the walk with farmer Nick and when we got our hands really really really muddy. I like it when we made

 tip tap and after we play fottball with the plastic bag ball.

Yours faithfully

Dominic"

 

"Dear Jen,

Thank you for letting us go and see your farm and the Ugandan farm.

 

It was very cool, i liked the tip tap and all the farm animals. Jane was verry nice and the way she sang was very good.

 

I made a bag ball but it didn't last very long.

 

Yours Sincerly

Lenny Chilcott

Birdwell Primary School."

 

I have many more with some lovely drawings to go along with them so would love to get them onto our website / blog soon.

 

Sorry have to dash now - we had 729 children involved (this project was conducted here, in Stratton on Fosse and Cornwall so many more children benefitted) but have to go and look after all the other bits of the farm now.

More soon from the Mendip Mind

Aardvarks on Zipwires

Aardvark Endeavours are one of those outdoor adventure comapnies that we're involved with through Active Mendip. In fact Ian who runs Aardvark is a Director of Active Mendip like me. Aardvark are proud to announce the opening of a permanent archery range and air rifle range at Fernhill. Both archery and rifle ranges have been designed to be mobile as well, so subject to a suitable venue you can have these activities at your function or event.  Coming soon to Fernhill will also be a zipwire, so the facilities on Mendip's newest venue just got better!

I might try some of our sheep on the zipwire but they're rubbish at archery, no opposable thumb you see.

The Mendip Mind

Jane on Mendip

We're up to our eyeballs in school kids this week. Hundreds of them have come through the farm to visit our African farmer Jane. She's been amazing with them and very inspirational. I'll post more details next time. Here are some pictures of her and the children. Back to work!

The Mendip Mind

Glory Hole Garden Gets Growing

Springs nearly here and our Glory Hole Garden is showing the first signs of the soil warming up. Green shoots are starting to emerge. These are great signs of the feast to come. The garden's provided quite a lot over the winter months but there's nothing like spring and summer for the proper bounty. 

Jon the chef is getting all excited as well. He's in the lucky position of being able to wander or wonder from garden to kitchen prepping ideas and food in his mind.  Then turning them into a reality for our guests. We get to sample them of course. Quality control, you see. As much as possible is grown and reared on the farm. What's not is made and bought locally like the cheese.

Take a look at Jon's menu on our website. This is just a sample of what he can do. It also includes his award winning Royal Smithfield menu. 

The Mendip Menu Mind

Active Liaison

Many of you probably aren't aware of our involvement in Active Mendip. I'm a Director of this Community Interest Company and Fernhill is right at the heart of it. Active Mendip is a group of all the outdoor adventure companies on mendip. They've come together to help themselves but also help Mendip. My role as a director is now 'landowner liaison'. Fancy indeed. But it's important. Go down Burrington and you'll find umpteen minibuses and kids scaling all over the rockfaces. That's great - people are getting active, staff are being employed, companies are growing. But let's not forget that it's a privilege to use someone else's land for our fun. We don't have a right to continue to use these rockfaces and caves for our fun. I'm going to be working hard to make sure local landowners see the broader benefits of activity on Mendip and how this area of outstanding natural beauty can benefit from it.

Keeping active. The Mendip Mind 

Stone Dancing, well sort of

Blagdon races, Lucky Seven, Chanctonbury Ring, The Carousel, Timber Salvage Reel, Half a Sixpence, Ealing Broadway, Nottingham Swing, Strip the Willow, Swedish Masquerade, Gay Gordons, La Russe, Bridge of Athlone, Clopton Bridge, Black Nagg, Dashing White Sergeant, Witches Reel, Double Snowball, Twelve Reel, Square Frenzy, Oxo Reel, Apple Tree Square, Old Jo, Circassian O. What are they then? Would you believe they are the dances that 60 of us did at the Fernhill Barn dance last Saturday night. We all stomped and tripped out way around the dance floor with different degrees of commitment to the whole dance thing. But hey, we all enjoyed ourselves.

And the weather's looking good for this weekend when we've got an exhibition of stone carving ceramics and sculpture. There's a flyer with all the details on the home page for you to have a look at. Or there will be very soon when i've created the link!

Mind your Mendips. The Mendip Mind 

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