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Brrrrrr

Snow, ice, frost, windchill, the Farm sits at about 300m above sea level so it's always colder and windier up here. Mind you the farmhouse and accommodation are nestled in a natural hollow around the pond. Putting the farm buildings in these slight depressions does take the sting out of the wind, Swallet Farm near the Castle of Comfort is just the same. People have always adapted to their natural surroundings and built their settlements to take advantage of these things; high on a hill for protection, next to rivers for power and food. 

Following on from that principle we try and use the natural setting of the farm to our advantage in other ways. Sustainable living you might call it. Grazing the limestone grasslands, taking the wood from our land to renovate the barns and fuel our heating system, vegetable from our garden that's in a sheltered quarry behind the barn. Wool from our sheep insulates the place and pro

vides clothes. It's not normal to have standing water in ponds on Mendip, the porous limestone means it sinks away quickly, but we've created a series of ponds known as a Wetland Ecosystem Treatment to clean our waste water. It's definitely not natural to have tankers coming up to take your waste water away.

It is however natural to have some parties in our barns, we've lit up the trees in our hollow  to create the right atmosphere. What do you think?

The Mendip Mind, keeping warm by the fire!    

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