Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Relishing Fordhall Farm

What a lovely day yesterday - the Midlands group of Relish from Heart of England Fine Food visited Fordhall Farm for a guided walk and buffet, tasting lots of local delights including our very own beef and pork of course! The group were great fun and the sun shone across the fields creating a perfect Autumn day. There was lots of great discussions about delicious food and where it comes from, including exhanging some handy shopping places!

Charlotte went onto give a talk to 3 WI groups in Staffordshire in the evening and thoroughly enjoyed taking part in their meeting and the entertainment organised.

Now the Nature Trail has re-opened there is just enough time to explore Fordhall Farm as the leaves turn a lovely deep red before scattering to the floor and giving the pigs tempatation to rummage through them to find acrons!


Watch this space for forthcoming events:
- Bonfire Night celebrations at Fordhall...don't forget about our working weekend on 3-4th November. Places are filling up but its going to be absolutly great so get in there quickly. Lots of team jobs and smaller projects planned. Something for everyone!

- Ceilidh before Christmas! As soon as we have confirmed the date we will let you know.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see you are "in coversation" with the Soil Association. Although a member, I don't think it is for you. The charges are extortionate and aimed at big enterprises. Everyone KNOWS that you are organic: you don't need a certificate to prove it to 8000 shareholders.
Also delighted to see Sophie is still with you. Heard she was going, but it would be such a shame- I do enjoy her bubbly writings....

Fordhall Community Land Initiative said...

Yes, we are currently going through the conversion process to re-register as organic. We came out of it during the 90's when the farm was in financial difficulty.
You are right in that paying to be able to use the word organic when people can see it for themselves on our nature trail and at the farm shop may sound silly. However, we have a great number of supporters that span the breadth of the country and for their peace of mind we have had to go back into the organic symbol. We went with the Soil Association as, although expensive, they were very supportive throughout the campaign to save the farm and can offer greater marketing to the organic sector than other smaller certification bodies.

These decisions are never easy to make and you have to base them on what you think is right at the time.

Sophie will be leaving at Christmas and yes we will miss her lively writing and bubbly smile too!
Charlotte