Good News - Funding Awarded!

After a very long wait from the grant body for the Renovation of the Old Dairy, Advantage West Midlands, we were put forward to their approval panel today and approved! Whoop whoop :-)

The last few weeks and months have involved a lot of emails back and forth, supplying more evidence and answering their questions. Obviously, with the budget cuts everyone is watching their money very carefully and we were beginning to get concerned that the funding level would be dropped considerably.

However, the team at our Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, are very supportive of our project and are really keen for it to succeed. They see the vital benefit that Fordhall has for the local community and for tourism in the area. They want to help us involve more people in the farm and spread the wonderful message of local food, conserving our natural environment and living sustainably. A big thank you to Jo Jury at the Regional Development Agency who has held our hand through the whole process and been a fantastic support.

The funding came through the Rural Development Programme for England and will contribute 40% towards the project costs. The exciting result is that contractors will be on site early November. So, we still hope to complete the bulk of the work by Easter 2011, so you can all pop over for your tea and cake!

A lot of work has gone into this application by the team at Fordhall Farm, but special thanks must go to Sharon Jones for her many hours spent working on the application, to our board for their guidance and positive support and not least to all of YOU. Without your support during our desperate appeal in July, this funding would not have been released.

This building will be built in memory of our later father, Arthur Hollins. Without his dedication to organic farming Ben and I, and all of our shareholders, would not have the wonderful foundation that we have at Fordhall today. It is his legacy and his philosophies of life and nature that will be exemplified through the new building and through its use for the local and wider community.

This marks an important step for the Fordhall Community Land Initiative. It creates the ability to take more formal educational groups and the ability to generate our own revenue to support this educational work. The management team will now go over the budgets to check that everything is still on track and that we are achieving the highest environmental standards we can within the budget that we have for the building. All funds raised from now on will allow us to improve those credentials, exchanging more energy intensive materials for more natural and sensitive alternatives (click on the link below if you would still like to contribute AND have your name on the plaque inside the building).

http://www.fordhallfarm.com/donate_fordhall.php

Many, many thanks once again and warmest wishes to you all - now to the beginning of another important journey for Fordhall Organic Farm.

Charlotte Hollins

(FCLI Manager)

Pondering....

As many of you will be aware, there is a current 'static' period in the agricultural industry. Whilst farmers can no longer move their cattle around, they cannot supply their farm shops and other outlets with the necessary products. The potential threat of being contaminated with Foot and Mouth Disease is too great a risk for many to shoulder and precautions are being taken by all.

It is because of this looming danger that we have been seriously considering what action to take regarding the forthcoming Family Fun Day on August 19th at Fordhall Farm. Our difficulty is; the current ban extends to August 17th and if any further action was taken not only would the nature trail have to remain shut, but all visitors would have to be decontaminated upon entering the farm - not everyones 'cup of tea'! Also, because the ban will not be lifted until 2 days prior to the event, Ben may not have any meat to either stock the fridge or provide the hog roast and bbq he has become accustomed to! It is just another knock for the farm after the flooding in July has caused problems with Hay Making. Ben is hoping this week will stay dry enough to get it all baled, but the delay has caused a lot of anxiety around the normally fun and involving activity.

This day has already been postponed due to the flooding in July and we have made it 'bigger and better' to compensate for this, so we are reluctant to cancel unless we have to. Even if we have to go ahead without the hog roast!

We just hope that this situation is resolved as soon as possible so everyone can let go of their breath and continue as normal. We really appreciate your understanding and hope you will keep your eye on our website for further updates.

We are in close talks with DEFRA and hope that if there are no other outbreaks between now and the event. If the next 10 days stays free, we hope to hold the event on August 19th as planned.

Please spare a thought for your local farmers.

From all at Fordhall x

p.s. photos of the hay making (in the sun) coming soon...

Fordhall Press, just confirmed...

Just Confirmed......


After the article's in the Sunday Times and Saturday Mail over the weekend, the office has once again gone crazy as interest in the Fordhall Community Land Initiative gains momentum.

You can read the Sunday Times article by following this link
http://www.flintoff.org/one-farmer-8001-landlords

The pending publication of Charlotte and Ben's book, 'The Fight for Fordhall Farm' is drawing in all the press as they begin a week of interviews and tv appearances. They began today with a 15 minute interview on BBC Radio Shropshire on the drivetime programme with Sam Hatton. And they will travel to London tomorrow for many more and the list has just been confirmed...

If you want to listen then why not tune in to one (or more) of the following:

• BBC Radio 4. Midweek Programme - 9am Wednesday
• BBC Radio Scotland. 10.15am Wednesday
• LBC 97.3 Radio (London). 1.30pm Wednesday
• BBC Radio Bristol. Richard Lewis afternoon show. 3.30pm Wednesday
• BBC One Breakfast News. 9am Thursday
• BBC Radio Cumbria. The Ian Timmis Show. 1pm Thursday
• BBC Radio London 94.9. The Robert Elms Show. 2.30pm Thursday
• Channel 4 Richard and Judy Show. 5pm Friday.
• BBC Radio 4. 'On Your Farm'. 6.40am Sunday 15th July
• BBC Radio 2. Johnny Walker Show. Sunday

They will also be in the Guardian Newspaper on Wednesday - can you keep up - not sure if we can!!!

Also dont forget that the book is now available online direct from Fordhall Farm at http://www.fordhallfarm.com/

Many thanks to all our existing shareholders and volunteers for your support - we could not achieve this without you!

p.s. As Ben and Charlotte are in London for most of the week, Sophie is holding the fort in the office. Therefore please be patient if we do not answer your emails or phonecalls as efficiently as we normally would - you can be sure that we are doing our best to stay on top of everything.

Thank You

The Fordhall Book

As you may be aware, Charlotte and Ben have written a book entitled 'The Fight for Fordhall Farm' due to be released on July 12th by Hodder and Stoughton.





This book began as an update to their late fathers (Arthur Hollins) book 'The Farmer the Plough and the Devil' which charts the history of Fordhall from the 1920's through to the 1980's when Charlotte and Ben were born. But, the update grew in length and soon turned into a book of its own - and if any of you have been lucky enough to meet either Ben or Charlotte you will know just how much they can talk!

Anyway, the launch of this book brings another new chapter to the Fordhall story as more press is launched and the issues of farming in todays political economy are highlighted. The Sunday Times have the first story this weekend, followed by the Weekend Mail, Radio 4's Midweek Programme, BBC Breakfast (thursday), Farming Today (Sun 15th July) and Johnny Walkers show amongst more.

Charlotte said
"The flurry of press around the book is another surreal time for Ben and I. Charging across the country for photo shoots and interviews is not the normal life of a farmer, but we are enjoying the new experiences and hoping that our story provides new opportunities for other young people in the industry, as well as encouraging the public to support their local farmers and farm shops."

We hope to have a more detailed list of the press as it happens here - so watch this space....

Books can be purchased direct from Fordhall Farm
signed at £16.99 or unsigned at £14.99.
10% of profits from sales direct from Fordhall Farm go towards the educational work of the Fordhall Community Land Initiative - the community owned society that uses Fordhall as an educational resource and leases the land to Ben and Charlotte to farm.

Soil Association Conference, By Charlotte

I attended the recent Soil Association Conference in Cardiff. As ever, it was an interesting mix of people coming together to, on this occasion, hear about 'Peak Oil'.

The Peak Oil topic is not a new one, but it has risen in importance over the last 12 months. The concept is that we have reached the maximum level of oil extraction that the earth can supply. From this year onwards the amount of oil available for us to extract on a daily basis will slowly decline.

This has consequences for every aspect of society, including farming. Essentially, everyone in the agricultural industry will need to be concious of the amount of energy currently required for food production. Many intensive arable farms use many more kilo-joules of energy to grow the crop than the crop creates as food energy, and this could become a potential problem in years to come.

Luckily, we run a very extensive farming system at Fordhall with very few inputs. With no tractor and only a small quad bike, our oil usage is already minimal. Furthermore, our grassland grazing system sequesters (or absorbs) the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere and holds it in our soils. This increases the fertility of our farmland as well as acting as our small contribution to the fight aganist global warming.

I took a lot of inspiration away from this years conference. Although the 'Peak Oil' focus could be seen as a haunting topic, the truth is that humans are in the exciting position of being able to make that all important difference; making small changes today that will create a secure and positive future for our children. Even so much as putting in an energy saving lightbulb, sharing car journeys and using more public transport, are small changes that can make a big difference.

This is the point at which we have a choice. I believe that earth will continue regardless, but will it be a place that we want to live in - we have that choice, now.

Only 100 votes shy of 'Midlander of the Year Award'

The BBC announced the winner of their 'Midlander of the Year' award only moments ago. Charlotte and Ben came a close second to Otto Putland, a young swimmer raising money for a teenage cancer unit in Birmingham, who got only 100 votes more than Charlotte and Ben. From a total of 17,000 votes, Charlotte and Ben received over 5000, that’s 29.5% of the total votes, not bad going at all.

Charlotte says “both Ben and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who voted for us. We were completely amazed by the result when the BBC told us. Only 100 votes behind the winner is an amazing achievement. It really motivates us to know that so many people are still supporting our activities at Fordhall. We won the Schumacher Award last September for our contribution to sustainable development and now coming second as Midlander of the Year, both are great achievements, but saving Fordhall with so much support behind us has to be the biggest success of 2006”

Fordhall Farm is now owned by almost 8000 people from across the country and even the globe, with the land leased to Charlotte and Ben, but there is still a long way to go at Fordhall; bunkhouses are being planned as well as a local/organic food tea rooms, and all built sustainably and with as much community input as possible.

There are always ways to get involved with the farm. You can still buy non-profit making shares in the Initiative, visit the farm shop or you can take part in their volunteer working weekends. The next is planned for this Sunday 14th Jan when there will be a one day hedge laying training course. Anyone wanting to take part in the training day, or would like to know more about Fordhall are encouraged to call Sophie on 01630 638656 or email project@fordhallfarm.com. You can keep updated with progress at Fordhall by following their online diary linked from their website http://www.fordhallfarm.com/.

Do we get your vote?

Charlotte and Ben have been nominated by BBC Midlands Today for the
"Midlander of the Year" Award.

You can see the piece shown on BBC Midlands TV by following this link and clicking on Charlotte and Ben on the right hand side of the page.

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?q=organic+farm&scope=all&tab=av&recipe=all

You can vote for Charlotte and Ben by calling
09015 225101

But, there is only one week to vote and as far as I know you can call up to 100 times from the same telephone number! So, there are no excuses :-)

What has been achieved at Fordhall this year has been nothing short of amazing. The achievements of Ben and Charlotte Hollins (now 22 and 24 years of age respectively) are testament to the support and involvement from all of you. There are 2 of them and almost 8000 of you who own Fordhall. You are the ingredient that make this project work and this award is about your achievements just as much as theirs. The success of this project demonstrates the powerful support that you have for food and farming in this country and above all else, supporting young people in the industry.

After their father, Arthur Hollins died, all Ben and Charlotte wanted to do was to remain at Fordhall and continue to farm it organically. By allowing you to be involved and therefore placing the farm into community ownership, they have done this. Ben and Charlotte are now the proud tenants of Fordhall with security throughout their lifetime, and as an added bonus the farm is there as an educational and social resource for adults and children alike. Although the £800,000 was raised to purchase the land earlier this year, the project does not stop there. Charlotte and team are now working on extending the nature trail and renovating the farm buildings for educational use and of course there are events and volunteer opportunities all the time. All shares now sold will contribute towards these projects, as well as gathering funding for the 12 acre field that they have still not purchased.

For more information on how this project began click below

http://www.fordhallfarm.com/FCLI/project%20origins.htm

Brief Update:
As the winter draws in and the temperature drops we are all running round getting ready for Christmas. Orders for Christmas meat are being organised by Ben and his team of helpers, whilst shares, Fordhall calenders and other merchandise are being posted and written by Charlotte, Sophie and the team of volunteers in the office.

It goes without saying that we are looking forward to the peaceful activities of Christmas day and of course to welcoming in 2007 with full security at Fordhall.

Merry Christmas to all our supporters and friends. This really has been a year to remember and we feel extremely lucky to be where we are today.
Roll on 2007......

p.s. Although it is too late to receive shares in time for Christmas, they are still available. They can be purchased online or through the post. Follow the directions from our homepage www.fordhallfarm.com for instructions.