...What a successful weekend!

Fordhall hosted yet another great weekend this weekend. Not only was it the weekend of our third ever AGM but we also held a very successful Farmers' Market on the Sunday at the farm and guess what...the weather was great. The event was attended by over 1,500 people from all over the country, many of which stayed in local B&B's. Our next event after this will be our Summer Fair on the 5th July 2009.Please come and support us.

The third annual meeting for the Fordhall Community Land Initiative (FCLI) was held at the Grove School on Saturday April 25th. The annual meeting, attended by almost 100 people highlighted the successes of the initiative throughout 2008; this included hosting over 50 school visits, 4 family open days, biodiversity courses, the outdoor musical play Arthurs Plough, volunteer opportunities for over 200 people, and access improvements for the thousands of people who visit the farm on an annual basis. Major successes of the year included a £49,000 grant from Heritage Lottery for the Farm Trail and a £25,000 award from the Morgan Foundation towards the renovation of the farm buildings for educational use.

The accounts show an unrestricted surplus of £13,000 which is fantastic news and will help fund the many new projects in the pipeline. A 5-year business plan for the FCLI was launched on the day with a forecasted spend of over £1.7m over the next 5 years!


The AGM was followed by a lecture on Green Care by Dr. John Hegarty, a lecturer at Keele University, highlighting the benefits of access to green space on mental health and well being and the fantastic work that the Fordhall Community Land Initiative is doing in this area. One volunteer who arrived at Fordhall after suffering a mental breakdown, spoke of how his experiences volunteering had increased his confidence, eased his condition and helped him to enjoy life again. The team at Fordhall hope to expand these opportunities throughout 2009 through the volunteering programme.

The day finished with a fantastic barn dance and Fordhall Hog Roast for all ages. The Boat Band were great and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Although the dancing was a little too much for Charlotte as she wasn't able to walk for the first half of Sunday!

The next event at the farm will be a Dawn Chorus guided walk this Saturday morning at 5.30am to coincide with International Dawn Chorus Day organised by the Wildlife Trusts. A perfect opportunity to hear the beauty of the morning song and celebrate nature’s miracle in a tranquil setting. Please ring 01630 638696 to book or see http://www.idcd.com

Fordhall Farmers' Market on Sunday - See you there!

Here at Fordhall Farm we are getting very excited about our Farmers' Market on Sunday as we have some fantastic local produce on offer. Plus the weather is getting a lot warmer and if it continues like this we are in for a fantastic day.
However, whatever the weather, we are still in for a great day. As well as the fantastic Farmers' Market there are art activities for children, pond dipping (which must be booked on in advance)wine making demonstrations, lots of games for all the family, guided walks, as well of course as the baby calves and the baby lambs.

We hope that this year will be bigger and better than ever before so please come along and support us! This is a free event from 11am - 4pm.

...See you there!

Fordhall Farm on the BBC

FANTASTIC NEWS. The BBC Natural World programme about Peak Oil and the future of our farming industry will be repeated this Saturday at 5.30pm on BBC2.

If you missed it first time round, this is a great programme and worth watching. Rebecca Hosking lives in Devon and faced with the prospect of taking on her family farm she begins to look at what the future of the farming industry may look like. As she learns of the dependance of agriculture on oil and the problems we will soon face with the availability of this key resource, she begins to look at alternative ways of farming.

Along her journey Rebecca visits Fordhall Organic Farm and learns from Charlotte the benefits of the Foggage farming system where the livestock are outdoors on organic pasture year round. A farming system which relies on the free resource of the sun to sustain it, along with careful management and an abundance of wildlife and biodiversity.

This is a very interesting and well filmed programme, even if farming is not your forte!

Enjoy

'A FARM FOR THE FUTURE' BBC 2 SATURDAY 4TH APRIL 5.30PM.

Highly Commended in the Daily Mail's 'Make Your Mark' Awards

Charlotte and Ben were recently finalists in the Daily Mail's 'Make Your Mark' awards for their enterprising initiative in creating the Fordhall Community Land Initiative in 2006.

The winners of the 2009 Make Your Mark Enterprising Young Brits Awards were announced on Tuesday 24 March 2009 at a ceremony at the Institute of Directors (IoD), London. They were each presented with a trophy and £1,000 prize money by Alistair Darling, who made time to chat to finalists and hear their positive stories - see pic!

The Fordhall Community Land Initiative, founded by Ben and Charlotte Hollins together with lots of volunteers, narrowly missed out on winning the top spot in the Social and Community category. But the judges were so impressed with the work the brother and sister team have achieved, they were given a special Highly Commended Award, never before given in the four years the competition has been running!

Run by the Make Your Mark campaign and supported by the Institute of Directors, The Daily Mail, HM Treasury and The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) the Enterprising Young Brits Awards reward budding young entrepreneurs (aged 30 and under) who have turned their ideas into a profit-making reality, shining a spotlight on the next generation of British business big shots.

Harry Rich, Chief Executive of the Make Your Mark campaign and Chair of the judges, said: “Once again these awards have highlighted some of the fantastically enterprising young people turning their ideas into reality right across the UK. It’s great to see people making money in these tough economic times and we hope that this signals a bright future for British business.”

Keep It Local in Market Drayton

Over the last few weeks, Charlotte has been working with some local businesses on an idea to bring back local shopping habits and a sense of pride for Market Drayton. This week 40 independent businesses in Market Drayton are taking part in 'Keep It Local'. During the week local residents will be encouraged to visit a new independent store, introduce themselves to the shopkeeper and purchase an item. In return the businesses will put a donation in a tin for each new customer they receive. This is not about boycotting the superstores, but about re-addressing the balance in our shopping habits to retain the integrity, variety and beauty of our town centres.

At the end of the week, the donations will be collected and the funds will be put towards the regeneration of the town. This may be through hanging baskets in the main shopping streets or the painting of the empty shop fronts. It will be up to the businesses and residents to decide together.

The purpose of the initiative is two-fold:

1. Introducing customers to retailers begins to build the connections between the community and their local businesses, hopefully, building loyalty and community spirit with it.

2. The donations given by the businesses will clearly demonstrate to the community that the money they spend in these independent retailers stays in the local economy and helps its regeneration. Whereas money spent in the chain retailers disappears out of town. The practical measures such as hanging baskets will show the community what a difference a week of local shopping can do - imagine what a difference a year of this can make!?!

Building on the success of the Fordhall Farm Community Land Initiative, Charlotte hopes that collaborative working in Market Drayton will achieve great results. Demonstrating that small scale changes, when done collaboratively can have a positive, active and long lasting impact in your local area.

Ben is also taking part in the Farmers' Market due to be held in the town centre on Sunday 5th April from 10am-2pm - why not go and say hello - its that easy! :-)

Forest School Fun Week to run again!

After the success of Fordhall's Forest School Fun week at February half term, Fordhall Farm is pleased to announce that it will be running an extra three days during the Easter holidays.
Due to the popularity at half term, places become booked up quickly and we anticipate that the same will happen at Easter.
The days are great fun for all the family and activities will include Farm Trails, mini beast hunts,dens, campfires, woodland crafts and much much more!
So if you are interested in attending one of these really enjoyable days please contact the office on 01630 638696.

Each day costs £5 per child and runs from 10 am - 12.30 pm. Suitable for ages 4 - 12 years. Don't miss out ...Book now!

FINALISTS! - Enterprising Young Brits Award

WOW! Charlotte and Ben and the Fordhall Community Land Initiative have been shortlised for the Daily Mail's Enterprising Young Brits Awards 2009 through the Make Your Mark campaign.

Make Your Mark is the campaign to give people in the UK the confidence, skills and ambition to be enterprising - to have ideas and make them happen. Having a can-do attitude and the skills to spot opportunities, overcome challenges and implement ideas is more important than ever in today’s tough global economic climate.

Charlotte and Ben have been shortlised in the Social Community category and will travel down to London next tuesday to present to the judges.

Just to be short listed is another fantastic achievement for all those involved with and supporters to, Fordhall Organic Farm in Shropshire! A big thank you and a pat on the back should once again go to all of you. It almost sounds a bit repetitive, but we would not be here without you!

BUT IT IS NOT JUST DOWN TO THE JUDGES... YOU CAN VOTE TOO?!?

There is a publics choice category that all finalists are entered into and this relys on a public online vote. So, please do vote for us. All you have to do is follow the link below, it is that easy.

Many thanks in advance for all your support and watch this space to reveal the result next week....

Vote for Charlotte and Ben and the Fordhall Community Land Initiative

New lambs at Fordhall

Yes spring has sprung when new baby lambs can be seen around the farm and so far Ben is very happy with the way things are progressing. There have been no real problems and lots of twins have been appearing too.


Ben has about 90 ewes to lamb over the next two weeks, so there are lots of late nights and early mornings as he keeps a close check on all the pregnant mums to be. Many farmers will have lambed most of their sheep by now, but we are always that bit behind as we wait for the grass to start its spring growth. We operate a Foggage farming system at Fordhall Farm, which means that our livestock are outside all year round. As a result their diets are mainly grass and therefore we need to time when the youngstock come on to the farm carefully with the seasons.

You can see the lambs and free range piglets when you visit the farm shop, or for a closer look then come to our Farmers' Market and Lambing Open Day on April 26th 11am-4pm.

Fordhall Farm holds ANOTHER successful working weekend!

Yet again Fordhall has held a successful working weekend with people from as far afield as Somerset coming along and taking part. Lots got finished, including fences, gates and yurt cleaning!
All volunteers left happy, with a sense of achievement at helping a worthy project and a full tummy after all our delicious grub that we served to them!
If you would like to attend our next working weekend which will be June 6th-7th 2009 or to get more information please contact me on 01630 638696 or email project@fordhallfarm.com

Hannah

Permaculture Design course at Fordhall

WOW! We have had a fantastic response from the BBC programme shown last friday called 'Farm for the Future' featuring Fordhall Farm. It was filmed as part of the Natural World series on BBC 2 and attracted over 2.2 million viewers! But, if you were not one of them and you could like to catch the film then you can still view it over the BBC iPlayer programme.

One philosophy featured in the programme was Permaculture and Forest Gardens. Systems which rely on balance, cycles and connectiveness, just like Foggage Farming does at Fordhall. These are highly productive and efficient. They demand no fossil fuel energy to run, just a little bit of common sense and thought.

If you are interested in Permaculture and would like to attend a Permaculture Design course then we will be holding an Introduction to Permaculture weekend course at Fordhall this summer. It will run over July 18th - 19th 2009 and must be booked in advance. It will cost £120 for the weekend including camping facilities and all food.
If you would like more details or would like to attend please contact the FCLI office on 01630 638696 or email project@fordhallfarm.com.