Farm Newsletter - June 2018

Volunteers 

'Farm Gym' - our new drop in volunteer group for adults on Wednesday evenings - is proving a popular addition and the volunteers have been a huge help with farm tasks. Throughout June they were busy watering, weeding and sweeping around the Farm. They also worked with Lucy and James to improve the youth allotments and strim and tidy the New Leaf area. If you'd like to get involved, find out more here.
 

      

June has been a busy month for corporate volunteer teams. We welcomed eight teams from Morgan Stanley and one from Northern Trust. The volunteers have assisted with the daily animal care as well as building two more raised beds for our community plots; leveling and widening the orchard where the old rabbit house used to be; and creating a path for the Young Farmers to be able to reach and tend their vegetables. Thanks everyone!

We also welcomed the wonderful GoodGym Lewisham runners, who made the 11k round trip to sweep the goat yard and weed round our Plot to Shop raised beds on a warm Monday evening! Read their run report here.

The Farm relies on a dedicated team of regular volunteers, who attend on a weekly basis assisting with everything from animal care to watering to manning the farm shop. If you'd like to get more involved and are able to give a regular commitment, have a look at the volunteer vacancies we have on our website.

Thank you to everyone who has given their time!
 

Youth Clubs

    

    

Livestock 

With such hot weather the livestock team have been busy keeping the animals cool and comfortable. We've added gazebos for extra shade, put frozen bottles of water in the small animal's houses and hosed the pigs!
The animals have also been enjoying treats of windfall apples and older chard leaves as we start producing so much fruit and vegetables here. The pigs are being particularly spoiled as both Winnie and Marmalade are pregnant and we should have piglets from mid-September onwards!

      

We were delighted to host a visit from the Education Committee of the Worshipful Company of Farmers. The Farmers enjoyed a tour of all our new developments, including our Green Hub and sustainable features. The group ended their tour with a lovely lunch in Piccalilli Caff, where we were joined by Watson the farm cat!
The Worshipful Company of Farmers have been long term supporters of the Farm, just look at all the plaques on our livestock buildings to see how they've helped over the years!

   

During the summer term we've welcomed students from The Complete Works School to take part in a range of animal care activities. The students did a fantastic job handling our animals and sharing the knowledge they've learnt  when we were visited by Time & Talents older people's group.
 

   

 

School Visits

Four Squares Growing Group

    

Training Projects

We deliver training projects for adult students with learning disabilities. Students develop skills in a range of areas including horticulture, retail, cooking, crafts, animal care and basic maintenance.
 

Plot to Shop 
This amazing hot weather has meant the Plot to Shop group have been outside every day working hard getting all the beds planted up for the new season. This has proved to be a big task as we now have a significantly larger growing area due to our wonderful new raised bed all along the fence! We have planted beans, squashes, pumpkins, sunflowers and cucumbers which will benefit from growing up the fence.

Elsewhere we have planted out courgettes, gherkins, carrots, radishes, celery, salad leaves, chard and peas. We have also been enjoying a wonderful harvest of beetroot, spring greens, garlic, onions and shallots as well as our summer fruit including raspberries, strawberries and redcurrants. Our sweet peas has been beautiful this year and we have sold them along with the fruit and veg in the shop.
This month we also welcomed a wonderful group of young adults from the Halow Project to the farm. They had a great time feeding the animals and helping us plant out squashes and some are keen to join our projects next year. 

Cow Pat  
This month the Cow Pat team have been spending a lot of time with Keira our Shetland pony and our donkeys Alice and Hermione, This ties in with this terms AQA 'looking after donkeys and ponies' Harry and Paul have been learning how to put on their head harnesses and Rachel has been getting more confident in cleaning their hooves and grooming them. We have also been spending a lot of time giving them cuddles and taking them for walks each week. 
We are really happy to welcome a new volunteer Sabina to the Cow Pat team. Sabina is a professional artist and helped Rachel draw this fantastic picture of Keira to decorate the cover of her Shetland Pony workbook.  

This month we have also been looking after some ducklings that have been hatched by a local school for one of our incubator projects. It was a real treat to be able to walk them over to the duck pond  and watch them jump in for their first swim. We were amazed how quickly they felt comfortable in the pond....like ducks to water!

Moo Crew
Moo Crew have been enjoying the weather and the opportunities it brings. We've been giving both the sheep and the donkeys a deep clean, even getting the jet washer out! We've also been working on animal enrichment, given the chickens freshly cut grass and making sure Saxon gets his greens. We are really looking forward to new cows on the farm, after all, we are called the Moo Crew!

New Leaf
What a hot month! New Leaf students, staff and volunteers have been busy watering all their plants during the summer weather.

Andrew dug up his potatoes, harvested salad and planted new lettuces. 
Harry has been harvesting onions, broad beans and garlic.
Michael has been weeding his beds, adding manure around his potatoes, tying up his runner beans and tomatoes to sticks to help them grow tall and strong. He's also harvested garlic, lettuce and sold his surplus strawberries in the farm shop.

Farm Produce
We've been picking a bountiful harvest of gooseberries, loganberries and blackcurrants this month to make jams and cakes with. Paul made a gooseberry drizzle cake and Kieron made some delicious loganberry muffins and jam tarts.  Harry top and tailed many gooseberries, freezing them for future use.
Michael Tippet  College students Tevin and Jordan harvested lots of fruit and made loganberry ice lollies. Their mini cornfield is looking quite spectacular and attracting many bees.
 

We currently have spaces in our training projects for new students, find out more about our offer via our website.

Heritage

A very rare photograph has been found; other than aerial photos, this is the only one we have so far of the River Fire Station and maintenance workshops that were on the Farm's site during WWII and after. This photo was taken in 1946, just after the end of the war, and these men are working on a barge out on the foreshore; you can see the old River Ambulance pier directly behind them. They are attaching floodlights and water jets to barges in preparation for the Victory Parade in June 1946. At this huge event in Westminster celebrating the end of war, 800 water jets illuminated with floodlights on these barges created a spectacular coloured water display over the Thames, accompanied by Handel’s Water and Firework Music. It's particularly pleasing to find out connections like this between South Wharf and larger events beyond. A copy of this photo can be seen in the display cabinet just outside the Farm Office. 

                                

Any further information is always welcome: heritage@surreydocksfarm.org.uk