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Farm Newsletter - April 2019

Welcome to your monthly round up of news from the Farm!

Don't miss our Spring Fair this Saturday 11th May, running from 11am - 4pm. Please come and support us for a fantastic day with sheep shearing and wool spinning demonstrations, BBQ & bar, bouncy castle, plant stall, raffle, fresh bread, homemade cakes, craft stalls, Morris men  performances and more! Find out more on our website.

    

We’re delighted to announce our new riverfront development started this week. This will put the Tower back in use  with a training kitchen and workshop space, as well as upgrading the river room to make the most of our Thames views. Full details about the development can be found on our website.

  

Thanks to all who’ve championed this project since the arson attack over ten years ago. Particular thanks to Southwark Council who have provided guidance and funded all of phase one through Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy funds.

We'd also like to give our thanks to Hollybrook Homes who funded and organised delivery of two portacabins to act as a temporary classroom for local schools and office space. This will enable us to continue all our activities as normal while the building works run until end of September.

  

We've been successful with a grant through Southwark Council's 'Cleaner Greener Safer' programme. This funding enabled us to hire a very-mini digger so that in only a few days we had piled all the unrotted manure close to the fence to be taken away off site. Thanks also to the Worshipful Company of Farmers who have funded several grab lorry trips to remove this unrotted manure.
We are now left with well-rotted manure which is wonderful organic fertiliser! If you are interested in any bags do get in touch, we also have some funding to deliver larger amounts to allotments and community gardens. Email manager@surreydocksfarm.org.uk for more information!
 
    
 

Livestock 

 

All of the lambs and goat kids have now been born and are steadily growing everyday. The goat kids are great fun to watch racing round the yard and the bottle fed lambs are very friendly.
 
  
 
Our lambs made a live TV performance with The Yorkshire Vet in April. Claire took the lambs into the studio and they delighted and impressed everyone with their super-speedy bottle feeding!
 
  

Another set of incubators has gone out to a few primary schools so be on the look out for the chicks when they arrive back at the Farm in the coming weeks.

We're starting to get busy with mobile farms again, with regular visits to local primary schools and community events.
 
    

The chickens are laying regularly now the days are longer. Don't miss out on our delicious fresh eggs collected daily and sold from our farm shop!

 

Support Us


If you enjoy and value the Farm and can help with a donation of any amount, we would be extremely grateful of your support. Please see our website for various ways you can help us.
 
Or if you're a local business and would like to sponsor a project at the Farm, please contact: manager@surreydocksfarm.org.uk for further information.

This month we'd like to thank Logo Systems who generously donated an iPad for our Farm Shop. This enables us to run a touch screen till with images of products, so that our adult students with learning disabilities can learn customer service and retail skills.
 

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.

Cow Pat
This month the Cow Pat group have been really excited by the arrival of our new goat kids. We have been making the most of the opportunity to be around them when they are still small and very cute. We have been cleaning out the goat yard regularly as an excuse to give them loads of cuddles. We have also been looking after our lambs that were born last month, cleaning out their pen and bottle feeding them. 

    


Plot to Shop

April has been the start of us planting vegetables outside, now that the chance of hard frosts have passed. We have planted potatoes, radishes, beetroots, salad leaves, carrots and parsnips. We have also been harvesting crops that we planted last autumn including rhubarb, fennel, spring greens, chard, lettuce and spinach. Please come and find us at the Surrey Docks Spring Fair where we will be selling twelve different varieties of heritage tomatoes as well as trays of vegetables, herbs and bedding plants. Support our project by stocking your garden or balcony with plants sowed, tended and grown on by our wonderful students.


New Leaf
This month the students have been busy moving the smaller tomato plants into bigger pots half full with well-rotted manure in the poly-tunnel. Helen has also planted some climbing french beans and runner beans whilst Tony has been weeding and edging the beds. Harry has begun sowing rocket, lettuce, parsnip and water melon.

   


Farm Produce 
The students have been busy making jam for the spring fair. Paul, Kieron, Harry, Tevin and Jordan made some delicious chocolate Easter cakes and an very delicate lamb cake. Tevin created some printed animal themed cards using stencils.         

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

Volunteers


We're currently recruiting for livestock volunteers to assist with animal care. We also need support volunteers for our New Leaf and Plot to Shop projects.
Find out more and complete an enquiry form to register your interest here.
 

Youth Clubs

We deliver a programme of exciting outdoor activities for children and young people. Thanks to financial support from British Land.

The Young Farmers have been refreshing their allotment blackboard signage so that visitors know who is growing what this year. The youth greenhouse is heaving with seedlings planted by the children - we have lots of planting out to get done!
 
    

The Keeping it Wild programme is going well and in May the Young Farmers will be going to a pitch event to seek £600 for their community project. We are keeping busy practising the pitch and putting together a presentation on PowerPoint! 

On Easter Saturday Ian Moore from Surrey Quays Shopping Centre visited the Young Farmers to help them make a double layer chocolate Easter nest cake! We had lots of fun baking this and decorating the nest with mini eggs. The children were encouraged to take some home for their families and to give some to our hard working livestock volunteer team.
 
  

The youth clubs visited Lavender Pond in the first week of the holidays to learn about the flora and fauna there. The children are working toward both their John Muir awards and AQA Unit Awards in Ecology which this trip contributes to. Much fun was had by all and well done to the children for correctly identifying so many animals! 
 
    

The young people also want to say a huge thank you to Vanessa who has kindly donated the £90 annual fee for our foreshore licence. This means we can go down to the beach by the Farm site to collect plastic litter, learn about history and look for pottery. We're so grateful for all the kind people who support our work!

Please consider helping us where you can by gifting us something from our wishlist. The wild birds need regular supplies of food in the breeding season so if you can help we'd appreciate it
 

School Visits

 
Schools have enjoyed seeing the baby animals and young plants on the Farm. They quietly watched parent Great Tits fly back and forth to their nest box with food for their young. This month we've had visits from St Peter's, St William of York, St Josephs RC primary schools,  Coin Street Nursery and Southbank International school. 

Find out more about our school workshops on our website here.

Heritage


The Farm's own archive has been reorganised over the last months, so there are now three large boxes of photos, press clippings, posters and documents from the last 44 years, all now easy to find. Some fascinating photos were found in the process, including some from when the current farm was being built. Here's a timely one to remember the tower first being constructed in 1985/6. To its right is the old ambulance shelter / river fire station shed, before it became the blacksmith's forge. If anyone has any more photos of the farm from this time, do get in touch: heritage@surreydocksfarm.org.uk 
 
.
The Forge
Kevin Boys our resident blacksmith holds classes every Sunday from 10am -12pm
Tel: 07984416269
 
Copyright © 2019 Surrey Docks Farm, All rights reserved.


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