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Futurefarms - Martin Ltd |
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Newsletter-Summer 2010 |
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TURN OF THE YEAR Rosebay willow herb is flowering in wild places which signals the turn of the year – a good time to sit under a tree and reflect on the first half of 2010. Your Community Food Business continues to throw up surprises and advances and ever wonderful grub…….. and more people use it and we are always looking to reach more and more because the larger the number of members and users, the greater the advances we can make. We have appointed a chicken/pig stockperson down at Drove End Field. Her name is Alison Allen from Tidpit. This position is the latest to be created by Futurefarms – a job opportunity directly created and funded straight from our housekeeping budget. We are delighted to welcome Alison to join the team of employed staff, that day-in, day-out,alongside the volunteers, put food on our tables.
Since the last Newsletter, we have introduced laying hens to the scheme with a variety called Columbian Blacktails who live in unrivalled splendour; flouncing in and out of one of our recently converted chicken houses, fully insulated etc but with clever plastic laying boxes fixed to the side. If you haven’t seen them – pay a visit to Drove End and watch the laying hens at work – eating a mixed diet of vegetation, insects, larvae and layers pellets with NO additives – all ending up with the fresh Martin egg for your breakfast. |
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FUTUREFARMS IN THE NEWS Futurefarms is listed by the Times Newspaper in the top 300 local food outlets in Britain. The Salisbury Journal returned to write another article about the group and they were pleased to note our advances since they visited in 2008. John Cavel of the Guardian wrote a great and accurate article about Futurefarms in February 2010 (look at it online dated Wednesday 3rd Feb 2010 in Society Guardian Section)) BBC Radio Solent – Georgina Windsor at Noon, Sunday 8th August 2010. Live broadcast |
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PITCHFORK NOTES; The first new potatoes were dug from Drove End Field on July 10th – very good flavour (Lady Christl: variety) –some small but never-the-less, a crop. They were planted on 19th of March – (no rain since Easter )!! Onions look fab on two sites. Tidpit and Drove End. It will be interesting to compare yields from each soil type. New mobile chicken food store has been built at Drove End. This allows us to buy chicken feed in bulk and on pallets. It is also a refuge for storm-bound veg personnel. |
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Newsletter-Autumn 2008 |
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NEWS FROM THE CHICKEN HUTS. I don’t know if you watched the Channel 4 series led by the enthusiast Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall but they presented the two systems of chicken husbandry, free-range versus “housed and miserable”, in two sheds side by side. Of course, the flock sizes in both experimental sheds were enormous. Our huts on the other hand are built to house a maximum of 100 birds. Each hut has a door at each end which gets over the problem of dominant birds standing guard at the pop hole and allowing only certain favourites in or out (probably the bribe is half a worm or a fresh millipede)—also a door at either end allows for perfect ventilation all day. Did you also know that our birds drink fresh water from a suspended ‘Quill‘ drinker positioned in each hut and adjusted for height as the birds grow. The Quill presents a row of shiny stainless steel nipples which when pecked deliver All day long the chickens graze in the grassland, stretch and rest in the warm sun or go inside the hut to feed or to drink from the suspended silvery ‘bar’ ……..not bad. Our chickens (your chickens) don’t need a ‘Red Tractor’ food label or a Freedom Farming label or a label claiming “made in Britain” – you can go and see them at any time in Drove End field. You can look inside the Huts and smell the ammonia-free air - and you might wonder why birds are raised in any other way.
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ALLOTMENTS In Sandleheath the allotments beside the village shop have an average plot size of 6 yards x 29 yards (so many poles by so many perches) and there are 22 plots with beautifully kept paths of grass between. This gives a total cultivated area of about 4000 square yards and an acre is 4840 square yards. Futurefarms is growing vegetables on about 3 acres which in Sandleheath terms would support 66 families. We are fairly sure that the Saturday Market and the Vegetable Barrow are visited by 66 families or there abouts. The American Community Supported Agriculture systems reckon on 1 acre to 30 families. The average Futurefarms Saturday Market yields 50 till transactions…….. I think it would be fair to say that Futurefarms is a Giant Allotment.
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PITCHFORK NOTES Spuds all lifted and bagged on Saturday 27th September; conditions – perfect; yield – heavy We were picking purple sprouting broccoli and spring greens as late as May this year Janet lifted the first ‘new’ carrots from the poly tunnel on the 22nd May Congratulations to Janet, Christian, Su, Heidi and Iona for a FAB veg season. List of Triumphs; ཡ? Purchase and use of new 2-Wheeled Tractor
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a glistening drop of fresh cold water into the gullet of the bird. The clever inventor of the Quill realised that fowls are always looking skywards fearful of the airborne predator and so he decided to suspend the device above the bird who on seeing the shiny nipple reaches up to peck it (like a jackdaw with a precious stone) and is rewarded immediately with a droplet of fresh water – day old chicks learn this behaviour within hours of release into their nursery pen. |
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THE GAUGE Well, I like autumn. No one is fussing about water shortages and hose-pipe bans (do you remember those?) No one is watering their hanging baskets, people are reconciled to damp, squally, sometimes quite beautiful autumn weather – nothing much is demanded of a weather forecaster – no more fetes, no barbeques – just get inside by the coal fire. The period around July 5th, 6th & 7th is known in weather circles as the European Monsoon. This year it was delivering the same amount of rainfall as last summer. August was dreadful for the grain harvest. Ken Woodvine remembers the harvest being gathered as late as November 5th one year –nothing changes. Keep an eye on the River Allen. Let’s see when it rises this year. Squeeze that seaweed …….. The Gauge |
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Plans for our new shop If you have visited our market in the village hall recently, you will have noticed that we are now selling a range of basic groceries alongside our own fresh produce. We have been pleasantly surprised at how well these have been selling, showing that people find it useful. Sales of groceries also help to pay for costs such as our insurance and hire of the village hall. Our long-term aim is to set up a permanent shop. We have agreement in principle from the Blandford Hall committee to rent some space in the larger side room in the village hall. We plan to put up a partition to create a self-contained unit and fit it up with shelving to display our goods. This will be a great advantage as we will be able to carry a wider range of stock and display it better. It will also give us the flexibility to open on more days each week - already we are opening on Tuesday afternoons Of course, this will be quite expensive to set up so we are in the process of putting together a grant application for the money. Village shops are now seen as a priority in rural areas so there are a number of possible sources of funding. Keep your fingers crossed that we will be successful! |
and we hope to extend this further. |
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We are now open: Tuesdays 3.30 - 6 pm Saturdays 9.30 - 12.30 pm Blandford Hall, Martin |
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Help needed Futurefarms is looking for a volunteer to help with administrative tasks. If you are interested and would like more information, please contact Beth Blandford-Hull. Tel: (01725) 519463.
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