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Cyrenians Farm Newsletter - Winter 2009
The more we pour the big machines, the fuel, the pesticides, the herbicides, the fertilizer and chemicals into farming, the more we knock out the mechanism that made it all work in the first place.
David R. Brower
Hi folks.
How are you all? Since my last newsletter life at the farm has been as interesting and varied as ever. We have started a great relationship with BSkyB delivering high quality away days for customer service teams in Rosyth and Livingston, we have had a good run of sales of produce including our seasonal release of Christmas hampers and we have had a great time with the residents from the farm, the farm volunteers, our massively valuable day volunteers and Samuel our EVS volunteer from France. (Sam, we love you, but the next time you play football, please warm up and stretch before hand; we could do without you having another stretched ligament!)
Even the torrential rain of the last two weeks hasn't been a setback with Residents and volunteers chipping in to keep the chicken coups dry and clean and we've been well prepared this year with winter planting. The broad
beans, cabbages, winter salad and kohl rabi are looking robust and healthy and the garlic has popped up this week with a little encouragement from the warmth that came with the rain.
Every growing season we see continuous improvement at the farm and this year has been no exception. With a little help from the ScottishAgricultural College this year should see a giant leap in improvement after our 'whole farm review'. The whole farm review is a case study of the farm from a third party perspective which we will use to inform our choices and planning for next year and beyond. It takes into consideration things such as planting plans, soil maintenance, infrastructure and business planning. during our consultation it was gratifying to have the fact that we are doing a lot of things well, acknowledged by an expert. there will be some changes to make and some great challenges but some of the changes will be easy to take.
(Don't quote me but, I think we can all look forward to more of the superb
eggs that we produce at the farm!)
We have a had a great deal of help in planning over the past few months from our Standard life secondee Tim. Tim has helped to define the parameters we need to change which we can use to reach out to even more vulnerable young people and bring them in to the farm to learn and to grow. We now welcome our new secondee Carol who is going to help us redefine and improve our systems for attracting business from corporations who want to invest in the farm for their team away days.
The Farm on TV!
The farm was featured recently on the prime time STV program 'The Hour'. The producers of the show wanted to feature an editorial on homelessness and created two short films based around the daily life of one of our residents. The show can still be viewed online, click the links below; the farm is featured in part 2 of each episode.
Episode One
Episode Two
STOP PRESS
Samuel's leg is now better.
Rob Davidson
Farm Enterprise Manager
The more we pour the big machines, the fuel, the pesticides, the herbicides, the fertilizer and chemicals into farming, the more we knock out the mechanism that made it all work in the first place.
David R. Brower
Hi folks.
How are you all? Since my last newsletter life at the farm has been as interesting and varied as ever. We have started a great relationship with BSkyB delivering high quality away days for customer service teams in Rosyth and Livingston, we have had a good run of sales of produce including our seasonal release of Christmas hampers and we have had a great time with the residents from the farm, the farm volunteers, our massively valuable day volunteers and Samuel our EVS volunteer from France. (Sam, we love you, but the next time you play football, please warm up and stretch before hand; we could do without you having another stretched ligament!)
Even the torrential rain of the last two weeks hasn't been a setback with Residents and volunteers chipping in to keep the chicken coups dry and clean and we've been well prepared this year with winter planting. The broad
beans, cabbages, winter salad and kohl rabi are looking robust and healthy and the garlic has popped up this week with a little encouragement from the warmth that came with the rain.
Every growing season we see continuous improvement at the farm and this year has been no exception. With a little help from the ScottishAgricultural College this year should see a giant leap in improvement after our 'whole farm review'. The whole farm review is a case study of the farm from a third party perspective which we will use to inform our choices and planning for next year and beyond. It takes into consideration things such as planting plans, soil maintenance, infrastructure and business planning. during our consultation it was gratifying to have the fact that we are doing a lot of things well, acknowledged by an expert. there will be some changes to make and some great challenges but some of the changes will be easy to take.
(Don't quote me but, I think we can all look forward to more of the superb
eggs that we produce at the farm!)
We have a had a great deal of help in planning over the past few months from our Standard life secondee Tim. Tim has helped to define the parameters we need to change which we can use to reach out to even more vulnerable young people and bring them in to the farm to learn and to grow. We now welcome our new secondee Carol who is going to help us redefine and improve our systems for attracting business from corporations who want to invest in the farm for their team away days.
The Farm on TV!
The farm was featured recently on the prime time STV program 'The Hour'. The producers of the show wanted to feature an editorial on homelessness and created two short films based around the daily life of one of our residents. The show can still be viewed online, click the links below; the farm is featured in part 2 of each episode.
Episode One
Episode Two
STOP PRESS
Samuel's leg is now better.
Rob Davidson
Farm Enterprise Manager
