Livestock News

Four weeks ago we were thrilled to find out that our ducks’ eggs really were fertile. The farm now has nine ducklings who live indoors at night and come out for a splash in the sun every day. They are growing at an amazing speed, but still are fluffy. the smallest duckling with a slightly wonky leg is doing well. She is a quarter the size of her brothers and sisters, but her feet look fine now and she is growing slowly.

The pigs are all living together again after weaning – this has cheered up the sow Jasmine who hated being on her own. We are keeping the gilt (young female pig) as pigs hate living on their own and these particular pigs get on well with each other.

The sheep were shorn back in May. This is not just to get the wool off them for spinning, but also to make sure that they are free of parasites and of course not too hot. Over the next few weeks I will sort out the fleeces into different grades of wool

Juley Community Farmer

Community Cafe Building Starts!

Very excitingly, work began on building our new Community Cafe and Training Facility on Monday. First the work men put in safety barriers along the farm yard to protect the public and animals from their vehicles, whilst still allowing movement through to the paddock andaccess to the community room and toilets.

Fencing has been put in place to protect the public from construction vehicles

Next the portaloos arrrived – very important to the people working the site.

Very important! The arrival of the portaloos for the construction crew

Today, the digger has been clearing the land of rubble and rubbish.

Preparing the land for the building

Sadly, this also involves knocking down our popular pizza oven. However, this will be rebuilt in the future.

Elderflower Cordial

The Elder tree is in now bloom, with beautiful, fragrant flowers. The Elder has been used as a source of food, medicine and wood since at least the time of Ancient Greece, right through to the present day, as every part is useful in some way. Not surprisingly, it is also steeped in folklore and magical associations. For example, it was said that it could ward off evil and lightening, but it was also associated with the land of Faerie. Apparently, if you sleep under an Elder at midsummer, you would be able to see Faeries, or even be transported to their lands!

However, here at the farm we have stuck with making a delicious, refreshing cordial with the flowers. Firstly we gathered some flower heads, and left the overnight in a strong sugar syrup, to which we’d added some citric acid and lemons. The next day we simply strained it off and ta da! A wonderful, thirst quenching cordial, packed full of Elder goodness.

Here is the recipe if you would like to make your own.

20 large flower heads

1 litre water

1.8kg sugar

85g citric acid

2 lemons zested and sliced

Warm the water with the sugar added until it is all dissolved, and leave to cool. Add the critic acid and pour over flowers and lemons and their zest in a bowl. Cover with clean tea towel over night.

Strain off through a clean cloth (a tea towel or pillowcase is fine), into clean, *sterilised* bottles. You can freeze any bottles you are not going to use straight away.

It is always very important to sterilise bottles and jars before you use them for home preserves – you can do this by running them through a dishwasher or by putting them in the oven at gas mark 3 for 10 minutes.

Bristol Green Week 2014

For Bristol Green Week we opened up our Weekly Green Woodworking Group to anybody who wanted to see what the group gets up to on a Monday morning in our beautiful Watervole Woodland. Our visitors joined in with splitting pieces of hazel and then using traditional tools to shape them into spoons. With a campfire for a farm sausage lunch and the lovely tranquil setting everybody seemed quite reluctant to leave at the end of the session! The green wood work group meets every Monday , please email kerry@lwfarm.org.uk if you are interested in joining. We also have a one day spoon making day on Sat _19th July www.lwfarm.org.uk/learning for more info.

Farm Hands, 15 June 2014

We had an awesome day at the farm helping the guinea pigs.

We collected strawberries.

It was my first day and I liked it.

Farm Hands, 14 June 2014

We gave straw to the pigs however Rachel accidently let out Jasmine . When we went into the pig’s pen Rachel’s foot started sinking.

Rachel went to Malawi and carried water on her head, so we thought we’d try it when watering the plants.

Work Experience

My name is Marilen.I am from Germany and I am 15 years old. I go in Bristol in a Steiner school for three month.
At the moment my class had work experience and the school decided that I can go to this community farm so I was here for four days and I liked it very much!
I helped with feeding animals,cleaning eggs,offset plants and other things.
I loved the muddy days at the farm. Then work is so funny!
I had four perfect days, thank you!

Communtity Cafe and Training Space

The first steps have been taken towards the building of our new community cafe and training space! On Friday 16th May, Mark, Jeff and colleague from Avon Site Trans Ltd came and moved our old container and placed a new one beside it.

The container in its original position.

The new one will be used to store straw and hay for the animals. The site is now clear and ready for the builders who will be starting work very soon. Watch this space…….

Spring Animal News

Alongside the Muscovies we now have a separate duck pen full of Indian Runner and Khaki Campbell ducks. These playful birds lay a mixture of blue and white eggs. At the beginning of half term we are expecting more as we have an incubator full of the duck eggs.

Our small flock have successfully given birth to four lambs who can be seen with their mothers out in the field. Closer to home we have four orphan lambs that are being bottle fed for another week before they are big enough to survive on solid food alone.

Jasmine’s piglets are getting used to walking out in the morning to the outside pen with their mother. At this time of year they can go out every day for fresh air and exercise and of course to lie in the mud.

Our hens are laying well. Fresh farm eggs are always available, along with some fresh veg. and rhubarb from the garden.
Sadly the longest standing Farm Residents – the Pygmy Goats – recently died of old age. We will be having some new goats – at the moment they are still with their mothers, but as soon as they are old enough we will be welcoming them to their new home. This will probably be at the beginning of July.

Woodland Weekend with Steve England

A group of farm staff and volunteers spent a weekend in March with Steve England in the farm’s Water Vole Woodland. We learnt how to tap a birch tree for sap to drink, forage for edible plants to make a spring salad and make a fire using fungus! We also explored the Rhine to see if there are any Cray fish loving in their by making ivy baskets and submerging them in the water for 24 hrs.