July has by far been the fullest month for sometime, and thankfully it has been full in the best possible way.
We have been super busy with our FiPL funded project, taking our primary schools out on their second farm visits to Hall Farm, Wenhaston, Brick Kiln Farm, Westleton and Earlsway Farm, Bramfield.
It has been lovely to see the children now start to click with some of the concepts we are sharing, and is testament to working with groups for more than a one off – we are very grateful that our funders recognise the importance of working in this way to create real, lasting impact.
The farm school visits have been full to the brim with fascinating activity, from sound drawing habitats, exploring lesser know crops and their uses, hunting for nitrogen nodules on pea roots, pretending to be botanists, comparing the pros and cons of modern v’s traditional meadow management, listening to Turtle Doves and meeting resident snakes!
‘I now know what a botanist is, and that I can do that as a job!’ pupil
‘I learnt that legumes are peas and beans and they are useful plants that work together with fungi to sort nitrogen for healthy soil and plants’ pupil
In addition to connecting children with the local landscape we have had the privilege to welcome a group of women from Suffolk Refugee Support to Earlsway Farm, for the first of our Landscape Connection Events.
Our chef Lola Demille and forager Jon Tyler devised a session to share the wild and cultivated food landscape of our Blyth Valley with our visitors. Set in a beautiful corner of Earlsway Farm, amongst wildflowers, ancient woodland and food crops, we spent the day sharing knowledge and stories, while making a shared lunch with ingredients from our diverse native lands, cooking over open fire.
Some of the group brought delicious offerings to share with us, while Lola created a feast from seasonal, local grains, legumes and wild plants. The whole process was collaborative from start to finish, sharing traditional recipes and methods for cooking and eating.
‘Today has been phenomenal, such a joy to meet everyone and I have learnt so much.’ Annie, farmer
‘Thank you so much for having us, I have loved the foraging and spending time in nature as we don’t get much opportunity for countryside.’ Nadela, SRS client
‘What an amazing feast of flavour – I had no idea that you could toast green wheat, learning that from one of the women and hearing all the stories has been humbling and inspiring.’ Richard, farmer
Providing access to a rural part of Suffolk and time in nature, brought real joy to our visitors who had come from many different countries, including Sudan, Afghanistan and Belarus but now reside in urban Ipswich. The session also enabled our farmers to come together in a way they had never experienced before, providing cultural exchange and a melting pot of ideas for future land connection events.
While this project bustles along, behind the scenes has been no quieter.
We are over the moon to announce that we will be partnering with Wakelyns Farm, Fressingfield, who will provide us with a base to outreach from and continue to progress our work. In addition, we hope to create new projects, sharing some of their brilliant, progressive site, skills and methodologies. The prospect of making the learning from such a gold standard sustainable land-use site more accessible, is very exciting and we can’t wait to see how things evolve.
