Dreadful weather was forecast but we had a really great day – didn’t get rained on! Despite a general lack of organisation this year the event went really rather well.
Wendy and Amos did a stint on gate duty as welcoming committee, we believe we had around 150 visitors this year – so a huge thank you to those that made it to our event – we love doing it and is without doubt the highlight of our farm year.
The stars of the show
These little Gloucester Old Spot x Duroc arrived on site the day before OFS (Open Farm Sunday). They were due to arrive the previous weekend but due to car trouble they didn’t get long to settle in before visitors came to see them. We had prepared them a pig-arc in advance of them arriving, but the badgers had been in there and stolen their straw bedding. A trail of straw made it’s way out of the pig-sty and around the corner towards the badger sett.
They didn’t stay hidden long and soon seemed to enjoy the attention.
A little like penguins they seemed to take turns being on the outside of the group, with one of the outermost pigs deciding it was their turn in the middle and sort of flopped on top of the others for them to make room.
Not so sure the big smelly Berkshires were impressed with all the attention the piglets were receiving.
Tours of the farm
We all tend to fall into specific activities that we do on OFS and stick to that role each year. The younger members of the farm have been giving tours of the farm for several years in a row now. It has been something they’ve been quite enthusiastic about doing, taking time to plan who will say what. Including Amelia’s intro “Don’t worry if I trip and fall over, I’m a little accident prone” or words roughly to that effect.
Plant sales
Raffle prizes
We have been most fortunate this year that some local businesses have been extremely generous in donating prizes for us to raffle off.
Thank you to all our sponsors:
- Gardening tools from Burgon and Ball
- Meal vouchers from The Wisewood Inn
- Meal vouchers for The Admiral Rodney
- Gift voucher from Langlands Garden Centre
- Gift card from Wisewood Post Office
- Sparkling wine & Rhubard and Ginger Liqueur donated by Loxley Electricals
- Beer from Bradfield Brewery
Name that scarecrow
Lee-Anne had been working very hard to make an absolutely smashing scarecrow. We decided that we’d get visitors to suggest a name for him/her, and then the name from the pot at the end of the event.
Her name is Scare-Kamara which was suggested by visitor Max B – thanks Max for visiting us on OFS.
We are ten years old
Loxley Valley Community Farm first started in 2009 therefore this summer marks 10 years of our wonderful project.
We tried to gather together a photo history of the farm for display inside our marvellous roundhouse.
We have many visitors on OFS and quite a few regulars, we are very proud to show off what we’ve acheived since we started. However the project needs more members and we welcome anyone intested in taking part in what we do.
Workdays are 1st Saturday and 3rd Sundays of every month! Please join us.