This weekend was open farm Sunday, when around a thousand farms nationwide open their doors to let the rest of us have a nosey around. We tend to go to the farm a mile or so up the road. It's a mixed arable and livestock farm that's on National trust property and the farmer seems to be very keen on sustainable farming. They do a tractor ride around the farm and we stop at various points to hear about different aspects of farming. There are wildflower borders round the fields to help the bees and listening to the farmer he talks about how to keep the soil healthy, preventing over use of fertilisers and pesticides. A few years ago he talked about the history of the farm.
The weather made it even more enjoyable as it was blazing down. There were various trails for the children and they could collect stickers by asking questions of the people there. I remember being rather partial to a sticker or two as a kid!
One guy was there talking about how they use modern technology to sample the fields and only add exactly what is required to the crops using GPS to alter the mix. It was so interesting.
We ended the afternoon by letting the kids play in the garden on the water slide.
Unfortunately he internet is still so slow and quite often we can't load a web page, so I'm behind on blog reading. It seems as though there's nothing we can do though as plus net have exhausted their know how and it seems to be like it or lump it now. I'm hoping it will fix itself, fingers crossed.
On Saturday James took the fireplace in the extension back to the original hole.
...and one last one, look at the chicks enjoying the scaffolding
The open farm day sounds great, all that technology to grow crops is fascinating I wonder if new modern day farmers are losing the skills of managing the land like there fore-bearers and depend on technology too much, I do wonder how farmers would manage if the technology went down and was no longer available. Our place is far to small for that.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great day out for you and the children. That farm looks as though it has quite a bit of history.
ReplyDeleteLove that water slide....wouldn't mind having a go on that myself! And it is nice to know that some farmers are aware of their environment, they are the keepers of the land after all. We have only thirteen acres, and when we came here the land was being commercially farmed. Nine years on and it is blossoming again, with wild flowers everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is any equivalent to open farm day here. The farmers would be afraid somebody would fall or something, and sue them. There aren't many small holding farms left anyway, it's all latifundia agriculture these days.
ReplyDeleteYou provide a lot of good experiences for your kids. My mom was an elementary school teacher all her life, and she used to say that "enriching experiences" were essential for early childhood development.