Why not become a member of Bath City Farm?

If you would like to receive a copy of our all singing, all dancing newsletter, in glorious colour and with pictures, please consider becoming a member of Bath City Farm. Membership only costs £10 a year (concessions available). Your membership fee helps to support our running costs, e.g. salaries, site work, newsletter and of course our animals.

Farm filled fun.

The last few months have been filled with lots of fun events for the local community; they have not only helped to raise funds for the farm but they have also increased our public profile, so hopefully we’ll have even more visitors to the farm over the summer!

Bath Flower Show.

The May Spring Bank Holiday is always a very busy weekend for farm staff, trustees and volunteers as this is when we attend the Bath Flower Show. This year we had an even bigger marquee which we shared with Bath Organic Group, Transition Bath, Timebank and the Council Waste Services Department. We took along our usual array of farm animals including; goats, sheep and chickens, but the star attractions where definitely the ducklings and baby chicks. We also brought along a big papier-mâché Saddleback piggy bank that local children made over the Easter holidays. Our aim was to try and raise £1000 towards purchasing a Saddleback pig for the farm. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to raise quite that much but hopefully over the next few months we will reach our target. There were also different traditional crafts and activities for families to discover more about, these included; felt-making, green woodworking and bee-keeping.

'FRINGE@THE FARM’ AFRO-CUBAN DANCE WORKSHOP

During the May half term holidays we held an Afro-Cuban dance workshop; funded and organized by the Bath Fringe Festivals Office. It was a fantastic day which proved very popular with children and adults of all ages. Alain who led the workshop was such a talented teacher that by the end of the day he had people from the age of 5 to 75 dancing salsa like they had been doing it for years!

Big Farm Fundraiser.

This year’s event was held on Sunday 5th July and we are delighted to have raised approximately £600. About 200 people came along and it was a beautiful day with plenty of attractions for all ages. Local band ‘The Padleigh Hillbillies’ provided us all with fantastic foot tapping, musical fun and the rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out in the warm sunshine to a reggae sound system. There was also a BBQ, refreshments and cream teas, bouncy castle, face painting, Tug-o-war, Welly Throwing competition, Police Dog demonstration and much more to keep people happy. One of the best fund raisers on the day was the Raffle and the Bottle Tombola so a big thank you to all the people and organisations that donated us raffle prizes (please see list on back page) and bottles for the tombola. Many thanks also to all the hard-working, committed volunteers that helped out on the various stalls and stands; everyone helped to put on a great show this year and the atmosphere was fantastic, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Animal Update.

PIGS
On May 27th, Molly our Tamworth sow gave birth to three healthy piglets; sadly there were also two that were still born. Since their birth, seven weeks ago, they are now easily six times their birth size and all are doing very well. Come along and see them while they are still cute!

SHEEP
As mentioned in our last newsletter we now have some Jacob sheep with lovely patterned fleeces. Unlike our Soay sheep that shed their wool naturally; the Jacob’s need to be sheared. Although I’ve never sheared a sheep before, I’d seen it done on TV programmes like ‘Countryfile’ and thought it looked like fun! Two pints of sweat, several bruises later and only one sheep sheared, made me realise how hard contract shearers work. I would like to thank Tom Bartle for his time, patience and guidance in teaching me this task.

CHICKENS
We have had six new rare breed chickens arrive at the farm in the last few weeks they are; a silkie, Plymouth barred rock, a white leghorn, a dorking, a cream leg bar and an exchequer leghorn. They really add a bit of variety and colour to our flock and we hope to introduce some ex-battery hens next.

Green Life Skills Programme.

We are delighted to have received funding from the South West Foundation to run Green Life Skills Courses at Bath City Farm.
We will be running four 10-week practical courses for learners to develop back to work skills within a farm setting. 
Run along side the farm’s regular volunteering programme, participants attend for 1½ days per week. One day (Monday) is completely activity based (animal care, gardening, conservation work or site maintenance) the other half day (Wednesday morning) will concentrate on planning, signposting, supervision and skills taster sessions. The group will carry out a small project on the farm. They will have a budget of £250 to spend on materials and will be supported in planning, budgeting and carrying out risk assessments for the task. Participants will gain practical skills such as tool use, animal care, basic horticulture, budgeting and basic project planning. They will also gain functional and soft skills that are transferable such as literacy, timekeeping, team -working, and self-motivation.

The first course has already started and is going really well. The group have decided to improve our car park area by planting up the roundabout, painting the metal container with a “Welcome to Bath City Farm” sign and giving it a general tidy. So far they have chosen all the materials and worked out a budget and they can’t wait to get started on transforming the car park into a bright and welcoming entrance.

The next course starts on the 23rd of September 2009 and you can enrol now by contacting Helen at the farm by phone or e-mail.

Volunteer Update.

Volunteers have been busying away at the farm enjoying the lovely weather we’ve had so far this summer. With perfect growing conditions it has been a constant battle trying to keep on top of the weeds in the sensory garden, but we have done a good job and have entered ‘Bath in Bloom’ for the first time this year.

We have also been growing fruit and vegetables such as beetroot, carrots, cauliflower and potatoes. We harvested a bumper crop of gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries; no thanks to the gooseberry sawfly, which has eaten nearly all the leaves from the bushes. One of our volunteers Louise, kindly took the produce home to make jam that all sold out on our Fun day.

At the end of May and early June we planted lots of wildflower plugs and created a stone wall area to encourage hibernating insects. This is all part of a children’s wildlife garden that we creating with funding from B&NES Environment and Heritage grant. The area already attracts lots of bumble bees, butterflies and even a green woodpecker who enjoys raiding the anthills for grubs.

Volunteers are now working on regenerating the picnic area. With funding from O2 “It’s your community” grant we have replaced the log seating and are currently clearing weeds from the path ready to lay down some more gravel. We will also be planting some more flowers and creating a natural play area.

As well as all these jobs volunteers have been keeping up with the constant maintenance of the hedgerow we planted in the Winter, and pulling lots of thistles and nettles to stop them from spreading too much into the cow fields.

Animal care is always a favourite for volunteers and they have been helping to clip the goats and treat the chickens for scaly leg mite as well as general cleaning out and feeding.

Note to Members.

For all members of the Farm that have an email address and regular access to a computer, we would be very grateful if you could let us know your email address so that we can send you the newsletter and any other information by email. This will not only save us money in postage but it will also of course be more environmentally friendly. Please send your email address to admin@bathcityfarm.freeserve.co.uk

For those members that pay their yearly subscription by standing order; payments will be taken from your chosen bank account in September.

Funding News.

We would like to thank the following people and organisations for the donations and grants that have been awarded to the Farm over the last few months.

Quartet: – Express programme awarded us £1800 to provide a Community farmer to work alongside and guide volunteers for six weeks to complete a range of projects to help make the farm ready for the school summer holidays.

Monty Hall very kindly offered to do a talk for free about his experiences as a crofter on the West coast of Scotland and for all of the ticket sales to go to the farm. The ticket sales raised £300 and Monty very kindly also sent us a private donation of £245.

Bath Moral Welfare Fund very generously donated us £500 to support the farm’s activities and future plans.

Bill Brown very kindly donated us £250 towards buying some more rare breed chickens for the farm.

CE & MM Campin Trust donated £100 towards the upkeep of the farm.

Herman Miller donated £88 towards the upkeep of the farm.

Carolynne Swift at Crown Trade Decorating Centre in Bath kindly donated the farm lots of tins of paint so that we can re-paint one of the lock-ups.

Big ‘thank you’s’ also to the following for donating raffle prizes: Bath Balloon’s for two hot air balloon tickets and  Monty Hall for a signed copy of his book.