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 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. Getting Greener By The Day. We’ve always prided ourselves on taking excellent care of our animals, our landscape and our wildlife ... now we’re doing our bit to take care of the planet! In November 2009 Bath City Farm
unveiled two renewable energy systems, which are now working hard to help us
become carbon neutral. 28 roof-mounted
solar panels, made from a miracleworking
material, are already capturing
enough energy from the sun’s rays to
run all our electrical equipment. Even better, the government will pay us for
generating our own ‘green’ electricity,
and what we don’t use ourselves can be
sold to the National Grid to earn even
more cash to help fund other green
schemes at the farm.
The second weapon in our war against
global warming is an ingenious bit of
kit called an Air Source Heat Pump.
Amazingly, it can extract useable
heat from fresh air, even when the temperature outside is below freezing. This ‘clean’ heat is keeping our farm building warm, meaning we no longer rely on environmentally unfriendly oil-fired central heating. At £48,952 our new energy systems didn’t come cheap, so we’re incredibly grateful to EDF Energy’s Green Fund, which funded £24,370 of the cost, and the Big Lottery Funded Community Sustainable Energy Programme, which funded £24,582. Our thanks also go to project managers Ace Plumbing and Heating of Bath. Next time you visit the farm, ask for our fact sheet explaining how the solar panels and heat pump work, and find out how much energy we’ve generated so far, and how much CO2 we’re keeping out of the atmosphere. Animal Update Sheep. Our flock of Soays coped amazingly well with the wintery spell back in January – scratching through the snow to get at the grass underneath. They even seem to work as a team – clearing a large patch of grass for all to share. Last issue we told you how our Jacob ewes were playing hard to get. It’s not easy to tell just by looking, but Ked is hopeful that at least one of the pair is pregnant and that we’ll have some new arrivals come the spring. Pigs. It’s always a sad day when our young pigs go off to slaughter, but we are happy to know that all our animals are cared for properly, are well fed, protected from the elements and have the space to behave and interact naturally. Ked travelled with the piglets to a small family-run abattoir in Nailsea, so he could see for himself that they ended their lives with the minimum of suffering. Local farmer Hugh Gay in Newton St Loe, butchered the carcasses, and our visitors and volunteers have been eagerly buying up top quality free-range chops, joints and delicious pork and honey sausages. Now the cycle begins again. On a chilly morning in early February, Bertie the Boar came from St James’ City Farm in Gloucester to call on Molly our sow. Last year young Bertie still had a bit to learn about love, but the last litter he sired was 10 piglets strong, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a bumper bunch of little ’uns in May or June. Goats. Unlike the sheep, our goats are not at all keen on the cold, so we’ve been keeping them happy with extra hay and sheep nuts to eat. Kashmir even tried to hurdle the fence into the Jacob enclosure to get extra food – a stunt resulting in an injured leg that had to be treated by the vet. We’re pleased to report that Ashley - our old goat with the swollen udders - has been coping pretty well, but as spring approaches her hormones may get the better of her again, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on her. Chickens. While other animals keep their heads
down in the cold, our hens are looking
their absolute best, strutting around We’ve disappointing news though about Sonny the cockerel. You’ll remember he was shaping up to be a friendly character but, perhaps not surprisingly, natural instinct took over when he became sexually active and he started attacking some visitors to the enclosure. We couldn’t blame him, as he was only protecting his females, but after a few folk had received a good peck on the shins we decided it wasn’t safe to keep him. Luckily one of our volunteers agreed to take Sonny and we hear he’s settling in well. Looking forward, we’re hoping to produce some chicks in the spring and are going to turn the rabbit hutch in the corner of the enclosure into a dark cosy place away from the main flock where any broody hens can get a bit of peace to sit on their eggs. Bill's Story. At 85, Bill Brown is one of Bath City
Farm’s most distinguished supporters.
It’s thanks to Bill that we have our fine Bill’s love of hens started 70 years
ago when, as a boy in Carlisle, he found
himself at a bus stop watching an old No sooner were Gert and Daisy installed in Bill’s back yard, than war broke out and keeping hens became a real blessing. “I don’t think people these days have any idea how hard it was to feed ourselves during the war and afterwards.” Food rationing allowed just 1 egg per person every 9 or 10 days, so Bill’s hens’ eggs were an essential addition to his family’s diet. They were also an excellent bartering currency and could be swapped with neighbours for other foodstuffs. But keeping his hens fed was a constant battle, as chicken feed was also strictly rationed. “You’d collect whatever you could to keep them going - dried potato peelings, scraps from cafes, anything. Corn was unheard of” Once rationing came to an end in the 50s, Bill stopped keeping hens at home, but his poultry passion followed him into his career as a teacher.
He was
instrumental in setting up Bath City Farm
in the 1990s and tells how delighted he was when they discovered and secured
our ancient farmland for the project.
Bill continues to support the farm and
says he is particularly pleased to see us
focussing much of our work on supporting
the unemployed. Last October, to celebrate his 85th
birthday, Bill threw a big party. It was
a great evening and we were thrilled to Volunteer Update. As the farm’s trees shed their leaves and the skies of 2009 faded to grey, our hardy volunteers steeled themselves against the icy winds that regularly batter us in winter. January’s extremely cold snap, with snow lying thickly over the fields, made animal care a key part of their duties – breaking the ice on the duck pond and drinking troughs at regular intervals and changing the animals’ bedding frequently to keep them dry and warm. Gritting the pathways also kept visitors safe when they came to say hello to Molly and the rest. So we’ve been keeping the farm ticking over and are looking forward to warmer days. Volunteers have put the finishing touches to our natural play area, adding willow fencing, log stumps and a woodchip surface, and the kids from Three Ways School have already given it the thumbs up. With spring just round the corner
(we hope!) we’ve been digging
compost into the raised beds, ready
for planting and there’s been plenty
of bramble-bashing to keep us warm.
With no nesting birds or wildflowers
to disturb, our trusty workers have
attacked the scrub and hedgerows
with great energy, producing plenty
of brush to spark up some roaring
fires. As a thank you for all their hard work, volunteers were treated to some of the farm’s delicious pork and honey bangers and spuds baked in the hot ash of a particularly fine bonfire. Even as the snow started to fall, it was hard to drag ourselves away from the heat of the flames. Regular Events. Community Play Rangers. ‘Charcoal and Chestnuts’ was the theme of play sessions up at the farm in the waning months of 2009, as youngsters
sampled the festive delights of chestnuts roasting on an open fire and learnt how to make charcoal for drawing from
cut stems of the farm’s willow. Sessions at Southdown Junior and Infants generated a lot of interest and resulted
in an encouraging rise in the numbers coming to join in the fun at the farm before Christmas. From mid-February Play Rangers will be holding weekly Wednesday woodcraft workshops in the farm building between
3.30 and 6pm, making forest fashion, jewellery, musical instruments and more. Sessions will be free and open to all. Play sessions will continue to be held between 3.30 and 6pm on: Contact Bath Area Play project on 01225 832479 for further information Roots And Shoots. Our toddler group is re-launching
after its autumn/winter break
on Tuesday mornings from 23rd
March, when along with your
under-fives, we’ll be getting ready
to welcome some new spring lambs,
chicks and piglets. Call the farm ***Newsflash*** Calling all Youth Workers! The farm is hoping to recruit a Youth Volunteer Co-ordinator in late spring. Interested? Look out for further details, which will be advertised in the local press. Funding News. We are delighted to report that we have recently been awarded some major grants with which to recruit extra staff and expand the range of the activities we currently undertake at the farm. This is great news, but we are just as grateful to our individual supporters, without whose generosity the farm would really struggle to make ends meet. The Tudor Trust has awarded us £80,000 over 3 years to pay for a Farm Manager, whose role in driving our future development will help secure the farm as a sustainable resource for the community. The 4 Acre Trust has awarded us £16,000 to fund a new Youth Worker to
provide more volunteering opportunities Awards for All has granted £7,500 to fund a Sessional Worker to work alongside the youth worker and be key to our plan to run activities at weekends.
Transition Bath are providing £2,000
of funding to launch a new allotment
scheme at the farm. Allotments will be Long-standing supporter Bill Brown has donated £270, raised at his 85th birthday party. £800 from The Victoria Pub will fund
the upkeep of raised beds which Three
Ways School use when they visit us on a
Friday. The Victoria paid for the beds
to be built and for specialist tools, so
we are thrilled that they are keen to Waterhouse Ward at the RUH donated £61 in lieu of sending
Christmas cards Mrs Walkington – always popular with
our greedy animals – donated £50,
which was matched by another £50
Course Update. The last few months have seen the completion of two very successful courses:
The Environmental Conservation Course, funded by B&NES Community Learning Service and the Learning & Skills Council, ran for 8 weeks from October and we were delighted by the commitment shown by members attending this fun, informal and hands-on course. The course aims to introduce adult learners to different methods of environmental conservation within a working farm, so the group learnt how to lay hedges, plant trees and clear scrub, as well as how to identify wildlife and trees. Our hope is that everyone went away with boosted confidence and a range of new skills to build up their CVs. Some may go on to take further courses, while others may decide to volunteer here at the farm, or for other organisations. Spring Courses. If you are interested in any of the following courses, please contact the farm on 01225 481269 or email admin@bathcityfarm.co.uk. Our third Green Life Skills course is already underway, but if you’d like to be part of the fourth and final course, it will run from 14th April on Mondays and Wednesdays.
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