51 facts from the last month at Church Farm
1) Cooked and entertained over a 1000 people with a diverse mix of culinary treats from breakfast, cream teas, Moroccan to spicy curries
2) Feedback from 1 of the new co-farmer’s social worker was “ we are thrilled with the service that is being offered to our client”
3) 5 Co-farmers have helped out in the kitchen, and serving in the café. 2 help out every week.
5) Become market trader with a weekly slot at the Sunday Cambridge market
7) Launched our own ready meal range
8) Rural Care have cut wood for sale, prepared furniture for café, collected and boxed up eggs, bagged animal feed so it is always available for public to buy, helping prepare vegetables for use in café, helping to harvest vegetables for sale, clean out chicken sheds and put in new straw.
9) Launched gift vouchers – the perfect presents available in denominations of £5, £10, £20 & £50
10) Run our first bee hive course
11) Sold a chicken coop
12) Distributed 29,000 leaflets (another 80,000 going out this week)
13) Opened our Garden Tea Room and The Snug as overflows for the café using other people’s cast offs
14) Started selling Church Farm meat at Luscious Organics on Kensington High Street
15) Been educated on potatoes, cattle hooves, ladybirds and more in a series of seminars, hand outs and tutorials
16) Arranged another partnership with London based venue to deliver our Christmas turkeys
17) Shadow Agricultural Minister calls Church Farm an impressive project
18) Attended numerous Christmas fairs, food festivals and sold zillions of pies
19) Stock our own liver pate, dripping and suet
20) Have our very own Christmas Pudding Range courtesy of Cathryn’s – her cakes are a sell out
21) Commissioned Church Farm jute bag for life – watch this space
22) Started a mobile shop, a few teething problem, lessons learnt
23) Sold wreaths, made bird boxes, wild flower seeds, planted bulbs
24) Offer soft, snowy white fleece for sale in the shop
25) Cooked and entertained over a 1000 people with a diverse mix of culinary treats from cream teas, Moroccan, Italian, spicy curries
26) Had over 750 visitor to our website in the last two weeks
27) Helped Brownies achieve a badge with an accompanied walk in the dark
28) Bought two moose costumes (there are till space available on the Moose Rota – make a child happy this Christmas)
29) Delivered 269 veg boxes – this week we are delivering 44 boxes
30) Launched a meat box scheme, 7 boxes ordered in 2nd week
31) Said farewell to some good people, hello and welcome to new adventurers joining the farm intern programme and farm store/ office team
32) Sold 91 turkey, geese & ducks to date, still a lot to sell – PLEASE ask everyone you meet have they have ordered their turkey
33) Sold laying hens
34) Had piglets
35) Run a forest garden course
36) Weighed, priced and moved from container to store (and back again) around 60 chickens, 12 lambs, 2-3 beef cattle, and more sausages than Anne and Edina care to remember
37) Battled on in foul weather, floods, power cuts, broken down vans, winds, sickness and health
38) Painted chairs and tables (a few more if you can spare a bit more time please tell Euan – special thanks must go to rural care, Ruth and Lucy for perseverance)
39) Commenced building of church farm poultry slaughter operation
40) Moved the egg processing area to a new home
41) RC has a new partnership with North Herts College working well. 3 students regularly attending and a 4th person interested in starting soon. Carrying out work and learning skills not possible to do within a college environment.
42) 750 hit to Church Farm website in 2 weeks
43) 2 new co-farmers started within the last months and 2 existing co-farmers have requested a second day to attend the farm.
44) Profile of the Agrarian Renaissance project has been raised through Transition Farm in Exeter, International Soil Association Conference
45) 3 interns helping RC on weekly basis, adding to their learning experience and greatly assisting Rural Care staff.
46) 6 regular volunteers contributing to the work that Rural Care helps to complete
47) Second round of appraisals have just started to monitor co-farmer’s progress at Rural Care and to help them set achievable goals
48) Planted 1000’s of strawberry plants
49) 22 bird species spotted in 20 minute walk by expert bird watcher
50) Been complimented on the condition of the cattle from the Red Poll members events
51) Have a waiting list of people wanting to join the intern programme