We’ve had a real range of visits over the past month, but three visits on the trot from young people based in and around Brighton!
We were delighted to welcome our first group from Longhill School at the end of January, with a group of young people from Year 7 and 8 joining us on the farm. It was wonderful to see the pride that the young people took in their work with us, whether whipping up pizzas or helping to vaccinate pregnant sheep.
We were joined again by BACA (Brighton Aldridge Community Academy) in the first week of February, along with our first lambs and kids of the year! It’s a really special time to share with young people on the farm, and we were very pleased to see how caring and hard working our BACA farmers were.
Over the half term break we were joined by a group of young men from the Hummingbird charity, based in Lewes. Despite some appalling weather, we got a lot done out on the farm and had a lot of fun learning new languages, new songs and making new friends and connections.
We also managed to squeeze in a day visit from LOOK UK, charity working with blind and visually impaired young people. It was our first time working with the charity, and it was totally brilliant to meet a hugely kind and hard-working group of young people, who threw themselves fully into the farm experience.
Spring is well and truly springing out on the farm – the trees are in blossom, the daffodils are blooming, and the lambs (and three kid goats!) are gambolling about. Our farm manager, Charlotte, is working super hard to look after her flock of ewes as they prepare to give birth, as well as doing about a thousand other things – it’s a busy time! One thing to celebrate in particular has been the success of our bale grazing, allowing us to keep a large number of cattle out in the field over the winter rather than bringing them inside. Bale grazing is new to us here on the farm, but is great not just for animal welfare, but also for the regeneration of the soil – we’re looking forward to seeing what impact its had in the coming months.
We will sadly be saying goodbye to our wonderful Visit Coordinator Matthew Keedy at the end of March as he moves on to pastures new. Matthew has been an excellent role model for our visiting young people – being a welcoming, positive and enthusiastic presence at the farm. He has bought so much to Jamie’s Farm, not just in Lewes, but to the organisation as a whole. We would love to thank him for all of his hard work and dedication, particularly in contributing to the ‘Legacy’ element of our follow up work. He will be missed by everyone across our six farms! Recruitment for his successor is well underway, and we will be able to make an announcement about this in the next update.
We will also shortly be joined by two new volunteers on the farm, to help us continue to develop and broaden what we do here on the farm. Caspar will be working with us out in the garden, sharing his passion for growing with young people, and Ahmed is going to help us get our beehives up and running, so that we can share this with young people too!
A date for your diaries – our next farm Open Day will be on Saturday 18 May. Click here for details.
