Meet the Team Monday: Caitlin — Hall Farm Eastoft

At Hall Farm, we have a small team of dedicated staff who each have their own specialties and areas of interest.

Every Monday, we’re going to share with you what we’ve been up to individually over the last few weeks, and we’ll take it in turns so that you get the chance to find out more about us and see what work we all do!

To start, a little bit about me! I’ve been with Hall Farm Eastoft since it began around two years ago. The farm itself is run by my stepdad Mark, and has been run by his family for a few generations now! The new care farm side of the business is close to my heart, and I feel extremely passionate about the work we do with a variety of people, and to improve the well-being of people in the community.

I’m lucky enough to bring my dog Frida to work with me, she’s a Collie x Houdini, and is capable of escaping from pretty much anywhere! She’s obsessed with kids and Farm Club are obsessed with her!

My job as Delivery and Partnerships Co-Ordinator is extremely varied. I manage bookings and client relationships; organise care farm and farm club activities; lead sessions on the farm; and handle our marketing and social media. During sessions I work with adults and children with additional needs or in alternative provision, and children in mainstream education who attend Farm Club. It’s fair to say that no two days are the same! I also help Louise in the garden, and help Rebekah with the animals, and try to help Ged with bits of DIY, although I’m sure he’d rather I didn’t!

The last few weeks has been all go! I was part of the team that was working on the rebranding, logos and website. It felt so good to refresh our whole look and make all our marketing fit with each other. The response we’ve had from it has been amazing, and it’s made me feel like the farm is supported by so many people!

During the Easter holidays, we hosted over 70 children over 4 days, so I was glad for the bank holiday break! Now we’re back in action, I’m busy planning the next few weeks of after school clubs, and the May holiday sessions. I’ll also be working with care farmers 4 days a week until the next school holidays too!

This week, I have training with LEAF to learn more about effectively speaking to others about farming, what we deliver, and why it matters. It will be interesting to speak with other farmers about what they do and what’s important to them and their businesses.

Soon, we’ll be extracting our first ever batch of honey! Hopefully the bees have been busy working away in our hives, and I’ll be working with a local beekeeper to extract and jar up our honey especially for all of you!

In May, the alpacas will be getting sheared, so me and Rebekah will be working alongside the shearer and one of our children on alternative provision to get all 15 alpacas sheared in the day. It’s important we do this at the beginning of May, as we have our Stud males coming at the end of May to hopefully get our girls pregnant! We won’t have any babies this year, but we will hopefully have a nice few next summer!

Open Farm Sunday is also coming up, it always creeps up on us! So keep an eye out for banners, posters, and lots of talk about it on our social media! It’s our biggest open day of the year and is totally free to come in! Everyone is welcome to come and have a look at what we do, meet the animals, grab a bite to eat and go on trailer rides!

Don’t forget to keep an eye out on our social media for all our events including farm club days!