Summer Holidays are a-go! — Hall Farm Eastoft

The summer holidays are in full swing, and despite some mad weather over the last few weeks, we’ve been outside investigating wildlife, taking care of the pigs, and looking after the alpacas every day!

A farmers work never ends, so Farm Club have been non stop on Wednesdays and Thursdays! They’ve done bug counts and looking at what minibeasts are living in the garden and on the farm, and what parts of the environment they call home. We found that we have lots of worms (meaning excellent soil conditions), and lots of butterflies (mainly cabbage whites that destroy our cabbages!).

We also made so much amazing nature art last week! Have a look at our Facebook for our gallery of masterpieces! We saw so much creativity using just natural materials.

Over the holidays, we’ll be looking further at the effect of insects and wildlife on the environment, and the effect of the environment on wildlife! We do our best to provide excellent conditions for wildlife on the farm, using wildflower strips and hedgerows to provide plenty of space to live, and food to eat.

We’ll be joined by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on 21st August to teach farm club more about wildlife and pollination. We’ll be counting bugs in the garden and down the farm and playing games to help understand how agriculture and wildlife go hand in hand.

Next week, The Urban Worm CIC are joining us to teach us all about worm farming and the benefits worms have on agriculture and the environment. We’ll make our own worm farms to take home or keep at the farm, and learn all about how worms make the world go around!

On Thursday, we’ll be building dens, developing teamwork and communication (and getting really creative!). This session is always a hit, with campfires and smores too- but this time we’re doing things a little differently….

On the 14th August, Farm Club will become farm inspectors for the day! We’ll learn all about animal welfare at home, in nature, and on the farm using games, materials and resources from RSPCA. After they’ve brushed up on their welfare knowledge, they’ll become farm inspectors, helping to make sure all our animals are well looked after and we meet all expectations from our accreditors.

On 22nd August, Farm Club will join Mark to become a Farmer for A Day! They’ll help look after the pigs (we should have some little ones in by then!), maintain machinery and gain understanding of the day to day running of the farm. They’ll need wellies for this one!

All our Farm Club sessions are £20 a day from 9.30am-3pm. All our staff and volunteers are DBS checked, and all sessions are led by first aiders. Whilst we want Farm Club to have the best time ever, their safety is our priority! We’re a working farm so there is often machinery and contractors around, which exciting as it may be, the children should all be aware of, and aware of the dangers of farms. Suitable clothing and footwear (closed toe shoes and appropriate clothing for the weather) is necessary, and pack ups are needed.

The minimum age for Farm Club is 5 years old. Call us on 07715 215718 or email Caitlin@hallmarkfarming.co.uk to enquire further or to book places.

We aim to avoid waste, so reusable water bottles are encouraged as these can be filled up with water and squash throughout the day.

We’ve recently extracted our last batch of honey for the year, which is runny (all our previous honey has been set). Both kinds are available from the farm for £5 each, so get in touch if you’d like to reserve a jar- they won’t be around much longer!

Fresh produce ready for salads and courgetti last week

We’re entering courgette season! We made fresh pasta with extra courgetti, runner beans and ricotta last week. It was delicious! This is the time of year we sneak courgette in to almost every meal we eat as we get so many of them from the garden- we’d love to hear your best courgette recipes! Send them to Caitlin@hallmarkfarming.co.uk and we’ll share them with our followers too!