Summer is here! Farleigh is awash with sweetpea scents and confetti sorting and all sorts of wonderful chaos in between. We are just managing to catch our breath as we have been all of a spin here at Farleigh. The Ecohub is starting to land in our pilot year, and I thought I'd just catch you up on some of our happenings!
We have learned an incredible amount over the past couple of months, have tested out a number of ideas (some successful, some less so!) and connected with a whole host of people. It's been a whirl of colour and learning, musings and discoveries.
Veggie patch growing:
We've had great success with our perpetual spinach and broadbeans and even discovered a whole lot of recipes, including this one for #broadbean burgers by #Ottolenghi. Onions have been wondrous, garlic just amazing (although we still need to finish digging it up!). The courgettes are just coming (such stunning flowers!). Tomatoes are just round the corner (some in the polytunnel and some straight outside in the ground), cucumbers growing up (albeit a little curly!). Salad leaves were a total flop (but not for the slugs!). The kale at first was completely chomped (I think by pigeons - a feast in one night!) and now regrown. Beetroot and carrots planted together, but a bit too close (I find tiny seeds rather infuriating to say the least!) and now I've left it a bit late to thin out I think. The leeks look beautiful but went to seed, and I just can't bring myself to dig them up! Let's blame it on the funny weather. Strawberries are just the most delicious I've ever tasted (and the mice think so too!). We really enjoy our #Riverford vegbox (especially Guy Watson's newsletter, he really speaks sense and does his homework on the environmental impacts of his business) and love being able to supplement it with our own produce. One day, we hope to offer a seasonal, fresh lunch to our gardening volunteers and Farleigh Ecohub groups! This was totally inspired by #Organicarts, a wonderful and local organisation in Ide, Exeter.
Flower-growing:
After the success and enjoyment we had with our tulip-growing, we really wanted to continue to use the flower-growing as a focus to our community-centred eco-enterprise. We have learned and learned, and connected with all sorts of people along the way! Local growers such as Naomi at Wards Farm Flowers and Flowers by Clowance helped us to supplement our home-grown flowers to provide and arrange for a local wedding. Tom, the vicar at Cadeleigh church kindly said that we had "brought a little piece of the Devon countryside inside". The hard graft that went in was coupled with a fair amount of stress and a whole lot of creativity and enjoyment. We'd love to offer this a bit more. Contact us if you'd like to commission us for the floral work at a #Devon or #Somerset #wedding.
Due to the birth of Rowan (might as well blame the baby!), we were very late in planting and so there was a (heart-palpating) gap between our #spring #bulbs and #summer #flowers. People were asking for #bouquets we just couldn't provide. I connected with Katie Vanstone who gardens locally and she gave us some of her dead-headings which we turn into #confetti and market online through our shop. We met a local grower in our village and have been planting seeds as fast as we can! #Sweetpeas are now in full flourish and we have stocked up our top of the drive #flowerstall and are selling #bunches and #buckets where we can. Perfect for weddings and events, we can even deliver! Give us a shout if we can help you.
At the high end side of things, we are taking great pleasure in learning about and producing exhibition flowers such as #delphiniums and #roses and hope to grow (haha!) this side of things in the coming years. We have met a new friend in Roberta, the Good Florist, who is inspiring in the floral design work that she does. We have been providing her with beech lengths by the bucketful which is just beautiful to work with and can help you design large floral features and hoop displays for a more relaxed, natural feel to your wedding or #event. You can buy a bucket of beech from our shop.
We hope to continue offering boxed flowers, dried floral arrangements, local bouquets and #seasonal flower subscriptions as well as regular local deliveries. More about this soon! For now it's confetti and sweet peas mainly.
Farleigh Ecohub:
As for our "eco-venue", we have had great fun with the work that we have done so far. Still in its early stages, we have a regular home-education 1:1 session, some childrens' social sessions and have some childrens' groups to come over the summer. These have just given us so much pleasure as it is really at the heart of what we aim to do here at Farleigh Ecohub. Shortly we will be reaching out to #volunteers for a regular gardening day and getting in touch with local charities to see if there is a way we can facilitate groups that would benefit from some time here in our beautiful, rural setting. So, do watch this space! Having worked for the National Trust as conservation project co-ordinator on a large nature conservation programme, the environment is a real passion of mine and I love to share my love of the outdoors with others and inspire people on the principles of #ecology. I have to admit to needing some improvement on my botanical knowledge, but have set myself the target of knowing every plant species on the property by July 2020.
Other Farleigh goings ons:
Silks
We have a pretty hectic time here just trying to keep on top of everything (and keep the weeds at bay!) however we do some work with our partner, Sunbird Silks, where we are busy learning about natural dyes and British organic silks. We can provide silk ribbons to order in 2m lengths, to match any colour of your choosing or buy from our shop. The perfect accompaniment to your wedding or event which helps to tie your color scheme or theme together (literally!). Sunbird Silks hand-dye silk scarves often inspired by nature. It is a real family organisation as Frances (mother Farleigh) helps with the children, works in the garden and is a real soundboard for many of my ideas (or frustrations!).
"Farleigh Ecohub has helped me no end in just the past couple of months alone. Being in the flowerpatch has improved my mental and physical wellbeing as well as connecting me with local people. I can't wait to see how things progress here, I have no doubt that many will be helped just by being in this relaxed, happy and beautiful place!"
~ Frances Brown ~
We're also giving a talk in a few weeks time to a local support group and already have dates booked in for 2020 for womens' silk and flower days so plenty to get excited about.
Horses
In addition, I give regular riding lessons to some children in our village where we have done handy pony sessions, learned how to ride a dressage test and tested out riding skills with some work on the lunge and over poles and also covered some stable management topics. I, myself have been getting back into riding post childbirth and have been carefully bringing Norbert and Leo back into work, hopefully competing before too long. I have been using my Equine Sports Massage techniques to help them, and hope to compete before too long. I will be marketing my therapy sessions shortly but do get in contact if you need a horse that needs treatment. I am experienced in rehabilitating horses and have worked with horses in several disciplines at a professional level (racing; breaking and pre-training also in eventing, showjumping, hunting and polo). I am keen to learn more about equine therapy and have been putting some of the principles into practice during my teaching.
So, as you can see, plenty to write about and think about. We've got lots of improvements to make, plenty to learn and many refinements to put into practice. We are allowing this to be our pilot year, but shall launch a more polished version in Spring next year - cannot wait to share it with all of you!
Remember to keep up with us on social media and let us know if you have any ideas or collaborations in mind, we always love to hear from people and make new friends too!
hello@farleigh.org.uk
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