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Monday, November 4, 2013
Judy and Kate went on a open day in Littlehempston, near Totnes, Devon, to learn more about growing hemp, a long held dream of ours, which we haven’t been able to realise because of lack of access to seeds and because we have to have a licence from the police to grow it. The day consisted …
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Transition Town took part in Try this…., a series of skills sharing events held in Dorchester in September. There was a total of 36 sessions, held in 16 different venues over six days, and they involved people teaching other people what they know and what they can do. So at the farm, we joined in with …
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Sunday, October 27, 2013
Dorset Wildlife Trust are championing ‘Wild About Gardens’ week by teaming up with Transition Town Dorchester for the launch of a new ‘Incredible edibles’ scheme on Tuesday 29th October in the Dorchester Wildlife Garden. The Garden is sited in the grounds of All Saints Church on the corner of Ackland Road and High East Street …
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Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Churches Together, an ecumenical group drawn from a variety of religious institutions in town, asked a while ago whether they could come and spend a day working at the farm. We decided that they could start work on a bee/butterfly garden, with space also for medicinal herbs and natural dyes, which we’ve been meaning to …
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With the help of the Mental Health Forum, huge numbers of courgettes, pumpkins and squashes were planted (rule – plant two and hope one dies). So when talk of guerrilla gardening was started, we had the ideal candidates for planting around town. Unfortunately there were weeks of hot dry weather, so the plants continued to …
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Sunday, August 18, 2013
We received funding from the Big Lottery to build a cabin at the farm, as a classroom, meeting room, or just a place to shelter from the rain and cold and have a cup of tea. We began fitting it together a few months ago, having built a foundation for it to stand on. It …
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Friday, August 16, 2013
Viva, Dorchester Community Choir, directed by Kathie Prince, came to the farm to sing a concert – well, why not? The music performed included a traditional Czech sheep calling song (deemed appropriate for a farm setting), a Scottish song sung while pounding tweed and an interactive African song. Long rattly seed pods collected from Gambian …
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There was masses of hay lying around in gently rotting piles in the Poundbury orchard – something needed to be done! On perhaps the hottest farm workday ever, technologically inclined minds came up with a cunning method of moving more hay than one person with a fork can. The TTD Patent Hay Wain! And this …
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Lots going on in the pond world. Originally we were going to put in a pond at the farm, but after we heard the news that the land was needed for development and we would have to move, we put our plans on hold. We have now decided that a pond would be nice in …
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One of the bee hives, which was formerly at the NHS Whitfield Farm and which has kindly been donated to us, has now been set up in the Poundbury orchard. That brings our total to three! Because of this, we have decided we should form a bee group at the farm, so that we can learn ourselves how to …
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We have offered to look after the Poundbury orchard. This orchard is almost next to the farm, and contains 60 heritage apple trees, planted by local school children to commemorate Prince Charles’ 60th birthday. It fits in well with what we do, and it also has a lot of long grass in it…. We held a haymaking …
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Judy spotted that there seemed to be a lot more bees in the hive than there had been previously, so we checked them in case they were about to swarm. Steve came to help us out. He told us that they would have swarmed within days, and we would probably have lost them. Lucky someone was paying attention… We …
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A set of seven goslings hatched in the incubator and were reunited with their flock. This is the last lot of goslings for this year (phew!) and brings the total number of geese at the farm to 35. They will be invaluble for keeping the grass grazed (and fertilised) on the farm and also at Poundbury orchard …
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Nineteen people were present on a nice sunny day for Transition Town Dorchester’s AGM. We heard about various activities connected with the farm: A Big Lottery grant has been received which will fund a cabin, a stove to warm it in the winter, a composting toilet (at last!), tools and educational materials. Communities Living Sustainably …
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Tuesday, August 13, 2013
It was a fair while coming but I’m sure you’ll all agree it looks good. More ‘organic’ than the previous version. There will be things that need sorting but that’s no surprise with something new. If you see anything you don’t get just leave a comment and I’ll take a look. For example the dates …
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Firstly a Big Thank You must go to David at Kingston Maurward College (KMC) for making our visit a very informative and interesting one and of course thanks to those that made it out for the visit too! The afternoon began with a walk to the field containing the coppice, made up of 10 varieties …
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Hmm. What can you say? We turned up last Saturday with all good intentions. At least it had stopped snowing on Friday so there was some hope some work could be done – but no sooner had we brewed up and supped our tea in preparation to get busy, it rained! Light at first but …
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As Len says, “When you’re 300 metres away from a Turbine its as noisy as your fridge, most are sited one mile away from housing and cannot be heard”. What would you rather have? I know where I stand on this one. I’m of the opinion that communities should be responsible for what they …
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Tried this recipe the other day. They didn’t last long! Ingredients: 175g Unsalted Butter 250g Quality Dark Chocolate 3 Large Eggs 1tsp Vanilla Extract (please don’t use essence!) 150g Plain Flour 150g Walnuts or Pecans – roughly chopped 200g Choc Chips. (I didn’t have any choc chips so settled for some dried cranberries – which …
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
We only have 2 energy monitors left, available for households in Dorchester. These monitors are a great tool for taking practical steps towards saving money on utility bills and reducing carbon emissions. Remember, your bills won’t go down unless you change the way you view energy usage. Just think of the money you could save. The …
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