Visit An Organic Farm This Easter

The weather may not be at its best, but I urge you to wrap-up and get out this Easter weekend, and take advantage of the organic farms opening up to the public around the country.  There's a chance to see newly born lambs, walk around the farm and Easter egg hunts for children.

In the North West there is Church Farm in Wirral, run by the Ledsham family, in a green belt area of outstanding natural beauty, with fantastic views over the River Dee estuary.  It will open up for three days of the Easter break starting on Saturday with its £7 entry fee including tractor rides, a forest hunt with prizes for children, access to farm park activities, an animal trail, plus the opportunity to meet the Easter bunny and newborn chicks.

The small village of Thurtaston is already very popular with walkers and there is a footpath right through the middle of the farm. To encourage wildlife extensive hedgerow planting has taken place and this scheme has been rewarded with the presence of foxes, hedgehogs, badgers and hares, all of which can be regularly spotted.

Despite encouraging foxes, the farm keeps a small flock of hens to produce enough eggs to supply the farm shop. There is also a herd of Highland cows, a small herd of Shropshire sheep, Kune Kune pigs, geese, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs. The farm shop has won an award and sells a large range of organic produce.

In the West Country, Hindon Farm is opening its gates on Easter Saturday for the morning only. Visitors are promised piglets, primroses and lambs.

The pick for adults would be Sedlescombe Vineyard, which opens for the season on Good Friday at 10am.  Based in Robertsbridge, Sussex, visitors can visit the vineyard and, hopefully walk the Bluebell Walk - but it’s down to the weather.  There is also a Woodland Nature Trail, and to end it all, wine tasting.

Over to the east of England in Lincolnshire there is Pink Pig Organics, based at Home Hall, just outside Scunthorpe, and run by Andrew Jackson. It opens at 10am each day and costs £3 to enter. Children are invited to find all the rabbits and win a chocolate egg. There will also be a competition to name the brand new Lincolnshire Curly Coated pigs.  These used to widespread throughout Lincolnshire until they died out in the early 1960’s. But after the First World War, with hungry Hungarians returning to their own country, they imported a lot of the specialist Lincolnshire pig to feed the populace.  Several have been brought back into England, and Farmer Jackson bought a couple to add to his pig herd.

There will be plenty going on at the farm, which is unusual because only 100 acres is organic, whilst the other 700 acres of the farm conventionally farmed.  But it is the organic section that will be open and where you can learn about farming and animals by asking Andrew Jackson questions, view his flock of 400 hens, and go inside his polytunnels where he grows herbs and salad crops.

There are free tractor and trailor tours around the farm, with sandpits, swings, and various other play activities all part of the fun.
There is also a farm shop to buy all the food you need for the Easter holiday.

What interested me was why Andrew only converted 100 acres of his farm to organic. He explained that it was the poorest soil, very sandy and wasn’t producing much under conventional methods. The rest of the farm was earning him a living, but he looked at the price organic food could fetch so he switched.

Ironically, or as organic growers would have told him, inevitably - the once poor soil began to produce good crops. There is a lesson for gardeners here, because at first he grew cabbages and cauliflowers on the sandy soil, but they didn’t do very well, so Andrew switched to carrots and parsnips and was rewarded with a good return.  Growing organic often means that vegetables do not always come out of the ground looking perfectly shaped and as Andrew says, the modern day housewife is funny about the shape of vegetables.

So get back to the land this Easter, buy some funny shaped vegetables and re-discover the taste of real English food!

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