Green Council Double trip to Lymington Solar Farm and Aldermoor Farm

Today, 11 members of our school Green Council took their waterproofs with them and set off on an adventure.

First we went to Solent Solar Farm where we saw over 9,000 panels which produce a lot of electricity. Cathy, who showed us around, helped to design and build the Solar Farm which has only been running for three years. We saw the cables that joined the panels to the mains - some of them were very heavy!

 In the afternoon, we visited a different kind of farm. Aldermoor Community Farm is a co-operative in Aldermoor Road and farmer Richard had lots of jobs lined up for us to do. First Richard got out his Lego and made a model. Then he put it in the bin! He got it out again, of course, but he was showing us that we can reuse many things and make them into other things. We shouldn't just throw things away without thinking if we can use them for something else. In the photo we are guessing what H has made out of the blocks.

 Here we are collecting plants to make Comfrey Tea. This isn't for people to drink, it's for plants! We had to find the comfrey plant, take off the leaves, break them up and put them in a barrel. After about four weeks they turn into fertiliser for other plants.

Another job we had to do was planting bean seeds. We used Aldermoor farm's special compost and carefully put each seed in each space. We put a lid on them so mice don't come and eat the seeds.

 We went inside the second polytunnel to see the tomato plants and also saw where the cucumbers grow. At the end Richard kindly gave each child a cucumber.

If you visit the farm when it's open you could also buy chicken food for 20p and Richard let us try this activity out. I think you can see from the smiles that everyone enjoyed this activity, even though it started raining heavily.

We are so lucky to have this community farm so near our school and want to thank Richard for another brilliant trip. Even though the weather wasn't good for us - though the plants liked it - all the children loved it and for us teachers it was exciting to see how much Richard and the team have done since we took a group last year.

You can find more about Aldermoor Community Farm online - they often have open days on Bank Holiday Mondays as well as being open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays 9am-5pm. Maybe you could visit in the summer holidays and feed the chickens.