Green Council at Aldermoor Farm

Today, all the members of Green Council were excited to go to a farm which is very local to us called Aldermoor Farm.

Farmer Richard welcomed us to the farm.

In this photo we are looking at the safety notice on the back of the sign so that we know all of the hazards of a working farm.

Can you think of any hazards there might be on a working farm?


Richard gave us a tour of his farm.

One thing he really wanted us to see was his "savings account".  Here is is in the second photo.

Can you guess what it is?

It really smelt disgusting as you can see from some of our faces!
 
Richard gave everyone some old spinach plants to feed the chickens with.  We found out that the chickens ate them very quickly!

 Our next job was to plant some flowers in front of the runner beans.  After they were planted we had to water them and also water the lettuces and other vegetables which the sprinkler couldn't reach.

We found out that Aldermoor Farm has a natural spring and Richard has made lots of hoses and clever ways to make the water effective throughout the whole of the farm.

Finally, we got to feed the chickens seed. We found out that Aldermoor Farm is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9am to 5pm.  There is a shop and if you want to feed the chickens, you can pay 20p for a bag of feed.  It would be lovely to see many families from Shirley Warren visit the farm and get involved. 

https://www.aldermoorfarm.org.uk/

Aldermoor Green Council Farmers!

Today Green Council visited Aldermoor Community Farm to see how Richard and the team Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and also to reward our Green Council reps for working hard all year on Pupil Voice issues.

First, we had to identify the root vegetables from the leaves above. There were carrots, radishes and beetroot. Would you know what they look like or what their leaves look like?

Next Richard asked us to pick the radishes. We learnt that he will sell them in his shop on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9am-5pm and they now take card payments.

When the radishes were picked there was space to plant new seeds - radishes, beetroot or carrots.

After this the hungry chickens needed feeding. If you want to go and feed the chickens at the farm, it is only 20p when the farm is open.

Our last task was plaiting garlic. This was quite tricky but a clever Year 6 who already had plaits demonstrated this skill.

We found out that one of our Year 4's is a regular volunteer on the farm.

Last but not least, somebody made friends with a caterpillar. can you see it on her arm?

Thanks to Farmer Richard for letting us help him.
If you want to know more about Aldermoor Farm, look up http://aldermoorfarm.org.uk/ There may be an Open Day coming up soon.

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.