The Two Seater Toilet (Ty Bach)

Hendre Ifan Goch Farm at Glynogwr had a toilet at the bottom of the garden that was flushed from a little stream running underneath, not unusual for farms but this one had 2 seats.

The toilet was in need of some TLC and not having time to do this we asked the National Museum at St Fagans in 2008 if they would like it.

Having received a farmhouse as one of the original pieces in the 1952 from Llangennith in Gower which was rebuilt at St Fagans by 1955, they were donated the cowshed and calf cots in 2007. The outside toilet at the farmstead was a ruin so our toilet fills the place in the corner of the garden of Kenixton Farm.

Kenixton Farm at St Fagans

We were invited to the opening of these new buildings on the 20th of June 2012 and were delighted to see how it had been restored.

Hendre Ifan Goch Farm was also the home to Lewis Hopkin (1708-1771)the Bard and preacher, his son Hopcyn Bach was a dwarf and his suit also is at St Fagans Museum.

Lewis Hopkin exerted the greatest influence on the literary life of Glamorgan in that period. He was also the bardic teacher of Edward Evan and Iolo Morganwg admits that Hopkin taught him. He was a well-read and cultured man; it is claimed that he was well-acquainted with English literature of the 18th cent.; he had Latin and French books in his library. He was buried at Llandyfodwg Church; Iolo Morganwg published an elegy to him in 1772 under the title of Dagrau yr Awen.

Hopcyn Bach (Hopkin the dwarf), son of Lewis Hopkin, the bard, died aged 17 of senile decay in 1754. He visited London in 1751, staying for the winter season, and visiting the nobility and gentry. He was introduced to Princess Dowager of Wales and the Prince of Wales. According to a letter written by John Browning in 1751, he was also shown publicly for money in Bristol.

odd socks and pet lambs

Here we are surfacing from lambing live although we have 22 pet lambs we get uninterrupted sleep!

We now have over 900 lambs and the shed is almost empty (still 3 to go!!)

We have had a good crop of lambs and the only challenge was the wet bank holiday Monday when we had to bring our new lambs and ewes back into the shed to dry off and warm up.

We have some characters in the pet lambs my 2 favourite are Woolly and Balaclava boy:

Woolly wasn't strong enough to follow his mother and sister out to the field so we gave him some TLC and his mother came back to visit each day to check we were looking after him, after a week she decided he was better off with his friends in the shed.

Balaclava boy born April 1st was one of Quads, 2 stayed with their mother and we lost no 4 :-( but he was lucky although his head was bald, we kept him in the porch for a week until he grew too big for his box and started following me around. We took him out to join the others but he got very cold overnight so had to be rescued again.

Lambing Tip 1: what to do with your odd socks?





I cut off the toe end and cut 2 holes for his years and folded the sock around his neck solved the odd sock problem and is keeping him warm until the wool grows :-)

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, lots of news and happpenings on the Farm.

We have planted approx 150 native trees this year hoping they will all catch.

This is Farmhouse breakfast week and we are involved in breakfast with a local school on Wednesday preparing home made granola bars with British rolled oats and Glamorganshire Honey a great recipe for those pumpkin seeds you kept from your Halloween pumpkins. Recipe and pictures to follow :-)

We also are having a free breakfast community event with workshops on homemade bread,poached egg prepared in the microwave and armchair exercises to keep you moving the "keep it shaking" butter making experiment will be at both events if you want more details visit here

National Farmhouse Breakfast detail at Shake up your Wake up

Sheep are now all in the shed and scanned we changed our scanning system this year and the sheep are scanned upright and is finished in a few hours.

Will be updating the website with the new video shortly

Results 33 sets of triplets, 323 sets of twins , 179 singles expected seems we will have a busy time!

Also another visit from our friends the students from Maison Familiale Rurale in March.

Sausage and Mash Club on tour

It is British sausage week and we are celebrating  with our bangers before bonfire night.

Check out the recipes on the Love Pork Website

Last years activities led to an extra 572 ton of sausage eaten during sausage week!

Let us know what your favourite recipe is or where your favourite Sausage & Mash is served in Bridgend we would like to know what is happening.

Leave comments at The Real Food Box or Feastival

The Bridgend  Sausage and Mash club are on tour this week to sample some local sausage by Maddocks Kembrey Butchers in Maesteg being served with mustard mash and red onion gravy at Creation Cafe Blaengarw.

Creation Cafe is a great place to source local and delicious food at reasonable prices, but booking needed for Thursday's sausage & mash extravaganza. Please ring Ruth or Nicola to book your place 01656 353919. the Cafe is situated in Katie Street Blaengarw.

Happy British Sausage Week make sure they are British!

Launch of the song Bee Power

I was invited to the launch of the Bee Power song, the winning song about the plight of the Bumble Bee by Dolau primary school and Bridgend College students in the SMILE competition.

They have launched it to be downloaded to try and get this into the charts it is being well received and featuring in the media if you wish to see the making of the song visit their Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150422976423410

Please download the single

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/bee-power-single/id463774409


and get these Welsh students into the Charts the profits will go to the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust and the Size of Wales project!


http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/

http://www.sizeofwales.org.uk/

SMILE 2011 & Open Farm Sunday

SMILE (Students Motivate Innovative Learning through Enterprise.) 2011

2011 celebration day was upon us .Clare George  is an IT Lecturer at Bridgend College and has received the ‘Most Enterprising Teacher Award 2009' approached me to help with a planting workshop for the day.

The theme this year was "the plight of the Bumble Bee" and details of the winning song by Dolau Primary will be published shortly it will be available to download from i tunes and we are hoping for a no 1 it is brilliant :-)

We watched the Video Logs and songs which were produced with the students of Bridgend college a great time was had by all by the looks of things.

There were 7 workshops and we were all kept busy in the sunshine at Kenfig Nature reserve. We made recycled newspaper pots in which we put some salad leaf seeds to grow, the pupils were very knowledgable about bees and their importance in life.This was a great opportunity to tell the pupils and teachers about Open Farm Sunday and I gave them the details of the farms in their areas this weekend.

For more details of Farms in your area contact Open Farm Sunday

 Congratulations to Litchard Primary who made the winning Bumble Bee design that was built by the apprentices in the engineering Department of Bridgend college.

This now has a permanent place at Kenfig Nature Reserve and we hope it attracts more bees to the reserve ;-)

Also congratulations to Llanilltyd Fawr Primary that won the video log it was buzzing with entertainment

The Planting workshop was well attended and the schools recieved goodie bags to return to school with seeds for their gardens and learned how to make bee habitats from the other workshops.

 

Also the day would not have been complete without Clare on the Hooter

Don't forget the big day with LEAF on Sunday

 Open Farm Sunday

Discover Life on a British Farm June 12th 2011

Bridgend ESDGC Conference Tondu Primary

Our Welsh Farm had a brilliant day at the ESDGC conference we were one of many stalls promoting this subject at Tondu Primary School.

The Opening speech was made by James Fletcher, a climate change champion in 2008 from Pengam , Caerphilly . He is currently studying a BA in Politics and International Relations at Reading University. An inspirational speaker and we will watch this space for more news..............

a clip below from 2008

This was followed by Steve Lambert who shared some of his experiences of best practice as part of the Sustainable Development Team in BCBC. All this and more was shared with teachers at the end of the conference as a resource DVD.

Thanks to all the teachers who visited "Our Welsh Farm" in the IT suite and if anyone missed us and would like to get in touch please do.

Don't forget to visit Open Farm Sunday to find a farm near you.  Grab your wellies and visit a Farm on June 12th 2011!

February- Sheep in waiting! Open Farm Sunday is coming!!

Our Welsh Farm is getting prepared for lambing lots happening in the next few months. Spring is on its way all sheep have been scanned and results good despite the cruel winter we have had.

We are hosting a french agricultural college group on the 9th of March they want to experience rural Wales. I hope they enjoy must get out the phrase book!!

Lambing will begin at the end of March and we will be lucky to have the expertise of a Bristol Uni Vet student  learning from both sides will be a great experience.

News

I am now Welsh coordinator for Open Farm Sunday an initiative of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming).

LEAF brings farmers and consumers together to raise

awareness of how farmers are working in harmony with nature to produce good food with environmental care.

After the success of "Care for your Food We Do!" the theme this year is " Discover Life on British Farms" If you wish to find out where you can visit a farm on Open Farm Sunday June 12th 2011 please visit the website Open Farm Sunday .
If you are a farmer and would like to get involved or just thinking about it please attend one of the workshops which are being held across the UK in March/April. Please have a look OFS workshops. Attending a workshop will give you all the hints and tips you need to host a success event and could make up your mind!



Our Welsh Farm is back!!

Huge apologies to those that have missed us over the holidays but website is now back on line unfortunately no webcams at the moment as the electrics controlling the streaming have not dried out and been tested yet. we are working on it but please enjoy the rest of the site.

 Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a great Christmas

Our Welsh Farm will be back with you in the New Year

Hope you are all coping with the weather!

Hi all please accept our apologies our service is dirupted as the servers are down we will resume webcams shortly!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at Our Welsh Farm

Dave and his friends are eagerly awaiting Santa to help him with his deliveries.......

Snow Snow twice in one year!!

Panic set in last Friday when the snow came down. We sorted the shed out and opened the doors , when on our way around the sheep found them waiting by the gate and all came in for some food. We usually house christmas week or January but they are in now and how long will it stay?

Bought in some barley to supplement or haylage and silage.

Log in to http://www.ourwelshfarm/ to see the webcam activity in the shed and the ice on the lake.

Are you ready for Farmhouse Breakfast?

Farmhouse Breakfast Week is on it's way.......... January 23rd - 29th

Shake up to Wake up

lots of recipes, information and ways to get involved on the website.

facts taken from website:

Send your children to school on a full tummy and get a glistening school report!

Research done by the Cardiff University School of Psychology, led by Professor Andrew Smith has shown that eating breakfast helps children function better in school than those who skip the first meal of the day. The results revealed children who start the day with cereal are:



•9 percent more alert

•11 percent less emotionally distressed

•13 percent less tired

•17 percent less anxious

•10 percent less likely to suffer memory and attention span difficulties, than those that have no breakfast

•33 percent less likely to suffer from stomach complaints.

So what are you doing for Farmhouse Breakfast? Get involved !

Farmhouse Breakfast Week

Pictures from a previous event school children with fruit kebabs and cheese and bacon toasties and a local Rugby player Dale McIntosh (former international player)

The bacon was -British ,the cheese- Welsh and the Milk from the local dairy Ty Tanglwyst (silver award winner in the "True Taste 2010")

"What do you know about great British Bangers?"

British Sausage Week November 1st - 7th
great website for all info: British Sausage Week



For those strictly dancing fans Craig Revel Horwood will be dancing around the country as celebrity British sausage judge.

We have had some venison sausages made and they tasted delicious with hardly any food miles attached.

FACE annual meeting 2010 Leckford Estate

View Full Album

Had an interesting day at the Leckford Estate, (after finding the Village Hall as my sat nav doesn't quite pin point the whole postcode! )
John Lee (Chairman of FACE) set the scene for the day and we had a welcome and introduction by Malcolm Crabtree (Managing Director of Leckford) who gave us an insight into the afternoon's trip.
The estate is a worker's democracy it was purchased my John Spedan Lewis of Oxford Street London in 1928 and formed into a Ltd company in 1929 and now forms an important part of Waitrose.
The Leckford Farm:

• produces 30 ton of mushrooms per week
• 230 acres of fruit but the harvest this year is less than last year being approx 800 ton not 1200 ton
• Organic processing dairy unit
• Winter Wheat milled into Leckford Flour
• Oats
• Spring Barley
• Free range Egg Flocks
• Free range Chicken flock

We were then given a talk by Amanda Dance Event and Education Manger followed by Mary Noyce Consultant to the Rural dimension.
Meg Hart FACE regional co ordinator gave us highlights of the work in her area in the last 12 months and this was followed by Bill Graham on FACE's acheivements this year.
John Lee summed up the presentations and asked Sir Don Curry to give the closing remarks which gave us a positive outlook for the future of farm education and working with partners to acheive this.
After a superb lunch from the farm produce we climbed aboard the tractor and trailers for a very informative tour of the Farm and Longstock Park Water Gardens

We won Innovative learning with Bayer / FACE awards 2010

"Farmers on tour" we were invited to the Tower of London for lunch in the New Armouries Banqueting suite it is called "new" as it originated in the 17th and 18th centuries please see The Tower of London for more details

We won the BAYER/FACE Innovative learning award and were presented by Jim Paice Minister for Agriculture and Gary Richardson from the Countryside Foundation for Education

For more resources for Farm education please visit the FACE website

Very Busy Summer, awards and Harvest!

Sorry for no posts but we have been updating the website and now have 3 cameras live!!

We all took our family holiday to the Royal Welsh (that's us and the children we didn't take the sheep!). Lots to see including the world Golden Shears competition and new Food Hall.

I was lucky to be runner up in the NFU/Natwest Welsh Rural Champion Awards.

We managed to get our Harvest in though the rain in August did mean it was a little here and a little there so silage and wrapped bale silage this year no Hay :-(
We also managed to get some barley straw from a neighbouring farm in the Vale of Glamorgan.

We were also nominated for the Bayer/FACE innovative learning awards story to follow shortly.......

The Red deer have increased we bought in 5 young hinds so hopefully lots of deer calves next year.

some of our Deer's friends at Blaenhow

10 Green Bottle recycled Greenhouse and Bridgend SMILE project

I was fortunate to be invited to the award ceromony of SMILE in Bridgend recreation centre last month and met Claire George.

Claire is an IT Lecturer at Bridgend College and has received the ‘Most Enterprising Teacher Award 2009' from the education team at Enterprise UK, the campaign to increase entrepreneurial behavior in the UK.
Claire has worked with 5 primary schools which entered into the SMILE (Students Motivate Innovative Learning via Enterprise’) project and has plenty of more ideas for further projects.Claire with her fellow colleagues in the construction academy from Bridgend college are going to build a 10 green bottle recycled greenhouse in a local primary school annually.

Claire approached me "Our Welsh Farm" to come along and help the pupils plant some seeds ready for the greenhouse. I attended the school and with the pupils made some recycled plant pots from newspaper and the children planted salad leaf seeds these they were going to take home.

We then used the bottoms of the 2litre bottles that had been discarded from the build and planted these up we had a talk about the properties of wool and put some raw fleece in the bottom of the seed planters as an experiment we are hoping that by watering daily the moisture will last in the pot by absorption in the fleece to save the caretaker watering over the weekends we will let you know the outcomes......

Below are the photos we took and along with the seeds and weeds club hoping to have a project with pumpkins in the autumn.

We are very grateful to FACE http://www.face.org.uk/ and the NFU for the seeds

Our Welsh Farm visit to Llangewydd Primary

Thanks to Llangewydd Primary for letting me visit with Freddie and Pillow, we all had a great time although Freddie was a little restless. Both lambs love their new names and certificates have been sent to school.

There was a vote in each class and the most popular won.

The school had the theme "keen to be green" so we discussed the properties of wool and it's uses.
They were given seeds to grow and we discussed food miles on a lamb dinner and the benefits of local and fair trade food.