An epic climate journey

An epic climate journey

by | Oct 17, 2015 | climate

Today we were inspired to meet Morgan and Garrett, who are undertaking an epic journey from New England to Paris, via Canada, Iceland, Scandanavia, and the UK by bicycle. Their destination? The COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris in December. Along the way they...
What a summer

What a summer

by | Sep 24, 2015 | off grid

As we come to Mabon –  the Autumn equinox, our busy season draws to a close, and the place has quietened down as our band of volunteers head off, and we host the last events before we take a break. Last weekend’s course – ‘Finding You – A...

Horizontal flow reedbeds

by | Aug 29, 2015 | permaculture

Horizontal flow reedbed All the water from baths, showers and sinks comes through our reed bed, which filters and cleans the water, before it passes to our pond. This means it is important to avoid putting any chemicals down the sink, and why we provide ecologically...
Volunteer highlights – Food glorious food

Volunteer highlights – Food glorious food

by | Dec 16, 2014 | volunteering

  One of the best things about being volunteer hosts is that every visitor brings with them a new approach to food, and this year we had some amazing meals. It didn’t take a lot of deliberation to come up with a highlight of the year, which came with...
A year of fantastic volunteers

A year of fantastic volunteers

by | Dec 3, 2014 | volunteering

It is that time when we look back at the year gone, and remember all the amazing people who have passed through the farm, and marvel at the things they did along the way. Volunteers came from all over the world – Spain, Italy, North America, Australia, England...
Empty nest syndrome

Empty nest syndrome

by | Nov 7, 2014 | volunteering

We’ve finally come to the end of our volunteer season until the new year, and its been a real pleasure to welcome Polly, Paul and their son Theo, who are on an amazing journey, and leaving us to head to Lammas in Wales, en route to a journey around the far east....
Weaving a fence

Weaving a fence

by | Jun 6, 2014 | woodlands

  Isabelle and Josiane have come from Quebec, Canada to volunteer on the farm for 3 weeks, and having spend days clearing and mulching young trees, they are turning their attentions to creating a fence from the piles of birch trimmings that have been sitting in...
The Great Planting

The Great Planting

by | Feb 14, 2013 | woodlands

  Well at last the rain has stopped, we collected our tiny trees, from Tony at NI Farm Forestry, a mountain of cardboard from Toals furniture in Rathfriland, and after a couple of hours of fencing, set to planting the first block of trees. 0.2 hectare doesn’t...

A meeting of minds

by | Nov 30, 2012 | community, volunteering

The GIY (Grow It Yourself) movement has really taken off here in Northern Ireland, and it was great to visit Sally Taylor’s place in Saintfield – the venue for a meeting of the South Down GIY group. Sally has combined a formal garden, retreat, allotments...

We are now WWOOF hosts

by | Oct 26, 2012 | volunteering

We have registered as WWOOF hosts, and now appear on both the Wwoof Ireland and Wwoof UK websites. Already we are busy organising volunteers from all over the world to come and help out here on the farm. Rather fittingly though, our very first WWOOFer is from here in...