Farm Life Spring/Summer

The days and weeks are passing so quickly on the farm at the moment, it is a really busy time for us, rejuvenating 4 Acres of new farm land, Animal additions, Baby Chicks and Ducks and holding events on the farm.

We had a fun Easter Event with over 1000 children taking part in our Farm Easter Trail and at our Seed Sowing Event you all planted over 200 Pumpkin/Sunflower seeds to take home and nuture yourselves.

In June we started the first cuts into our Hay Meadow to create an area for a new paddock.

We now have 2 Sheep, a Blue Face Leicester named Olive & a Wiltshire Horn, named Hope, as the name suggests, Hope is the one with horns, who have since become friends with 2 Boer Goats named Lemon & Sherbert.

And of course there is our Duckling, now a fully sized Duck, which was found early one evening away from the nest, we're still not sure how this happened, so we took the Duckling indoors, and snuggled him up with a soft teddy and fluffy hat and was hand feed for a couple of days.

Our Duckling did very well and followed us around the farm, and loved having cuddles with us.

He is now fully grown, we say he, we are still not sure yet, and is now living and friends with our other female Duck.

Aside from looking after the livestock at the farm we have been busy with our Pumpkin Patch, this is our first year of growing Pumpkins and so far so good, we have over 400 plants and all are flowering well and Pumpkins are starting to grow.

We are looking forward to their harvest and will be holding a Halloween event, with a spooky trail through our Orchards and of course Pumpkin picking.

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Our Tea Barn has continued to be well supported on Sundays, and we really enjoy seeing everybody come to our farm and thank you to you all for buying our farm produce, our Pear Juice is made from the fruit from our Pear Orchard and the Apple juice is made from local fruit farms.

Afternnon Teas are available on Sundays and for larger party bookings on Saturdays, more details can be found on our website.

We now have Honey, made very locally by a family in Fant, and of course ALL our Tea Barn cakes and food are made here at Little Fant Farm, using as much of the farm produce that we can.

We are presently raising Pigs for meat and will soon have Little Fant Farm Sausages and Pork Joints.

Our Tea Barn is also available for private hire on Saturdays and mid week, where we have been celebrating birthdays both young and old and look forward to up coming Christening and Wedding Celebrations.

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Once a week in school term time we have Grange Park School coming to the farm for their work experience in working with animals. It is great fun and we have got to know some wonderful students. We have also had school visits from many local primary schools where we have taken them for a walk around the farm, looking at the animals, talking about the growing plants and Orchards and they have all enjoyed feeding the Pigs. If you would like to bring your school to the farm please contact us.

We were also pleased to welcome Ben for his weeks work experience at the beginning of July, who spent a week with us at the farm learning a little bit more about our daily farm duties.

He wanted to write an article about his time here, which you can read below :-

Sometime back in November 2016 I came down to the farm to have a look at the two recently adopted shetland ponies, This was a great experience to have. Whilst I was down at little Fant Farm that day I met Sonya, who asked if I would like to walk the shetland ponies around the large field. I was a bit nervous at first but then decided to give it a go, it was completely fine for the first few minutes or so as I walked Orlando up the farm path. Once I had got him to the top he started to take me on a kind of walk that ended me being dragged across the floor holding onto Orlando lead.

After that day I, decided to come come down to Little Fant Farm about twice a week in which I would brush and feed the ponies, After christmas that year starting of in a new year I asked if I would like to come down to the farm on Sundays to help run the tea barn stall and supervise people who would like to go in with the ponies and brush or stroke them.

Easter this year I worked a full week at the farm where in which I helped sell the farm apple and pear juice on a stool. This was great week everyone that I met was so friendly and liked asking me questions about the farm. The Shetland ponies were well behaved that week even with all the visitors that had came during those 6 days the farm was open in Easter.

Now as this is being typed I am doing my work experience, this week has been great so far. With Monday when I got a tour of the farm and was able to feed the geese this was scary as when I have seen them in the past I got chased down the farm path. As well as feeding the geese that day I also fed the all the other farm animals. Ponies, Pigs, Chickens and ducks. Tuesday I done the same as on what I done on Monday this time I was not as scared of the geese. Wednesday I went through the morning routine of feeding the animals and then I helped Sonya with setting up for a birthday party, whilst the party was happening I was behind a stall help making tea or coffee for the parents who had brought their children to the party. Thursday the day i am writing this on, I have been doing some weed removal in the pumpkin farm and snipping away the plants that have randomly grow under the plum trees. So far this week it has been a great experience and I would love to do it again.

We also have a lovely young girl coming to us on Saturdays and shortly another student in the holidays. It is great that we are able to help the students with their studies and hopefully give them a good start in their chosen careers and we are also very thankful of their time at the farm.

As we enter into the Summer holidays, we are hoping to open the farm for a few days, we will post on Facebook and our website dates and details of what we have planned.

Thank you for taking your time in reading our blog!

From us all at Little Fant Farm.