Connecting and growing the family

If you have seen Ben’s videos online, you will have seen that we now have an organic milk vending machine onsite. We have created a partnership with Shropshire based Taylors organic dairy, and in doing so we were very surprised to learn that we are in fact cousins!

Dad (Arthur Hollins), if he was still alive, would have been 105 this year. His sister was the mother to Sam Taylor who now runs Taylors Organic farm with son Jonny. It has been wonderful, at a time where family contact is so restricted, to actually be able to extend our family at Fordhall. Now, that was not something we expected to come out of this lock down!

We are very lucky at Fordhall to have such an extended family in many ways. Through our staff, our volunteers, our customers and our thousands of community shareholders – you know who you are. We never feel alone. How can we? When we are surrounded by so many encouraging and supportive faces.

In these times of uncertainty you have been there for us. Whilst the café, school visits, events, yurts, care farm, youth project and volunteering opportunities have had to stop. The farm shop has carried on, and you have supported it with gusto. We have been heartened by the support of our local community. Our staff have been working flat out to meet demand, deliver locally to those in isolation and to ensure the farm is a safe place for people to visit and shop.

The desire to support local probably comes from many directions, but we do hope that people see the value in doing so. We hope all the new customers gained, see the value in buying food from the fields from which it grew. We hope they see the added security there is with a shortening of the supply chain. We hope that they taste the freshness and the quality of the produce. We hope that they appreciate the diverse and wildlife rich landscape we are creating. We hope they see what a difference their purchase makes to us and all the small producers we support through the shop. We hope that these people too, will become part of the Fordhall family long after the lock down. We welcome you x

To see a recent article published in the Shropshire Star, follow the link below
www.shropshirestar.com

Charlotte