Community Assisted Farming at GlenEden Park.
We are looking for people that want to be part of our farm, who want to experience this lifestyle but for whatever reason they are not able to commit their whole lives to it at the moment. Does this sound like you?
You'll have the chance to learn all about the good times and the bad. The work involved, the dedication needed, how rewarding it can be and how frustrating.
We can't emphasize enough how important commitment is. Planting carrot seed will not yield carrots unless they are cared for, kept weed free, watered, fed, mulched, pests watched out for and of course harvested.
You'll have the chance to learn all about the good times and the bad. The work involved, the dedication needed, how rewarding it can be and how frustrating.
We can't emphasize enough how important commitment is. Planting carrot seed will not yield carrots unless they are cared for, kept weed free, watered, fed, mulched, pests watched out for and of course harvested.
How it works.
One weekend a month is the minimum we ask for, less than this and you will be out of touch with what's happening on the farm. You'd need to arrive Friday evening and stay until late Sunday afternoon, any less than this and you're not going to get enough done. Longer is fine, as is more often. Weekdays are ok too. We do have a few off farm commitments so you'll have to work around those.
We are open to all sorts of options. If you can only come for the day (not overnight) you'll miss out on a fair bit of the daily running of the farm type jobs and won't get a feel for how this lifestyle works. This is not a 9am to 5pm type of lifestyle.
A typical weekend might be.....
Friday evening arrive and settle in, eat a meal you've brought with you or cook in your camping area.
Saturday. Up early to milk or help milk, breakfast will most likely be as a group, especially if the weather is fine. After breakfast your share of the chores.
Today is for projects, fencing, building, concreting etc. The more we get done the more the farm can do for us.
Finished the work day with another round of chores, maybe milk again.
Evening meal together, talk about what we have done and what we need to do.
Sunday Up early to milk or help milk, breakfast will most likely be as a group especially if the weather is fine. After breakfast your share of the chores.
A quick cuppa and onto a full days work on upkeep type jobs, weeding, mucking out, mulching.
Finish the day as late as possible.
What to expect now and in the future.
There is so much to do, so many things have been completed up to a point and then left until we can get a bit more help.
The vegetable garden has been geared back over the last two years but is now being bought back into full production (spring 2015) Fully planted and cared for and it will have no trouble producing enough for 15 people or more.
We only have a few hens at the moment as we have no one to share eggs with and need to keep feed costs down. We can add to hem numbers pretty quickly. We can also hatch and raise heirloom breeds for meat and could also buy in meat chicks to raise a more 'commercial' chicken. We can add more turkeys, geese and ducks to the meat birds raised with minimal effort.
Pork is another easy one, we just keep and raise more piglets.
We only milk when we need it for the kitchen, usually only a couple of times a week. Plenty of opportunities for harvesting milk for your pets ;), we can show you how to make cheeses, yoghurt, butter etc.
We can also teach you how to preserve all this bounty, canning (bottling), dehydrating, freezing, curing smoking and more.
There are many other things the farm can provide, firewood, landscaping supplies, ornamental plants...............
We will be asking for help with building projects in our house at times. We may ask for some help collecting firewood as well.
It's important that you understand that our income is low and we have very little money available for big projects and expensive tools. We reuse/recycle a lot and things here generally made from secondhand and often rough materials. We may have to wait to afford to complete some projects but there will always be plenty to do that will cost very little.
Why don't we just grow stuff and sell it?
The short answer, we don't want to. We want to become a community, that means having people here over time. People who will get to know us and our lifestyle. We are looking for converts :), if over the years we can lead just one family to this lifestyle permanently we'll be pleased. We know it's not for everyone, nothing ever is, but we'd like the chance to share how amazing this life is.
One weekend a month is the minimum we ask for, less than this and you will be out of touch with what's happening on the farm. You'd need to arrive Friday evening and stay until late Sunday afternoon, any less than this and you're not going to get enough done. Longer is fine, as is more often. Weekdays are ok too. We do have a few off farm commitments so you'll have to work around those.
We are open to all sorts of options. If you can only come for the day (not overnight) you'll miss out on a fair bit of the daily running of the farm type jobs and won't get a feel for how this lifestyle works. This is not a 9am to 5pm type of lifestyle.
A typical weekend might be.....
Friday evening arrive and settle in, eat a meal you've brought with you or cook in your camping area.
Saturday. Up early to milk or help milk, breakfast will most likely be as a group, especially if the weather is fine. After breakfast your share of the chores.
Today is for projects, fencing, building, concreting etc. The more we get done the more the farm can do for us.
Finished the work day with another round of chores, maybe milk again.
Evening meal together, talk about what we have done and what we need to do.
Sunday Up early to milk or help milk, breakfast will most likely be as a group especially if the weather is fine. After breakfast your share of the chores.
A quick cuppa and onto a full days work on upkeep type jobs, weeding, mucking out, mulching.
Finish the day as late as possible.
What to expect now and in the future.
There is so much to do, so many things have been completed up to a point and then left until we can get a bit more help.
The vegetable garden has been geared back over the last two years but is now being bought back into full production (spring 2015) Fully planted and cared for and it will have no trouble producing enough for 15 people or more.
We only have a few hens at the moment as we have no one to share eggs with and need to keep feed costs down. We can add to hem numbers pretty quickly. We can also hatch and raise heirloom breeds for meat and could also buy in meat chicks to raise a more 'commercial' chicken. We can add more turkeys, geese and ducks to the meat birds raised with minimal effort.
Pork is another easy one, we just keep and raise more piglets.
We only milk when we need it for the kitchen, usually only a couple of times a week. Plenty of opportunities for harvesting milk for your pets ;), we can show you how to make cheeses, yoghurt, butter etc.
We can also teach you how to preserve all this bounty, canning (bottling), dehydrating, freezing, curing smoking and more.
There are many other things the farm can provide, firewood, landscaping supplies, ornamental plants...............
We will be asking for help with building projects in our house at times. We may ask for some help collecting firewood as well.
It's important that you understand that our income is low and we have very little money available for big projects and expensive tools. We reuse/recycle a lot and things here generally made from secondhand and often rough materials. We may have to wait to afford to complete some projects but there will always be plenty to do that will cost very little.
Why don't we just grow stuff and sell it?
The short answer, we don't want to. We want to become a community, that means having people here over time. People who will get to know us and our lifestyle. We are looking for converts :), if over the years we can lead just one family to this lifestyle permanently we'll be pleased. We know it's not for everyone, nothing ever is, but we'd like the chance to share how amazing this life is.
Money.
We don't sell our produce and we don't charge to teach. We need a hand and are looking for friends who would like to help and learn. We do ask that you don't cost us anything. If you want to raise a pig here you will have to pay for feed. If you want to learn how to can (bottle, preserve) you will have to buy jars, spices and sugar etc. We don't want to run a business but we do want to make the farm as productive as possible and can't do that without extra help. We do have plans to grow some plants to sell to raise a bit of money to pay for fencing materials and building projects, some help with this would be most appreciated.
This is worth repeating, we are not a business, just two people wanting to share our lifestyle and skills with others. I have no doubt that we could charge a hefty rate to teach what we know but that would change the whole meaning behind what we do.
Donations and gifts.
We will except cash donations to help with improvements to the farm as well as buying extra tools etc. We have an endless list of wants and needs for projects.
Please remember that anything given to the farm belongs to the farm. It gets far too complicated otherwise. If you give to the farm it stays here, even if you leave!
You're interested.... what do you do now?
Have a read through the For Farm Friends page and answer our questions.