Flower Power!

 Spring Flowers

 

All of that hard planting is really paying off now; Farmeco is a riot of colour! East Bridgford Garden Centre gave us some tulip bulbs and, as you can tell from my photo, the flowers are very bright and cheerful! 

The beautiful flowers have inspired us to keep planting, because we know that our hard work can yield beautiful results. 

Get planting, Farmer Ted!

Lots of love,

Baart

xxx

Busy Bees!

The Farmeco Queen Bee Drama

 Tom went to look at the bees today and reported back that they have lost their queen. This is bad news. The queen can lay hundreds (even thousands!) of eggs every day and so if the queen dies then the hive is in trouble.

However, Tom tells me that the clever worker bees have created four queen cells. 

This means that they have started to feed lots of royal jelly to some of the larvae. On this diet, the larvae will grow into queen bees.

Once the first queen emerges, she will destroy the other potential queens and become the only queen bee in the hive. 

After this, she can fly out and mate with drones from other hives before returning to lay thousands and thousands of eggs. 

With any luck, the hive will be back to full strength soon!

I'd like to go and see the bees one day. I'll be tucked safely inside Tom's veil though!

Lots of love,

Baart

xxx

Sunflower Shenanigans

Farmeco Becomes a Battleground!

Soon, shouts of, "My sunflower is bigger than your sunflower!" will be commonplace at Farmeco as we battle it out to see who can grow the tallest flower.

 

Julia says that there will be a prize for the winner, so we're all taking this very seriously.

Farmer Ted and Farmer David Rose are a team on this one. Farmer Ted and I did our potting together out in the sunshine.

Then we all put our pots in the polytunnel and crossed our fingers. May the best lamb win!

Ladies, Gentlemen, Animal Kingdom ... place your bets!

Lots of love,

Baart

xxx

Seasonally Scrumptious

Baart's Rhubarb Crumble

Filling ingredients:

• 500g fresh rhubarb
• 100g caster sugar (golden caster sugar tastes especially good!)

Crumble ingredients:

• 140g plain flour
• 100g butter
• 50g golden caster sugar
• 1tsp ground ginger
• 50g oats

Method:

 

1. Pick your rhubarb. If you are not growing rhubarb or have had a rhubarb growing disaster, you may need to buy some at the shop. The picture below is of some rhubarb that my friend Tom has grown. Yummy!

2. Preheat the over to 200C (180C fan or Gas 6).

3. Roughly chop the rhubarb into chunks and put in a saucepan with the sugar and a splash of water. Put the lid on the pan and simmer the rhubarb for appoximately 15mins until it is soft. This is a good time to taste the filling; you may like to add more sugar. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

4. Rub the flour and butter together until it looks nice and 'cumbly'. Then add the sugar, ginger and oats. Sprinkle the topping over the rhubarb mixture and bake for approximately 30mins. The crumble should be golden brown on top and you may see the mixture bubbling through at the edges of the dish.

5. Serve with custard, cream or ice cream.

6. Sit back and watch the Secretary to the Lambassador do the washing up. Get scrubbing, Marjie!

Happy crumbling!

Lots of love,
Baart
xxx

American Adventure

I'm off to America!

Marjie has said that I can join her on her trip to America next month, which I'm very excited about. Together, we will travel to 33 States in just over two months and we will also go and see parts of Canada whilst we are there. 

Starting in New York, we will be travelling with a group of other adventurers, camping, exploring and taking in as much of America as possible in the time we have. 

Marjie and I both hope that, with my status as a Lambassador, we'll be able to make an appointment to see President Obaaama when we reach Washington D.C. I understand that he is a very busy man, but I'm keeping my hooves crossed! 

It's only two weeks until we fly out, so I'm quickly preparing my paperwork. My paassport arrived this morning.

I'm very sad to be missing the S.E.L.F Festival at Farmeco, but hopefully I'll be able to feed back news of my adventures from internet cafes and campsite computers (apparently American campsites have Wi-Fi and everything!) so keep an eye out for updates!

Lots of love,

Baart

xxx

Exciting News!

Farmeco is hosting a festival!

21st May - 31st May 2012

Farmeco is hosting the SELF Festival (Sustainable Environmental Living for the Future) again this year. 

SELF is all about inspiring people to:

• be happy
• learn lots of interesting things
• be change agents and make our world a better place

We will be doing all sorts of exciting activities such as learning survival skills, making bread, strawbail building, linking to friends all around the world and much, much more!

 Last year, groups of school children worked together to make this life size model of a blue whale. The blue whale was then surrounded by plastic litter to raise awareness of the work of Plastic Oceans.

 The children also made bread, learning valuable skills and traditional techniques. This picture shows just a small selection of the beautiful designs the children created.

They look delicious! I'm feeling hungry now ...!

If you would like to watch some videos from last year's SELF Festival, showing the making of the blue whale and the bread, follow the links below:

 http://vimeo.com/41045660
http://vimeo.com/41031609

In the meantime, if you want your school to be involved in SELF 2012, send Farmer David an email on:

david.rose@farmshop.net

SELF is also on Facebook. Come and find us!
facebook.com/self-global

Staying Hydrated

Everyone is working very hard at Farmeco, so they're getting thirsty. Dennis the Duckling and I are making tea to keep everyone hydrated.

Because I've been working very hard, I'm also feeling a bit peckish. Dennis and I are going to share a biscuit with our tea.

Yummy scrumptious!

Lots of love,

Baart

xxx

Planting Petunias

This week I've been planting petunias at Farmeco. Here's a little guide to planting petunias. Have a go at home! 

 

 Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty! It's all part of the fun!

 

 

The first step is to fill a planting tray with compost. Compost is full of micronutrients and will help the petunias to grow into strong and healthy plants. 

 Use your hands to press the compost down into the tray. You don't want there to be any air pockets in the compost as these will trap water and can make your plants go mouldy. Yuck!

Now you need to squirt the compost with water. Plants love water!

You need to have your little seedlings ready for planting now. 

Julia ordered ours in the post! She ordered red petunias, white petunias and blue petunias so that we can have a bed of flowers in Union Jack colours to celebrate the Jubilee. Good thinking, Julia!

Now use a little stick to poke a seedling size hole in each compartment of the planting tray.

Then you're ready to gently put the seedlings into the holes.

Press them down gently and make sure that the compost is covering everything except the juicy green leaves.

Now give the seedlings one last little squirt of water and hey presto! You're all done!

Keep your seedlings in a sheltered spot and make sure they get lots of sunshine. Once they are big and strong, we can move them into a big flower bed.

Happy planting!

Lots of love,

Baart

xxx

My Farmeco Family

Today, I'd like to introduce you to my family. 

 

Julia and Dave organise all of the fun activities that we do here at Farmeco. They help to get people like you and me out into the coutryside so that we can learn and have fun!

 The smart looking gentleman in the picture above is Farmer David. He looks after me and all of my animal friends here at Farmeco and all of our fun and games take place at his farm in Nottinghamshire. 

This picture is of me on the tractor with Tom. If I ask very nicely, Tom lets me come for a drive! Tom does so much on the farm and is always a busy bee. In fact, it's also his job to look after the bees here on the farm!

 The girl in this picture is called Marjie. I live at her house and she helps me with my blog because I find it very hard to type with my little hooves!

This lovely lady is Vicki! She comes to the farm every week and helps us to grow plants and do fun activities. She works very hard and knows lots of interesting facts about animals. 

I should also introduce all of my brothers and sisters! I have lots of brothers and sisters here at Farmeco.

Some of us are Easy Care Sheep (which means we don't need shearing!) and some of us are Jacob Sheep. Can you guess which picture is which? 

 

Here are my friends Farmer Ted and Dennis the Duckling. 

And last (but not least) here are some of my chicken friends! I went to see them yesterday with Dennis the Duckling. Dennis didn't like the chickens because he's so small that the chickens tried to carry him away! But I love them. They are very soft and nice to stroke. Marjie and Vicki were able to pick them up and give them cuddles! 

 

So that's my family at Farmeco. Now I can start blogging about our adventures! Keep your eyes peeled for more updates!

Lots of love,
Baart
xxx

Welcome!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog!

I'm very excited to be trying out my new blog. I'll be using it to share news of Farmeco, my travels, the people I meet and the activities that I do. I'm so glad that you're joining me on my journey!

Please excuse any blogging errors in the first few posts; it may take me a while to get the hang of things!

In my next post, I'll be introducing my friends and family at Farmeco. Watch this space!

Lots of love,
Baart
xxx