Visit to Frogmary Green farm Friday 24/07/2015

On a very dull and wet Friday a small group of us set out for Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton. Mary and Hazel kindly offered to drive accompanied by Jan, Sue and ‘member for the day’ Tom.

We were welcomed by Claire and Nick Bragg who farm here and were taken straight away for a slice of delicious coffee cake and several cups of coffee and tea.

Claire showed us their immaculate cookery school and conference rooms and explained that although chickens were their main ‘crop’ they have had to diversify to remain viable in today’s economic climate. If anyone is interested in their cookery courses which range from artisan bread making to making your own sausages to cooking to entertain, please look at their website www.cookitatfrogmary.co.uk.

Claire explained about their business as we enjoyed our refreshments. As farmers they grow maize and grass for fodder but rearing chickens to eat rather than for eggs is their main ‘crop’. They produce chickens to the RSPCA Freedom Food Welfare Standard. This means that their chickens are less densely reared in  indoor chicken houses and are reared for longer,49 days, before they enter the ‘food market’ chain.

Nick and Claire rear their birds and then they are sold onto a food supplier who buys mainly for Sainsbury and Waitrose. The chickens have plenty of natural light, perches to stand on, free access to food and water, string, CD’s and maize to peck at to keep them interested and active, a thermostatically heat/humidity controlled environment, regular checks on their well being throughout the day and a very, very high standard of hygiene for both the chickens and those who care for them. We were taken by Claire to see their newest chicken house which has a public viewing gallery and we were impressed with the chickens living conditions. (Due to glass panels I could not get a good photo of chicks this photo is from the Frogmary website slide show – www.frogmarygreenfarm.co.uk/gallery ). They raise 620,000 Freedom for Food chickens per year on this site and several other sites which they farm.

 

Claire and Nick are keen to produce food efficiently on their farm whilst still being mindful of the environment. They generate their own heat through woodchip boilers and solar panels on their buildings. They have strips of wild flowers, pollen and nectar margins alongside their hedgerows, water courses and woods to provide for bumble bees and a wide variety of wildlife.

We said a ‘wet’ farewell to Claire at the end of our very enjoyable and educational two hour visit and then proceeded to The Royal Oak at Over Stratton for a well-earned lunch!

Sue Rodford

Meeting on Monday 13 July

We were signing up for things again at the July meeting. Volunteers were needed for a History of the WI event at Radstock museum from the 15^th Sept to 29^th November, for the Centenary group meeting at Leigh on 16^th September and to help with the coffee mornings in September and October. We also needed to decide what food item we were bringing to the President’s evening on August 3^rd if we were coming to that.

For later in the year we were reminded about the Wells Carol Service on Dec 9^th, decide if you want to go by Sept meeting, and that orders were being sent off for the WI calendars and diaries.

Some of the non-WI items were information about the Step in Stone art based scheme being run in our local quarries and a petition to sign to try and stop the cancellation of the 161, the only bus serving Leigh, which is due to finish at the end of August.

Our talk was from Ali Morgan who had volunteered as a human rights observer in the West Bank. She showed us her photos taken of both the local Palestinian people and some of the Israeli soldiers who are an unwelcome presence in their villages. She also told us a lot about the origins of the Jewish State and the overall situation in the area. It was obviously a very serious and complicated subject but we all gained some insight into the problem to add to what we already knew about it.

No ordinary meeting in August but we look forward to the President’s evening, see above. The meeting on 14^th September at 7.30 will include a Decopatch Taster session.