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Our "big ducks" enjoying lots of space in the pig pen
It’s time to plan for next year! I just can't put it off any longer - thinking of next year always feels like we are writing off the end of this year, but once done it should give us time to enjoy the autumn/winter months knowing all is under control! (An unlikely thing at Mantel Farm!)
We should also be thinking about Christmas! My Nan always made her Christmas cake in September so it had time to soak up lots of Brandy, a far better way than baking on the 22nd Dec, making marzipan on the 23rd and icing on Christmas Eve - as has become a bit of a tradition here! So if you also put off your planning for Christmas and the New Year, why not make things a little easier by buying your friends and family a Mantel Farm Gift Voucher? Or booking them a place on one of our 2019 Training Courses?
We have some lovely new courses taking place at Mantel Farm next year, led by some fantastic craftsmen, full of enthusiasm and experience in their craft. Our new Beekeeping Experience Day and Traditional Mead Making courses are available now to book on our website, or in our shop (more details below) as well our popular Beginners Beekeeping and Chicken Keeping Courses.
We are also really pleased to be working with Richard Ely to offer you an exciting chance to learn new skills in greenwood working, starting in spring 2019. The courses will include:
An Introduction to Greenwood Working
Wood Turning on a Pole Lathe
Making a Sweet Chestnut Gate Hurdle
Richard is a local greenwood working craftsman, with many years’ experience making greenwood and coppice craft products in and around the Battle area. Richard started out doing apprenticeships in 2005 with greenwood legends Mike Abbott (Living Wood) in Herefordshire and Ben Law (of Grand Designs fame) in West Sussex and has since worked full-time as a greenwood craftsman.
Our full course details will be available very soon, but you can register an interest in these courses by contacting us and we will then send full course details as soon as they are available.
We are also working with other craftspeople to offer more rural craft courses, so if these courses are not for you, please look out for new courses appearing on our website and in our newsletters soon.
Last month we attended the Hop and Honey Festival at Scotney Castle, we have been battling the wasps around our Apiary (see Graham’s article below), enjoyed our first Mead Making Course, moved our ducks into the pig pen and got out and about installing chicken pens. Next month there are more pens to build, courses to run and animals to look after in our boarding pens (don’t forget to book soon if you are going away over the October half term as our pens are now getting booked up quickly).
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