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Hello from Lauriston Farm,
Welcome to the March newsletter - the spring equinox is just three weeks away now, and the living world is springing into action. We're still expecting wild weather (the Romani name for this period is Bavalyakero - time of the winds) and our trees and hedgerow saplings are too small to hunker behind yet, but in a few more years they will completely transform the farm, providing soil stability, nutrients, and shelter for animals and crops. You can help with this and more in March...
In this newsletter:- Market Garden Volunteering (Saturday 9th)
- Community Orchard Tree Planting (Saturday 9th)
- Farm-wide Tree Planting (14th & 16th)
- Wildflower Hill Planting (15th)
- Bird Survey Walk (16th)
- Seed Share (16th)
- Compost and Castings Workshops (various dates March & April)
- Clay Oven Decorating Competition
- Drop-in Volunteering
- Fencing Repair - Preparation for Cows
- New SRUC Case Study Report featuring Lauriston Farm
- We Feed the UK, Gaia Foundation project - also featuring Lauriston Farm
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Market Garden Volunteering
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Saturday 9th March, 10am-12:30pm & 1:30-4pm
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This month we are continuing to prepare the Market Garden for the growing season. With a variety of tasks in hand, we'll find something for everyone to contribute to another successful harvest. Think along the lines of mulching, sowing, soil preparation, and infrastructure tinkering...
Please register on Volunteer Signup to let us know you're coming:
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Community Orchard Tree Planting
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After our lovely inaugural Orchard Wassail last month, and winter pruning the existing trees, we are ready to plant some additional trees in the orchard: more apples, plus cherries, damsons, gages, and the mulberry!
If you would like to join the Community Orchard Group and help with planting, come along on Saturday 9th March, from 11am.
Meet at the green portacabin, just inside the farm gate off the Toby Carvery car park. No need to book ahead, but if you have any questions, please e-mail toni@lauristonfarm.org | |
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Thursday 14th, 10am-12 | Saturday 16th, 2-4:30pm
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We have planted over 11,000 trees across the farm in the last couple of years - join us in March to plant an additional 400-500! We’ll be restocking some trees in places where they’ve been damaged, and planting up some smaller areas. We'd love to have your help. Please register on Volunteer Signup to let us know you're coming:
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Friday 15th, 10:30am-12:30pm
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Come and make our wildflower hill a beautiful space for people and wildlife! If you can join us on the 15th, please sign up here:
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Saturday 16th March 7am-9am
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The bird surveys are back! For the third year, Professor John Frank will lead volunteers on Birdsong Identification Walks around the farm, once a month from March to June. This gives us a count of bird species - an important part of our biodiversity monitoring work. Click here to read about the previous survey results.
You can join us for the 2024 survey. You don’t need previous knowledge - John will teach you how to identify birds, using the mobile app Merlin. To avoid disturbing the birds, we have to restrict the numbers of volunteers on these very popular walks, so it really is a case of the early bird catching the worm/spaces on the sign up sheets. Here's the one for March: | |
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And if you stick around after the bird survey walk, you can get some seeds from the Seed Share too...
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Saturday 16th, 10am-12 noon
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There's still plenty of treasure in the Kist, and still plenty of time for you to get sowing! Drop in on Saturday 16th (10am-12 noon) to get some free seeds you can try growing this year. We're lucky enough to look after the Seed Kist at the farm - a beautiful wooden box with a stash of seeds for the community, some saved from crops at the farm, and by other growers in north Edinburgh, and some spare commercial seed packets that people have donated. You don’t need to bring any seeds if you don’t have any - it’s a free share, and we want these seeds in your hands.
Keep reading to the end of this newsletter to see the poet Iona Lee performing a poem inspired by the Seed Kist!
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Compost and Castings Workshops
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various dates March & April
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Join us this March and April for workshops leading up to a big Worm Appreciation Day (because Worms Obviously Require Motivation Seasonally!)
We will have practical, creative activities and opportunities to learn about the power of compost and worms. Together, we can explore how we depend on the species living in the soil, and they depend on us - a multi-species, reciprocal relationship that shapes our past, present and future.
The programme includes: - Continuous Flow Vermiculture System (Wormery) Building Workshop, with Rhyze Mushrooms (23rd March, all day)
- Creative Writing Workshop with Courtney Stoddart (26th March, 6pm)
- Big Cardboard Puppet Making (28th March, 6pm)
- Pigment and Paper Making with Onion Skins (4th April, 6pm)
- Bio-Based Ink Making for Screen Printing (12th April, 6pm)
This is part of a year-long project supported by Plant Health Centre, who are working with us to develop plant health and biosecurity resources for the community.
Spaces for the workshops are limited so please book using the link below. We are asking you to pay-what-you-can afford for tickets - meaning please take a free space if you need one, and please make a contribution in solidarity if you are able to do so. All details here:
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Clay Oven Decorating Competition
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We are coming into the final phase of the Community Kitchen build, and the Masters students who designed the clay oven are inviting suggestions for styling it to make it unique to the farm. Using natural materials and the farm as inspiration, let your imagination run wild!
Click here for more details and entry process.
Please send your designs by the end of Friday 15th March.
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We're sticking with one drop-in session a week at the moment, just while we get a few other things finished and sorted in Community Allotments and Garden. Newcomers are always welcome along with our regulars - if you're free on a Thursday 1pm-3pm, come along and give it a go! If you haven't been before, click here for more details and access notes. As ever, if you have any questions, you can contact communityallotments@lauristonfarm.org | |
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Fencing - Preparation for Cows
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In late March, we will have a contractor on site repairing the fences that were vandalised and couldn’t be repaired in time for last season. We are planning to move Highland cattle onto the farm in April, into the fenced areas. We are excited for our new ‘grassland managers’ to arrive and get started in the north field. But, we will need visitors to take all precautions to keep the cows, yourselves and each other safe.
Visitors to the farm should always be following the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. We have also always asked visitors to avoid the fenced ‘wildlife zone’, especially with dogs, as we are trying to support endangered bird species and restore wetland habitat. From April, we will also have the cows within the fenced area as well.
Please keep your distance, and do not allow dogs to approach the cows - for your safety and the cows’ welfare. Also, as on all farms, please ensure you leave gates as you find them - this should always be closed on the cows' field.
Once the cows settle in, we will be watching to see the impact on biodiversity. We are hoping to see an increase in insect life, and variety of grasses, and will be checking how the birds respond.
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We Feed The UK is a major new arts project grown by the The Gaia Foundation, pairing award-winning photographers and poets with the UK’s most inspiring regenerative food producers. At Lauriston Farm, we are absolutely delighted to feature in poet Iona Lee’s writing, and in the story of cultivating gender equality in farming alongside pioneering Nikki Yoxall at Grampian Grazers, with beautiful photographs by Sophie Gerrard. Click here to see the Cultivating Equality story and find out about the exhibition that’s coming to Glasgow in April 2024. And here is Iona Lee performing The Seed Kist, filmed at Lauriston Farm:
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Since 2022, we have been working with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as they research models for funding biodiversity restoration. We feature as a case study in their latest report: ‘Examples of Innovative Biodiversity Projects in Scotland’ - click here to read the report on the SRUC research publication site.
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Thank you for all the feedback on the active travel route idea, and the suggestions for potential locations for more veg bag pickup points. We are looking into all of this, and will update you in the next newsletter.
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Thank you for reading. Hope to see you at an event, volunteering session or wildlife spotting on the farm soon.
from all at Edinburgh Agroecology Co-op
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