Market Drayton Senior Citizens’ Forum is affiliated to other S.C. Forums in the area and aims to promote the welfare and interests of senior citizens locally and nationally. They have an active programme of events, and representatives sit on local committees. Their PR and info. officer, Eric Davies asked us to speak to them last year, and we invited them for a visit to the farm last month to see what we were planning to do, as “Green Age”.

We were blessed with lovely, late-summer weather, and we had a great turnout with over 20 Forum members and representatives of other local organisations (Market Drayton Stroke Club, Market Drayton Red Cross, Salopian Care, Shropshire Social Services). We gave a brief presentation, followed by questions and general discussion. Then everyone was keen for a walk, so everyone had a look around the farm buildings, the allotment, polytunnel, and our sheep, cows and hens.

Transport to the farm, and the fees for people on lower budgets, were of concern but everyone agreed that the idea of a “care farm” for older people was good, and they really liked our location and what could be on offer.

Visitors? ...hmmm - perhaps they bring apples!

The following week we hosted a return visit from Amy Davidson at Salopian Care (Market Drayton)  who was interested to use our facilities in future for their older clients. I took Amy round our “Darwin Walk” (see an earlier blog) around the farm which takes in our ponds and woodland. She loved the open space – “where else could you walk so freely around countryside around here?” and felt we had a lot to offer older people needing support.

Our local town (2 miles away) is Market Drayton. For many years it hosted an annual “Damson Fair”. Being a newcomer (only lived here 40 years) I don’t remember it, but apparently it was a notable annual event (along with the “Dirty Fair”, a horse-sale). Damsons were very much in demand at one time for dying cloth, and my wife’s father told me that they used to harvest the damsons by parking a trailer underneath a tree and vigorously shaking it. All a thing of the past, now, with chemical dyes more reliable, I suppose….

For some reason, damsons and other “stone-fruits” grow really well here. I had never heard of “bullaces” until one of our farming neighbours told me that the damson-like fruits on our “great hedge” [not many hedges are mentioned in historical records, but one of ours is, in connection with the Battle of Blore Heath, 1459 – see reference to the Great Hedge here] were, in fact, “bullaces”. They are like small, round damsons (see photo) and taste OK if really ripe.

If you Google “bullace” you will get lots of references to wine making, because they are a free-for-the-taking fruit that makes great wine. They are also referred to as “wild plums”. Well, they certainly grow wild around here! We have a lovely copse of them (wherein I took the above photo) and our neighbour at Audley’s Cross Farm [the site of the memorial, Audley’s Cross, to where Lord Audley fell at the Battle of Blore Heath] has them all along one side of his field, near the Cross.

Whilst I’m thinking of stone fruits, it’s strange but true that, towards the end of March, we frequently get “stone fruit gales” – that is, around the time the damsons, plums – and, yes, bullaces – are in flower. Makes it a challenge for the bees to fertilise them, but perhaps the wind makes up for it….

Must close, got to go and take the stones out of the bullaces – it’s supposed to make the wine taste better.

Green care” – a European possibility for smaller farms.

All over Europe it seems that the smaller, traditional, family farm is threatened. We see this locally, with farms that were viable with a smaller milking herd going out of business. Succession planning is difficult, as farmers’ sons and daughters don’t want the lifestyle of their parents when they can earn better money, more easily, in professional jobs. Older farmers are holding onto their lifestyle, but with declining incomes and higher input costs.

“Care farming”, or “green care” (a wider, umbrella term),  has been seen, especially in continental Europe, as a partial solution. Farmers’ wives may have social care or health qualifications and perhaps they can welcome people with special support needs onto the farm. In Holland, the National Care Farm Support Centre has been financed by the agricultural sector of Government to promote the use of ordinary farms as “multifunctional” agriculture units whereby the existing farm can also be a health care resource.

But a barrier to the development of what would seem to many people to be a really good idea is the need for scientific evidence on the therapeutic effect of green care. Ideally, medical practitioners would like to see a “double blind controlled study” to be done (and preferably many of them), but this is not only expensive but hard to do scientifically. Expensive – no problem if a pharmaceutical product is on trial which could be financially lucrative, but not if the product is free (as contact with nature is). Hard to do – because the subjective experience of being in contact with nature differs from one person to another – so the “active therapeutic ingredient” will differ from one person to another.

Anyhow, over the past three years, a European scientific initiative (COST 866 – Green Care in Agriculture), has tried to pin down what evidence could be gathered about the efficacy of green care and how best one can conceptualise it . The result is a fascinating and definitive report – Green Care: A Conceptual Framework – just published – which is available free and online.  I have been involved with it – specifically, contributing the sections on connectedness to nature. Do take the trouble to download it – it’s not only packed full of information but is a good read as well!

Our new layby!

(Lay-by: A pull-off, a designated paved area beside a main road where cars can stop temporarily.)

Marvellous thing the world wide web – by typing in “define:” into Google you can get a selection of definitions. Doing this for “layby” gets you several options, of which the above is pretty apt.

Our planning application to convert our farm buildings into a care farm for older people was originally vetoed because of the poor sight-line from our farm exit. The problem was the lay-by adjacent to our farm entrance/exit which tempted large lorries to park there that then obstructed the view down the road when we are trying to leave our farm. Pretty dangerous, so it would be good to do something about it.

After quite a bit of discussion with the County Council Highways Department we secured agreement to re-model the layby to improve the visibility. This became a planning condition, to improve the layby at our own expense. After sterling work from John at HampshireHomes Ltd., our architect and project manager, we secured agreement to proceed.

Anyhow, work started this week, on my birthday.  A swarm of diggers, dumpers, rollers, tractors, trailers, traffic lights, signs and lorries descended on us to widen and lengthen said layby. And the picture shows the result!

Now we can start work on converting the farm buildings. We feel pretty laid-back now that the workers are laid off, I can tell you…………

Picture shows our lay-by widened and lengthened, with no-go zone marked out and sight line from our farm exit no longer obscured by parked vehicles.

My impression about care farming in the Netherlands (where there are over 1000 care farms, and a recent care farming conference had 550 delegates) is that many care-seekers (service users– “dielnehmer” or “participants”, is the Dutch word) are paying for their place on the care farm from a “personal budget” from the State authorities.

How this was described to us in Holland a few weeks ago was that people could request an assessment of their needs, from which they would receive an “indication”. This was the sum of money allowed to that person to purchase, for example, day care services at a care farm. It was subject to a care plan, and there was a process of reviewing that plan to see whether their needs were being met by that arrangement.

This idea is not new: some 20 years ago I was talking to postgraduate students about “direct payments” (to people with learning disabilities) as a new model of service delivery. In other words, people would be given money directly into their own bank account to design and pay for their own preferred choice of support, rather than being obliged to attend a local day centre as the only option on offer. But the idea has been slow to catch on.

Anyway, it appears that its time has come in the UK. 

Broadly, this means that if someone wants to visit Green Age at Blore Heath but does not have much money, they could request an assessment of their support needs. If these are substantial, and coming to Blore Heath would help them continue to live more independently, then they might receive money directly to buy our service.

This is a most welcome development for people with support needs and should increase the range of services available. In particular, it could mean that care farmers will be able to market their services to individuals and their families and meet local needs, rather than tendering to their local social or health services for block contracts. Hopefully, we will see a similar growth in care farm services in the UK that Holland has enjoyed for over a decade. It’s hopefully a good “indication” !

John Hegarty

Today was a very warm late Spring day, and Rosie and I decided to go for a walk around the countryside of Maer.  Maer is around 7 miles from Blore Heath and is most famous because Charles Darwin was a frequent visitor to Maer Hall in his early life, and in 1839 married Emma Wedgwood in St Peter’s church.

Maer Hall from St Peter's church - the lake is just visible in the distance

Darwin used to enjoy walking in the countryside around Maer, and in particular the “Sand Walk” around the lake at Maer Hall. He even recreated the this walk in his later life at Down House in Kent:

“One memory of Maer that Darwin particularly treasured was the mile-long Sand Walk encircling the lake. At Down, he rented a strip of land from a neighbor and, using gravel and red clay from a nearby clay pit, he had his own Sandwalk, about a quarter of a mile in length, laid alongside it. Here, rain or shine, he took daily walks…”
(Aydon, 2002: 158 cited from Walhert, 2007)

With increasing evidence of the benefits of exercise in green space, we hope one day to be able to construct a similar “Sand Walk” at Blore Heath, which would enable visitors to take regular outdoors exercise.

Care farm training: FACE – “Farm and Countryside Education” (http://www.face-online.org.uk/) now offer an update of their 2-day “CEVAS” (Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme”) for aspiring care-farmers. I’d already done the NVQ Level 2 course and wanted to top it up with the care farming add-on. So I went to Uncllys Farm near Bewdley for a one-day course led by Noelle Wilson  (of Top Barn Training care farm Worcester http://www.topbarntraining.co.uk/ ) and organised byNick Platt and Julie White from Growing Rural Enterprise Ltd (http://www.growingruralenterprise.co.uk/ ) .  I’ve still got to do the written elements of the course but it was a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and think more about what “care farming” in the UK is all about. If I pass the course this will be a step towards a UK care farming accreditation scheme, already shown to be important in Holland and Belgium.

Fancy having a care farm consultant?  Stephen Sellers came to visit us. Stephen has set up a care farming consultancy service in Hampshire (www.newfarmhorizons.co.uk) to put farmers in touch with service managers and consultants. This is a fantastic idea  and something sorely needed throughout the UK. Holland is ten years ahead of the UK in care farming just because the agricultural sector of the Dutch government could see the importance of setting up a “dating” and support agency for farmers and care organisations to establish care farms (see http://www.zorgboeren.nl and use Google Translate to get a an approximate translation). There are over a 1000 care farms in Holland and those we have visited are first-class care services mostly on working farms.

Ecopsychology and “Living Well”  On Friday I did an ecopsychology workshop at the Living Well 3^rd annual conference in Stoke on Trent http://www.livingwellwestmidlands.org/projects2.aspx?id=11  . My theme was the importance of helping service users and therapy clients towards a fuller relationship with “nature”. It seemed to go well and I met some interesting people. I talked about my work on hypnotherapy with a nature component, an evaluation I have done with the recent WELLIES care-farming project in Staffordshire (http://www.growingruralenterprise.co.uk/wellies.html) and Fordhall Farm, Market Drayton, a pioneering, community-owned farm dedicated to reconnecting people with food and farming (http://www.fordhallfarm.com/ ).

Back at Blore Heath It was great to finish the week with a weekend at home, sharing with  four generations of our family (Dad is 94 and youngest grandchild is not yet 2!)  our fantastic farm and the beautiful surroundings of Blore Heath.

Welcome to our new website and blog. We are the Hegarty families – John and Rosie (grandparents) – Matthew (elder son) and Becky + daughters Charlotte and Ellie, James (younger son) and Caroline and their children Aimee and Callum and we farm Blore Heath farm – a model farm built in the 1870s with traditional brick buildings designed for mixed agriculture of beef, dairy and arable.

It’s our dream to share our farm and its surroundings, preserve the heritage of Blore Heath and have a sustainable farm enterprise for generations to come. We have a suckler herd and sheep, rare-breed pigs, preserve the battlefield heritage of Blore Heath (see www.bloreheath.org), and – this is where “Green Age” comes in – are planning a day opportunities service for older people in our farm buildings (a “care farm” – Dutch idea!).

Anyhow, we are just back from a week’s stay in Holland at Erve Knippert farm (you can check it out on google using Google translate). Wim and Marga have a farm not unlike ours, and they have invited older people to share in their farm life and activities for over a decade. The older people there are called “dielnehmers” – nearest translation is partakers. Up to about 15 come once a week or more often (a majority are men)  and pay a contribution for their food and the costs of the service. There is nothing like this in the UK and we think it is a brilliant idea (so do lots of other people we have talked to!). We have planning permission and are now seeking funds to run a pilot project.

More soon!

Green Age is an innovative not-for-profit group interested in providing a variety of care services for Older People.

Our primary goal is the establishment of a Care Farm for Older People in Staffordshire, UK.

The purpose of this blog is provide updates on our progress, and also to discuss wider issues around Care Farming and care for Older People.

Please follow the blog as we continue to add content and let us know your thoughts!