Late Summer, Pick Your Own Produce and the Autumn Equinox

For me late August is a chance to pause before the busyness of the autumn and an opportunity to enjoy the last of the summer weather, sunrise and sunset dog walks, summer recipes and time pottering in the garden.

I also love trips to my local (PYO) 'Pick Your Own' farm for fruit and flowers. As a child we used to head out to farms in Worcestershire and Shropshire and come home with boxes of strawberries, raspberries, loganberries and gooseberries which would be turned into pies and crumbles and stored in the freezer for autumn deserts. I'm sure I ate as much as I picked as I remember hands sticky and stained with berry juice.

Over the last few years our local Pick Your Own farm has been Peterley Manor Farm which offers Christmas trees in the winter, sunflowers in late August and a pumpkin patch in the autumn along side the variety of fruit through the summer. My hands still get stained with juice but I now try to resist eating what I've picked until its been weighed! Just as my mother and grandmothers did, I prepare pies and crumbles for the freezer and the autumn months.

This year the Autumn Equinox occurs on Sunday 22nd September. In the Northern Hemisphere it marks the end of summer and the beginning of astronomical autumn and the Pagan festival of Mabon. We can also define autumn through phenology and meteorology. Phenology uses ecological and biological signs such as leaves changing colour and birds migrating to indicate the changing seasons, while meteorology uses three equal months per season and autumn begins on the 1st September.

The Harvest Moon, the full moon nearest the equinox, occurs on the 17th September 2024 and historically, the illumination of the full moon gave farmers extra hours to bring the harvest in. Once the harvest was brought home, a harvest supper was prepared to share with family and neighbours to celebrate and give thanks. Harvest suppers and festivals continue up and down the UK today and are held throughout September and October and this is perhaps the closest celebration we have to Thanksgiving.

Community Larders and Mood Boosting Food

Each summer I look forward to eating the food I've grown in my garden. This year I've had particular success with my hanging basket strawberries, potatoes and herbs. 

According to the ONS 1 in 8 households in Britain do not have access to a private or shared garden but a lack of outdoor space doesn't need to stop you growing. Containers and window boxes can produce great results with crops such as herbs, strawberries, spinach, beans, lettuce, carrots and celery.  Or you could try joining your local community garden or registering for an allotment with your local council.

Some community projects, food banks or larders will offer trays of micro greens or pots of herbs to encourage people to try simple growing at home.

Community Larders are different from food banks. They are pop up hubs that enable people to purchase good food at a significantly reduced price. They can also make a difference to the environment by reducing food waste. Surplus food, that may have otherwise been thrown away, is regularly donated by supermarkets and food producers. Larders offer a range of fresh, frozen and packet produce that may differ each week. They also offer support and advice on topics such as work, health or finances. Many larders have a small annual membership scheme that enables people to purchase a number of items each week free of charge.

The access to good nutritious food can not be overestimated for our physical and mental health. Food and its impact on health seems to be in the spotlight at the moment with discussions about the links between ultra processed food and chronic diseases. 

An article by the Harvard Medical School in 2022 discussed how multiple studies have shown links between the type of food we eat and the impact on our mood and mental health as well as physical health. Diets high in refined sugars impact on the bodies regulation of insulin, promote inflammation, impair brain function and worsen the symptoms of mood conditions such as depression.

The charity MIND suggests that eating protein rich diets such as nuts and seeds, milk, eggs, cheese, lean meat, fish, soya and legumes can support good mental health. They also suggest eating regularly, eating slow release energy foods such as brown rice, nuts and wholegrain bread, drinking plenty of fluids such as water, herbal tea and tea to avoid dehydration and aid concentration, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, eating healthy fats from oily fish, nuts and seeds, avoiding alcohol and minimising caffeine.

Sometimes it can be hard to know where to start in the face of so much medical or scientific publicity or advice but maybe it is possible to start with one step or one thing as recommended by the late Dr Michael Mosley in his books, television shows and podcasts. 

What will be your first step?

Home grown tomatoes 

Sharing food and the place of food within care farming

We all have food memories, both good and bad. The smell and taste of food can transport us back in time and trigger feelings and emotions as well as reminding us of places or settings. 

One of my early memories is of breakfast picnics on the beach. As a child my family would take holidays in Cornwall and my parents would drive through the night to avoid the traffic. We'd arrive at sunrise and head to Gunwalloe or Praa Sands (pronounced pray sands) and have something to eat and drink while listening to the waves and sitting on the sand. I may not remember what we ate but I remember the feelings of arrivng early and having the beach to ourselves and the sound of the waves on the shoreline. Many of my favourite memories are of meals out to quirky cafes or restaurants, searching out local or artisan produce at shops or markets and of baking and cooking for family and friends. 

Food was an important part of early green care and care farming practices and green care, as we would recognise it today, began in Medieval Europe. Restorative Monastic gardens were designed to support and care for the sick and infirm and passing pilgrims. These gardens offered a chance for people, including the monks, to spend time in nature while carrying out meaningful work such as growing fruit and vegetables and tending to the livestock. The gardens physically fed the patients and the monks, while also nurturing the body, mind and spirit.

Food continued to be intertwined with green care and caring for individuals up until the 1940's but has seen a steady decline since then. During my own care farming research in 2020/21 I noticed that the use of food within the care farming experience was sporadic. Many farmers and owners explained that they either didn't have suitable catering facilities on site or they were concerned about the possible health and safety risks of infections due to poor hand washing after contact with the animals. This put them off introducing activities that included cooking and sharing. Others said they had tried to run activities and fallen foul of local food hygiene regulations. 

In 2023, in further research I reflected on care farming and the place of food. Have we moved away from its origins? Should food growing, harvesting, cooking and sharing be part of the experience on farms today?

Over the next few blogs, I'll explore how we might use food within care farming, using food therapeutically, food and mood, food and our sense of place and the practicalities of using food.

 Beautiful handmade pizza at OxMoor Farm Buckinghamshire

School Farms

The focus for this week's blog is 'School Farms'. School farms offer facilities within a school grounds  to students with an interest in food, farming and horticulture. Resources available to students may include land for growing, land for keeping livestock, poly tunnels, greenhouses, apiaries and access to farm machinery.

School farms, like a number of the other topics this blog has explored, have experienced an ebb and flow in popularity in the UK since the early 1900's. In 1912 there were some 2500 school farms or gardens but this declined over the decades leading to a sharp decline in the 1980's. From the early 2000's the interest was rekindled and The Schools Farm Network estimates that there are now more than 120 school farms across the UK.

But what are the benefits for students in engaging with a school farm? 

School farms can:

• Boost learning and engagement in rural studies, ecology, biodiversity, food standards and other topics such as health and safety.
• Support learning of curriculum subjects such as science and geography. 
• Teach practical skills and encourage students to take responsibility for certain animals or tasks. 
• Introduce the students to entrepreneurial routes into food and farming.
• Promote inclusivity through tasks that can be differentiated to support students with a range of learning needs.
• Offer a stepping stone to agricultural college or university.

If you would like to know more about school farms you might be interested in the School Farms Network annual conference, this year online, in July 2021 School Farms Annual Conference 2021.

Care Farming and the potential opportunities for Flexi and Home Schooling

Home schooling may not have been a common topic of conversation for most people before March 2020 and the Covid Lockdown. Now its receiving almost daily discussion in the UK media as various different experts dissect the pros and cons of the school closures. 

Home schooling has proved challenging for some parents - poor and unreliable internet connections, limited IT facilities, time pressures with work, or just not being sure what to 'teach'. For other parents the enforced closure of schools has given them an opportunity to try something new, have a greater say in their child's learning and a chance to try creative approaches to learning. Some families may even decide to consider home education as a long term option.

Prior to the pandemic an estimated 70,000 children and young people were home schooled each year in the UK. I had always thought of home schooling as following one main approach but adapted by each family and I was surprised to find that a combination of up to five main home education approaches are often used. These are: Traditional Home Schooling (children being taught at home by their parents), Professional Home Schooling (where you pay a number of professionals to deliver specific lessons), Flexi Schooling (which offers a mix of time in school and time at home or in another setting), Unschooling (which allows the child to learn independently, following their interests) and World Schooling (which allows families to learn about countries and cultures first hand as they travel for prolonged periods of time).

My first experience of care farming was through the flexi schooling model, although at the time I didn't realise this would have been classed as a home schooling approach. I was Head of Special Educational Needs at a large school just outside London. One young person was at risk of exclusion from school, and after a number of meetings with the student and family to consider options and potential next steps, he started chatting and sharing his aspirations and interests. It became clear that he was hoping for a career in farming so we considered how this could be facilitated in return for a commitment to, at the very least, continue English and Maths studies. We found a local care farm and devised a weekly programme that included English and Maths lessons in school and the rest of the week on the farm gaining practical skills. This approach turned a disillusioned student into one who became engaged, acquired skills for life and took personal responsibility for his own learning and path to college. 

I began to wonder if care farming could be included as part of a flexible schooling approach that might suit the learning needs of some families, children and young people.

This the idea served to shape my Churchill Fellowship application and ultimately, my wider research into green care. This led me to consider another question - could care farms and gardens support other home schooling approaches?

During my Open Wing Research in autumn 2020 I heard from a number of green care gardens and farms who reported that they had supported home schooled children and their accompanying parents by offering a series of weekly learning sessions. These sessions offered growing and animal husbandry activities as well as a chance to learn more about the environment, nature and food. 

While these examples of collaborative involvement in home schooling may not be common across care farms and gardens at present, such approaches could prove to be really valuable as they offer children and young people fresh and innovative learning opportunities.  For the care farms and gardens involved, they represent an opportunity to extend their current programmes to include categories of clients that perhaps they had not considered previously.

The benefits of Animal Assisted Interventions

This the last in this series of three blogs exploring Animal Assisted Interventions and this week I shall be considering the benefits for the clients who undertake interventions involving animal support.Such benefits can be gained through passive as well as active interactions. 

Passive interventions can be simply described as spending time near an animal. Bente's research published in 2013 found that even being near an animal can or will produce feelings of relaxation, lower blood pressure and lower the heart rate.

An active intervention is a hands on animal session and may include the client being involved in the feeding, watering, cleaning, exercising or other basic care and may include more complex tasks such as calculating and preparing the correct amount of feed for each animal. Clients that visit a farm regularly or attend other animal sessions will likely develop positive relationships with the animals. The development of these connections supports the client further as they experience a reduction of their levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and through activation of their oxytocin system, reduces feelings of anxiety, depression and loneliness. It is known that oxytocin plays a part in strengthening the bond between mothers and babies but it can also reinforce the bond between humans and animals. 

Bente's research also showed that spending time with animals has been found in many cases to support children with their emotional and cognitive development and their fine and gross motor skills. It can also improve concentration and motivation for children and adults alike. For those experiencing physical and mental illnesses, time spent with animals can aid the healing process and speed up recovery times. You will recall that in an earlier blog I described how many medieval monastic hospitals had gardens (with animals) attached to them for use by both the patients and the monks so this is not a new idea!

I hope you've enjoyed this deeper dive into the world of animal assisted interventions. This week I'm attending the online Oxford Real Farming Conference Global 2021 so I look forward to sharing my highlights with you next week.