Scouts visits to HCF

HCF is pleased to say that few days ago we were visited by a couple of local scouts groups. Education activities are a core purpose of the farm and we were delighted in receiving and spending an afternoon with these young children introducing them to a range of farm based activities.

To accomplish this we raised a call for volunteers, who then gathered on Saturday to brainstorm four activities, each one of a duration of about 15/20’. We decided upon making the following four:

A seed sowing station where they could investigate what a big seed looks like, and then pot one themselves by preparing a pot (drainage holes), filling it with soil, sowing a seed and watering it. Accompanied by questions and answers regarding the seeds needs.

A compost activity, where they could add green and brown materials to the compost, plus a bit of manure, and help turn it over. All accompanied with explanations and questions about how it works and a visit to the final result, good black soil. (magic!)

A harvesting activity in the soft fruit cage, where they had a walk around ID and then got a punnet each and could harvest a selection of fruit for themselves

A vegetable hunt, where they were given a map of the farm and they had to find a total of 10 crops, two of them flowers, one herb and seven vegetables from the more usual ones to the more unusual

Last we gathered by the social area and had a round of questions and answers putting in common all that we had done during the afternoon, before breaking ranks and going home. As farm members leading the activity, we found that the duration 15-20 minutes per station worked really well, and that rotating them from one to another helped them stay focused and note get bored. We also found that groups of 6 were very manageable and we were very lucky with a sunny glorious afternoon weather after some very recent thunderstorms.

We also found that a crop treasure hunt was great fun and a much better way to help them zoom in and observe the crops, than pointing them out to them.

We encouraged everyone to bring their own trowel and gloves, and we kept common tools to a bare minimum while disinfecting the handles from one user to another.

The total cost of the activity was under 5GBP for 24 participants, namely some recyclable pots and a bag of seed soil. We also made an activity sheet for the scouts to print and bring for the afternoon, which many of them had.

Any new ideas and feedback for future visits is most welcome! You can also drop your name to volunteer leading any activity station in the future.