Our farm offers a fantastic opportunity to see how farming and nature can coincide. For visiting groups we have an excellent setup with all the above habitats and a farming system set within only 34 acres, so it is small enough to get round in a day. Teachers and students could choose to focus on one aspect to bring to life a particular topic or could spend a session walking the whole farm to undertake a complete exploration of how farming, food and the natural environment are one network. We have excellent facilities including a carpark suitable for cars, minibuses and coaches.
Our classroom facilities are a short, pretty walk through the historic thatched hamlet of Mothecombe. We have good quality toileting and hand-washing facilities at the education complex, which is set within a walled garden where we run an additional cut flower enterprise.
A farm visit to Orchard Farm can support topics across the education curriculum including habitat assessments, life cycles, ecosystem services, animal welfare, farming, food production and biodiversity.
We are farm tenants with off-farm jobs in the National Health Service, as a Surgeon and Physiotherapist respectively. As such, we can bring a wealth of knowledge and experience from the health and care sector and are happy to discuss career aspirations with young visitors if they wish. We also welcome debate on the key issues of our time: climate change, biodiversity loss and the role of humans in influencing our own issues and the issues that face our planet. We value the opinions of all and encourage our younger generation to have a voice and grasp opportunities to inform and inspire themselves.
We believe that learning springs from happiness and that nurturing a positive learning environment enables our visitors to get the most out of their experience. We also have a website with some interactive content that would enable our visitors to engage with us before and after their farm visit. This could include watching some of our videos about our habitats and farming system before they come onto the farm, in order to prime their minds and stimulate their thinking on those things that are of interest to them before they arrive.
Afterwards, we hope they will continue on a reflective journey, perhaps helped in the future by being able to access live or recorded video of our nesting boxes, wildflower meadows and wetlands and interact with the farm through a process of reflection and recollection on aspects that were important to them and we welcome their thoughts after their visit.
The Public: Learn about birds by seeing them up close at one of our Bird-in-the Hand Workshops, with licensed bird ringers, Hunt for Harvest Mouse nests at our winter survey in our tussocky grasslands. Listen for Bats at our guided dusk walk where you may also see the owls hunting. Forage in our meadows, orchards and wood pastures to learn about different nectar, fruit and nut food sources for wildlife and livestock. Look out for dates of our Whole-Farm Guided Tours with the farmers or a Self-directed Farm Tour with access to our QR code on-farm videos to bring each habitat and farming practice to life as you go round. Many of our visits are free or low cost, reflective of our ambition to provide greater access to farming and nature to people from all backgrounds.
Schools and Home Education Groups: We work with schools and groups to make sure our visitors have an immersive, inquisitive and memorable time in nature. Farm visits can relate directly to the national curriculum and provide an exploration into how farming is evolving to meet the needs of nature, the climate and biodiversity crises, as well as discussing the social inequalities in gender, food, nutrition and how connection to nature can improve wellbeing. Visits for Schools and Home-Education groups are free because they are funded by the Governments’ Environmental Schemes. So, do get in touch at info@orchardfarmdevon.co.uk.