150 visitors | Croft | 3.5 acres

Our Enter­prise

The croft is home to our four breed­ing sows includ­ing the Oxford, Sandy and Black breeds. We pro­duce young stock which we fin­ish on the farm and then sell the pork at var­i­ous local mar­kets as well as through adver­tis­ing on our social media page. We also pro­duce goat’s meat from our Toggen­burg goats, lamb from our Tex­el cross sheep and sell eggs from our ducks and hens. 

Putting us on the map

We orig­i­nal­ly signed up LEAF Open Farm Sun­day to show the pub­lic what rur­al life is like and to help try and pro­mote our busi­ness. We also see the event as a great way to inter­act with our local com­mu­ni­ty and give them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be involved and show­case their businesses. 

Plan­ning

It is nev­er too ear­ly to start plan­ning; we always start by look­ing at the lay­out of the croft and where we are going to hold the activ­i­ties and car park­ing. Adver­tis­ing doesn’t need to cost any­thing, we have found that social media, posters sup­plied by Open Farm Sun­day and ban­ners have been very effec­tive. Get­ting the pro­mo­tion out as soon as pos­si­ble helps get spread the word. We have received great sup­port from LEAF who can pro­vide you with infor­ma­tion, sig­nage and tools to use at the event. The best advice I can give is don’t be afraid to ask for help. 

We have a bril­liant small team of helpers includ­ing fam­i­ly, friends and mem­bers of the local com­mu­ni­ty. They are always full of ideas and enthu­si­asm, mak­ing our events run smoothly. 

The biggest wor­ry for me before our first Open Farm Sun­day was the safe­ty and well­be­ing of the pub­lic and our ani­mals. LEAF offer a range of sup­port mate­ri­als includ­ing the host hand­book and a tem­plate risk assess­ment that real­ly helped address these wor­ries. We also make sure we had run­ning water and toi­lets, so our vis­i­tors could wash their hands after touch­ing the ani­mals. Make sure these are booked well in advance and con­firm with the com­pa­ny sup­ply­ing them clos­er to the time. 

Effec­tive engage­ment with the public 

To make the event suc­cess­ful and enjoy­able it is impor­tant to plan activ­i­ties in advance that your vis­i­tors can engage in what­ev­er their age. I would rec­om­mend keep­ing them sim­ple so that your helpers can man­age them and you don’t need to add lots of new ele­ments to your day. Many of the activ­i­ties can be things you are already doing on the farm or croft. An exam­ple of this is our ​“kids feed­ing kids” activ­i­ty. We sim­ply let the chil­dren come along and have a go at feed­ing our kid goats – it has gone down a treat the last cou­ple of years. 

You could also ask if any­one in the local com­mu­ni­ty would like to run an activ­i­ty. The local fire brigade come along with their fire engine, and let the pub­lic have a go at using the big hoses. Our younger vis­i­tors also love to sit inside the vehicle. 

You don’t have to offer cater­ing but we like to pro­mote the whole farm to fork process, so we cook our own sausages, and offer home­made scones and cream. 

Increas­ing local profile

Our busi­ness has grown since host­ing Open Farm Sun­day events, mak­ing it extreme­ly worth­while for us and for the local com­mu­ni­ty. How­ev­er, the most reward­ing thing for us as hosts and what real­ly con­vinced us to con­tin­ue host­ing LEAF Open Farm Sun­day was the fact peo­ple actu­al­ly turned up! 

In our first year we had 70 vis­i­tors and in year two around 140. In 2018 we wel­comed 150. This is a great achieve­ment for us due to our remote loca­tion. Watch­ing the pub­lic out on the croft, smil­ing and enjoy­ing their day is the best reward of all. Many return year after year with their friends and fam­i­ly and we have already had peo­ple ask­ing if we are doing the event again this year.