Goodwood Home Farm on Open Farm Sunday 2018

Open Farm Sunday is a yearly opportunity for farms across the UK to open their gates for free and welcome people to their farms to discover the world of farming and learn more about how our food is produced. We always try to make the effort to visit one of our local farms, and after a lovely visit to Goodwood Home Farm for Open Farm Sunday back in 2014 we decided to return again this year. Goodwood Home Farm is part of the Goodwood Estate near Chichester in West Sussex, and is one of the largest lowland organic farms in the UK. The farm produces cheeses, beef, ales and lager, lamb, milk and pork.

We started our visit with a tractor ride to the dairy, where we tried some of the delicious milk and cheeses and saw where the cows are milked. The children had a go at milking a (pretend!) cow, and we saw how butter is made from milk with the chance to sample some. Then we headed to Seeley Copse where there were a range of forest school activities for children.

The favourite activity was building fires. The children were given a tile, some cotton wool smeared with Vaseline, and a flint and steel lighter. Harry was the only one that was able to get the lighter to work successfully without help, and he spent ages building up his little fire with sticks. Then they had fun toasting marshmallows!

Mia also enjoyed using some tools to saw a circle of wood from a branch and drill a hole in th etop. Then she was able to decorate it and make it into a necklace to wear and remind her of the visit.

We finished our day at the main part of the farm to see the sheep and lambs, pigs and calves. There was a sheep shearing demonstration which was fascinating to watch, and also some ladies showing how to use a spinning wheel. Outside the children had the chance to plant some seeds to bring home and grind some flour which they loved.

There was so much going on for children and adults of all ages and it was really well organised to make sure that there was plenty to keep everyone busy. We had a really lovely day!