Location: Crown Point Estate, Kirby Bedon, Norfolk
Date: Friday 9th November 2012
Project: Norfolk Food Discovery
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| Grain Silo |
A bright, sunny morning was the setting for this farm visit - thankfully considering the volume of rain we've had over the last few weeks. This was the first farm visit for this particular class, so a coach load of very excited children remarkably all wearing welly boots greeted me at about 10am. After the essential loo stop, snack break and a few health and safety checks, we're off.
Before we've even made it across the farmyard, a child points to a silo and asked what it is, 'This is where the grain is stored' explains Tim Dixon, the host of this farm visit. After a bit of discussion as to whether it's for humans or to feed cattle, we move on.
We head over to a large brown field, and with a bit of looking we can see small blades of green beginning to emerge. Tim asks the group what they think it is...'grass?' comes the answer...'close - it's winter wheat' he answers. Planted 3 weeks ago, it will grow until harvested next August.
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| Looking for winter wheat |
As we walk across the wheat field we are encouraged to look for signs of slug damage; the end of the wheat looks slightly yellow and is forked like a snake's tongue. Apparently they've made a massive nuisance of themselves because of all the wet weather.
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| Tim shows us what is inside the corn head |
We carry on walking until we come to the next stop, on the edge of a cover plot. The group is asked what they think is growing...and it's maize or sweetcorn, although Tim points out it's not for us to eat...'what's it for?' he asks and we establish it's for game birds, like partridge and pheasants - cue discussion about game keeping, however, other bird species benefit too. At this point we really should be able to see a flock of small birds emerge...I think possibly the noise of 30 small children may have put them up already.
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| Behold the Mighty Sweetcorn! |
After Tim peels his corn on the cob, everyone wants a go. Each of the children pulls a corn off the stalk and for 5 minutes the kids are totally absorbed in opening them, picking out the corn kernels. We talk about what sweetcorn is used for, who has eaten corn on the cob, whether it's come from a tin or not, about popcorn and cornflakes and whether other things eat the corn, not just the birds on Tim's farm. It really is an incredibly simple activity but the children get so much out of it.
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| North Denes meet a heifer, heifer meet North Denes |
After the sweetcorn we walk to see the heifers, young cows who haven't had their first calves as Tim tells us. The children are told that the quieter we are, the closer the cows will come to us. These moments are quietly brilliant - the children tense with trying to contain their excitement at being so close to a large animal and the cows equally tense, not knowing whether to investigate more or run a mile. The almost silent stand-off reaches it's height as a small hand is extended and the heifer braves putting her nose through the bars...
We talk about the dairy herd and how much milk is produced by each cow. We ask the children to name as many things as they can name that use milk - we get milkshake, cereal, yoghurt, cheese to list a few.
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| Po-tay-toes...peel 'em, mash 'em, roast 'em |
Next stop is the potato shed. Tim tell us when the potatoes were planted and harvested. Again, we ask the children to name as many foods as they can that involve potatoes.
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| And the beet goes on |
After the potatoes it's a short walk to the next crop...the sugarbeet. The crop was sown in March and is now ready for harvesting sometime before Christmas. Tim explains that about 20% of the root is sugar, and we list as many foods with sugar in them...too many to list here and we had to get back to the farm for some well earned lunch.
As we walk back we cross another giant field of stubble, we try walking like we're on the moon, crunching the stubble down with our feet, one lad says 'you've made walking fun!'...we try making stubble angels - like snow angels but...you guessed, in stubble. Not quite as effective as snow but we had fun trying!
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| North Denes class photo with a difference |
After lunch, we have a treasure hunt. The children are put into groups and are given a sheet of things to find, including flowers, birds, feathers, beetles and something white. The children are quite creative at this point, since it being November flowers are hard to come by and most of the birds have flown off in fear of small excited children. This is a lovely activity since it allows the children to have a good look at a field that some might think had nothing in this time of year.
Before North Denes have to leave, there is just enough time to get the whole class on the weighbridge...everyone has a guess as to how heavy the class is - if I remember correctly it was around 1000 kilos, anyone from Denes remember what it actually was?!
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| North Denes - Featherweight champions?! |
Quick loo stop, wash down of the welly boots so not to traipse mud onto the bus and Tim and I wave North Denes goodbye - I have a feeling it might be a quiet bus ride home.
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