What happens to the funds you so generously donate?

Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Farms are lively, vibrant businesses. Various exciting farm projects take place year round and fundraising is a vital and very welcome part of this process. Fundraising is done through the St Anthony's Trust which owns the farm land. Here you will find some of the projects the Coop has fundraised for and how you can get involved in supporting this valuable and rewarding activity.

Discover how the funds and donations you generously give to our farms are used and returned manyfold for the benefit of the whole community.

Tablehurst Straw Bale Farmhouse

Thanks to a tremendous input from an enthusiastic team of volunteers, Peter Brown's straw bale house is making swift progress. One of our volunteer builders, Xavier Hardy, has put the whole story together in this blog. And if you only have a couple of minutes to spare to catch the whole story, take a look at Xavier's time-lapse video.

The straw bale house finally receives its first straw bale! This photo shows the beginning of wall construction, with the first bale being landed onto the foundations. The walls will be formed from three layers of bales, which will then be rendered with a lime mortar on the outside and a natural clay mortar (using material excavated here on the farm) on the inside.

Visit Tablehurst Farm to see it first hand and have a tour of the farm house building in progress.

Plaw Hatch Spring Water Pump

The old pump was struggling and getting corroded… the water pressure was intermittent at best and non-existent a lot of the time. Considering our spring water is so very popular with the locals, we decided to purchase and install a new water pump in order to have consistent supply. And then, we appealed to our friends and customers of the farm and we were amazed and hugely grateful for the response which more than met the cost of the new pump investment.

The old pump was cleaned up and kept as a backup. The system was overhauled and refurbished to make sure water is flowing efficiently around the pump and its auxiliaries before heading up to the farm. Since then water has been flowing well all over the farm: in the animal water troughs, garden tunnels and to the spring tap.

Your ongoing contributions for the upkeep of the system and continuous improvements are truly appreciated. We are deeply grateful for the gift of a spring on the farm and for your generosity!

The Young Farmer Apprentice

It’s a really special thing when the dreams one has from a little boy culminate into a fully-fledged young biodynamic farmer! Ruben is just one of the volunteers and apprentices who worked and studied hard during his time at Plaw Hatch to complete his young farmer’s apprenticeship. The community responded with helping meet the shortfall for his education fees and his upkeep and Ruben finished and left Plaw Hatch in order to deepen his education and experience.

The farms welcome many volunteers and apprentices who are invaluable additions to the farm businesses. Some return later as fully fledged farmers to take up positions in the farms or continue their journey to become successful entrepreneurs in their own right.