by admin | Feb 21, 2022 | Kent Care Farming
2021 Events
3 x Summer Yard Sales (Saturday 29th May, Saturday 26th June, Saturday 24th July)
Raised money for Mount Lodge Young Farmers Club, Team Ben Hammond (on behalf of C.R.Y – Cardiac Risk in the Young) and Mind
Summer Family Afternoon (Saturday 21st August)
Dog Show, Sheep Grand National, Vintage Vehicles, Livestock, Games, Bring Your Own Picnic, Refreshments to fundraise for YFC & Care Farm
Weald of Kent Ploughing Match (Saturday 18th September)
Stall with tombola and games to fundraise for YFC
Biddenden Village Christmas Fair (Saturday 20th November)
Stall with raffle and Christmas crafts made at the farm to fundraise for YFC & Care Farm
Christmas Open Day & Santa Grotto (Saturday 11th December)
Christmas crafts, Refreshments, Animals, Santa’s Grotto
2022 Upcoming Events
Spring Open Day (Saturday 19th March)
Animals, Newborn lambs, Games and Refreshments to fundraise for YFC & Care Farm
Heathfield Show (Saturday 29th May)
Showing Pedigree Black Welsh Mountain sheep
South of England Show (Friday 10th – Sunday 12th June)
Showing Pedigree Black Welsh Mountain sheep & craft entries
Kent County Show (Friday 8th – Sunday 10th July)
Showing sheep and cattle as well as craft entries
Summer Family Afternoon (Saturday 30th July)
Dog Show, Sheep Grand National, Vintage Vehicles, Livestock, Games, Bring Your Own Picnic, Refreshments to fundraise for YFC & Care Farm
Biddenden Tractorfest (Saturday 20th – Sunday 21st August)
Animals, tombola, games to fundraise for YFC
Edenbridge & Oxted Show (Sunday 28th – Monday 29th August)
Showing Pedigree Black Welsh Mountain sheep
Weald of Kent Ploughing Match (Saturday 17th September)
Stall with tombola and games to fundraise for YFC
Christmas Open Day & Santa Grotto (Date TBC)
Christmas crafts, Refreshments, Animals, Santa’s Grotto
by admin | Feb 21, 2022 | Care Farming, Kent Care Farming, Young Farmers Club
Mount Lodge Young Farmers’ Club Report 2020 & 2021
It has been an interesting couple of years!
Mount Lodge YFC started loc
kdown on a high, just squeezing in our 5th Anniversary of Mount Lodge Farm Dinner Dance at London Beach Hotel, the last weekend before restrictions were put in place. A meal followed by auction, raffle and dancing raised funds for Mount Lodge Farm & YFC, Hospice in the Weald and Pilgrims Hospice.
Following this, the farm became quiet, with no one around other than the animals, so we thought why not bring the farm to your homes! Staff became inventive with crazy YouTube videos, quizzes and games via Zoom and activities to send out regularly to all our members. Our YFC presentation was also a virtual one this year, with photos of everyone enjoying themselves at the farm, which we were all looking forward to once normality returned.
Winter came and our members in true young farmers style braved the elements – rain, wind, snow, ice and a lot of mud! We met with no access to our inside buildings on the farm due to COVID, we were cold, but it meant we could be together and have some long overdue fun!
In November we said goodbye to Ed, one of our New Forest ponies who went back to enjoy his life with his previous owners. This meant we had an empty stable… so said ‘hello’ to Oona & Vera,
our Miniature Shetland & British Spotted pony foals! These two girls have certainly kept us entertained over the past year and have fit right in with their cheeky attitudes.
Sadly, over Christmas and into the New Year we were back online, with more YouTube videos, more quizzes & games and more activities. We even got the staff and lots of members cooking at home.
But, at last, after a long Winter, our farm members were welcomed back at a lovely time of year – lambing! Mount Lodge Farm saw 60 lambs leaping around this year from both our commercial flock and our Pedigree Black Welsh Mountain flock, the members all got stuck in and many of them completing a sheep care course.
Just as lambing was over, we were then greeted by our very first calves born at Mount Lodge Farm. Chesnut & Olive gave birth to a lovely bull calf each in May, Sidney & Stanley. All our members have loved seeing them grow up and our girls are now running with Knobby the Red Devon bull again.
As the weather continued to improve and restrictions eased, the club were able to do more outside. This summer we held three ‘Summer Yard Sales’, one a month, where the farm was open for the afternoon to help raise funds for MLYFC, Team Ben Hammond via CRY and Mind. We also had a tombola alongside as well as selling plants and home-reared lamb boxes.
As we spent a lot of time outside this year, the plant production was on a big scale in 2021! Both of our poly tunnels were brimmed with stunning flowers and plants all grown with care by our farm members.
Show season was a little different this year, starting the year off with the virtual Heathfield show which several of our members entered. This then inspired us to get involved with the South of England Show YFC Crafts section, which meant lots of our Saturdays were filled with crafts and creativity. It all paid off in the end as Mount Lodge YFC was awarded the club with the highest points at the event. Shows were on the up from this point, with the news that the Kent County Show would be hosting an alternative event, the ‘Kent County Summer Fayre’. This is the highlight of our members year, so to have this to look forward to and prep for really lifted the club spirits. After remembering what we had to do, we pulled it out the bag with a cracking show with our 21 sheep, 4 cattle and 48 craft entries resulting in the club coming 2nd overall! All our members loved taking such a variety of ages and breeds of animals, with the whole event about YFC coming back together again. Bring on 2022!
Following on from a manic couple of months, we hosted some more laidback Saturday YFC sessions, for example – our farm Olympics day. Like lots of the nation, we were hooked on the Tokyo Olympics, so we thought, why not host our own! In August our YFC and staff held the ‘Mount Lodge YFC Farm Olympics’ with blind folded sheep haltering (on a toy sheep), egg tossing, obstacle courses, running, Pictionary and more – all whilst ducking in and out of the torrential rain. No Olympics would be complete without medals, the day ended with a ceremony and lots of sore legs.
As we neared the end of the summer, we hosted a Summer Family Afternoon to thank everyone who had supported us over the past year at both Mount Lodge YFC & Care Farm. It was a chance for families, carersand friends to come together and enjoy each other’s company. Everyone brought their own picnic and the day consisted of afternoon teas, a dog show, classic cars & vehicles, games, and even a sheep grand national! We all had such a great day that it will be back in the diary for next year.
To round of the summer season our staff headed over to the Edenbridge & Oxted Show on a beautifully sunny weekend with some of our Pedigree Black Welsh Mountain sheep, they placed well and really got us looking forward to the show season to come the next year. It was a relaxed weekend for our staff to enjoy after what has been a crazy 18 months.
When the new membership year started in September, we made our way to the Weald of Kent Ploughing Match to run a stand with Ashford YFC & Weald of Kent YFC to help encourage new members to the clubs. MLYFC had a hectic day with our tombola and games, eventually selling out!
Plans going forward for the Autumn months of the club have commenced, with an Autumn Afternoon going ahead – complete with pumpkin carving and a scavenger hunt; a Saturday to make a Guy Fawkes and enjoy a bonfire & BBQ and also a game or two of bowling!
This year also will see the return of our successful Christmas Open Days & Grottos in December, we will complete 2021 with our YFC Presentations and Christmas Party.
Mount Lodge YFC is looking forward to heading into the new year and looking to the future. With our younger, original members now getting older and more responsible they’re helping shape the club into what they would like to get out of MLYFC for them and their fellow members.
by admin | Oct 31, 2018 | Kent Care Farming
Mount Lodge made a great first step to the year by setting up as a registered charity and we are approaching the charities 1st Birthday!
During the Christmas period, we had our YFC presentations afternoon with George the Shetland making a mischievous appearance in his Christmas attire alongside Father Christmas, all the members were recognised for their achievements throughout the year and received medals. To round off the festive period Mount Lodge YFC held a Christmas Open Afternoon, members and users of the farm sold crafts they had made running up to the event, served refreshments and we had some reindeer’s join us for the day.
Into the New Year we went onto taking part in the Winter Competitions day which was enjoyed by all of our members who entered classes and attended the day. Before we knew it we were up to eyes with lambs and with an unwelcoming visit from the ‘Beast from the East’ this made it a difficult period for us, but we still had lots of fun and everyone got stuck in. Once the weather had improved we had a family open day during lambing, to invite all of our members family and friends to enjoy the new life the farm had to offer, the mayor of Ashford, Winston Michael, visited us on the day too. Following on from this we were invited to tea with the mayor and his wife, along with Swan YFC and awarded a ‘Certificate of Achievement’ which we are still to this day very proud of.
Summer was on the horizon, which only meant one thing, Kent Show. The endless weeks of preparation and lamb training commenced with all of our members getting involved, but the hard work was all worth it when Mount Lodge YFC had a fantastic time at the show, meeting lots of great people and everyone loving every minute! We were fortunate enough to bring some of our adults from the farm to compete in the new lamb class for adults over the competing age with disabilities, who all had a great day out at the show.
Returning to reality after a hectic few months, we were planning for Biddenden Tractorfest, a lovely country show on our doorstep where we were asked to organise a sheep show demonstration over both days. Over the weekend in August we took our show lambs, donkeys, Shetland and a stall of homemade crafts and games to the show, a great weekend of fun had by all, and amazing interest in the sheep showing and what we get up to with help from Ashford YFC and Homewood YFC.
To end a super summer, we held a ‘Summer Family BBQ and Farm Trail’, with over 70 guests invited by our farm users we all gathered to praise all of our Young Farmers’ for their hard work and enjoy a long summers afternoon in each other’s company with a BBQ and light-hearted poetry competition!
As autumn approached, we attended a stifling hot Weald of Kent Ploughing Match in September, where we replicated our Tractorfest stand, with crafts, tie dye bags, tombola and games.
In between all of this, we squeezed in lots of gardening, crafts and several trips, which included bowling, cobnut picking and more recently a tour round Hinxden Dairy. We’ve also been lucky enough to have our woodwork shed rebuilt, which will see some great carpentry projects appear from our members. The farm has also introduced some new breeds of sheep, Black Welsh Mountains and Blue Texels, to run alongside our existing flock of Purebred and crossbred Texels.
Mount Lodge YFC now have 25 members going ahead into the new year, which we are very proud of, considering when we started just 1 and a half years ago we had 12 members!
We would like to say a special thank you to Louisa and Jade from Homewood, and Amy from Ashford for their time they’ve contributed to the running of the club and their additional input and experience they’ve given.
We have had a fantastic year and are really looking forward to 2019 with our club and Kent YFC.
by admin | Nov 20, 2017 | Care Farming, Kent Care Farming
Our Farm Open Afternoon is this coming Saturday and it would be lovely to see people come down and support us!
There will be tea and cake and Christmas gifts for sale. 
For all family, friends, Facebook followers and supporters of Mount Lodge Farm.
Please do come and bring a friend, if you book or let us know you are coming we won’t run out of cake!!
See you all soon!
