05 December 2011
Everyone at Low Sizergh is thrilled to have won the Best Farm Shop category in the inaugural Cumbria Life Food and Drink Awards. Included in the judges' assessment were our fabulous staff, the product range, and Cumbrian influences. It is certainly true that we wouldn't be where we are without being where we are, which is a clumsy acknowledgment of the hugely talented food producers at work in Cumbria. Staff and suppliers make us stand out, but huge thanks must also go to the customers that shop with us.
By Alison Park, 05 December 2011 –
19 October 2011
This morning’s cold weather coincided with a delivery of wood chip for the biomass boiler. A load of 23 cubic metres keeps the barn warm and heats all the hot water we use in a winter fortnight. It’s a delicious kind of heat, generated by seasoned wood from local managed woodland. There’s a pleasure to be had in the local self sufficiency of the system –those trees that are felled are replanted, and the woodland is actively managed as a resource. The boiler here is a bit of a beast at 90kW, but Cumbria Woodlands has an excellent guide to using wood for fuel in house.
By Alison Park, 19 October 2011 –
22 July 2011
Growing Well’s manager, Beren Aldridge and I spoke yesterday at a Kendal conference on Mental Health and Wellbeing for Cumbrian businesses. There was a comprehensive presentation from Dame Carol Black, the government adviser on health and work, mainly about work being good for us (given the right characteristics).
Growing Well supports people back into employment after experiencing mental ill health, through the operation of a social enterprise. Mental health and wellbeing in relation to work is on the national agenda and it was great to see Growing Well so highly regarded.
By Alison Park, 22 July 2011 –
22 June 2011
Two footsore travelling showmen called in at Low Sizergh Barn last month on their month long tramp through the South Lakes, performing puppetry, stories and songs at sites along the way. Their show, Vagabonding, was inspired by puppeteer Walter Wilkinson who walked and performed his way around the UK in the 1920s and 1930s. I just read Wilkinson’s Puppets in Yorkshire (1931) and was struck by today’s media flurry about the speculation in world food markets that has resulted in huge leaps in food prices. Walter Wilkinson railed against the way large scale production was “being used to produce a record dividend for some nasty group of scheming financiers, who hardly realise that they are playing the fool with so intimate a thing as the people’s food – the bedrock of their health, their joy in life."
By Alison Park, 22 June 2011 –
08 April 2011
The milk in the farm shop chillers is now from Brades Farm at nearby Farleton. We have responded to the poor liquid milk price in relation to rising costs. Low Sizergh Farm cows' milk will still go to Windermere Ice Cream Company for their fabulous flavours, and to cheesemaker Chris Sandham for our 3 Kendal cheeses. Regretfully it is not viable to continue having relatively small amounts of liquid milk bottled, but we know that John and April's cows at Brades Farm produce top quality milk.
By Alison Park, 08 April 2011 –