It’s been a wonderful month – between the showers!

We’ve finally opened Suffolk’s first and only Butterfly House here on the farm! Thank you so much to all those that attended the Grand Opening - it was simply a wonderful day.  Ninette (Our lovely Nature Trail Coordinator) and Nathan (Farm Manager) have worked like Trojans.  They planted, weeded, painted, dug and slaved to make the day a success and indeed, the Butterfly House is looking simply incredible.  It’s a tropical world where you can see butterflies from South East Asia and South America – some are as big as your hand.  Canaries and Zebra Finches fly above your heads and are now starting to nest behind the pond.  Tropical fish dart in the shallows and are breeding like billio!  The wild flower meadow will be in all its glory next year laying host our native butterflies, bees and wildlife.  It’s been a real ambition of mine since I was a child to set up a Butterfly House and I feel so privileged and proud to be finally running my own – please do come and explore it if you have a spare day!

We’ve also introduced some Kelly Bronze Turkeys to the farm.  Paul Kelly has kindly donated four who now roam freely with our pygmy goats – they’ve settled in well and are eating us out of house and home … roll on Christmas!

Our new Chilli Pork Burgers are going down a treat too.  The Chilli Company in Norfolk are now supplying our little butchery to really put some fire into the BBQ season.  We’re even doing a Beef Chilli Sausage and Burger – so if you’re feeling the summer sun, do give us a call or order on line and we can send them direct to your door.

My new series ‘Jimmy’s Farming Heroes’ has finally aired!  From both the public and the farming community, the feedback has been incredibly positive.  I had an amazing experience filming it and feel immensely privileged to have met, worked with and celebrated some of the UK’s leading farmers.  The diversity, determination and ingenuity of the farmers I met were truly humbling – a real eye opener.  What a demonstration of how, against great odds, how formidably well British farmers do their job. 

My little farm back in Suffolk continues to grow with my better half, Michaela, ruling the roost.  She’s done a smashing job – well done lovely lady.  It hasn’t been easy across the board for all farmers with spiralling costs and the credit crunch – we’re just about hanging in there thanks to a wonderful team of employees and volunteers.  If you want to be part of our ‘Farmily’ do just drop us an email! 

Our Kid’s Courses are booking up quick too – we’ve got a few places left so give us a call and turn your kids into the next generation of farming heroes!

We can’t do it without you visiting so please ignore the rain, don your wellies and come and enjoy the farm! 

Take care until next month’s blog entry ……

Jimmy x

As ever, it is great to get so many messages of support from you – the comments made by people visiting the farm, the positive e-mails we get and the messages left through the website really do encourage us in what we are trying to achieve at the farm so thank you all for your love and support and do keep it coming!

My new Butterfly House is nearly complete! This is a project I have been wanted to do at the farm for so long and I am so excited that we are nearly there. The building work is complete, the planting is underway and it will soon be full of butterflies! The grand opening will take place during our Farmers and Craft Market on Saturday 2nd August so please put the date in your diary and come along to witness the completion of my dream of creating a haven for butterflies on the farm.

We are beginning to gear up for summer activities at the farm. This year there will be a kid’s course taking place most weekdays from 28th July to 29th August so if you are beginning to panic now about how to keep them occupied over the long summer holidays sign them up for a course now!

There are loads of other activities going on both at the farm and out on the road – just check the events page on the website for more details of how you can join in all the fun.

On a serious note, the news always seems to be full of doom and gloom these days with stories of the credit crunch hitting people hard. Farming has always taken the brunt of hard times and things do not change. At Jimmy’s Farm we do struggle with rising feed prices, fuel prices and lots of other price increases but we remain committed to the farming industry and I would urge you all to do everything you can to support your local farming industry.

Finally, I can’t believe it but I now have my own range of beer! We have teamed up with a local brewery who has brewed three types of bottled beer especially for me! There is a Bitter called Jimmy’s Flying Pig, a Stout called Jimmy’s Large Black Pig and a Golden Ale called The Same Again. They are great so when you are next at the Farm pop into the shop and buy some bottles!

Cheers and until next month’s blog entry ……

Jimmy x

Isn’t the weather in this country fickle? I am sitting here writing this in temperatures that are apparently hotter than Athens and it was only a few weeks ago that people were battling through snow to try and get to the Farm!

I talked to you last month about the new Jimmy’s Farm Butterfly House that we are building. Work has continued and you can see pictures of how the project has developed if you go to the Butterfly House page of our website under the Garden section. I am so excited about this and can’t wait for the project to be finished – we are on course for a grand opening at the end of this month and more details will posted on the website when they are finalised.

So many of you are interested in what goes on at the Farm that we have designed some really exciting new events for you. Firstly you can sign up for an exclusive behind the scenes tour of the Farm. Our very own TV celebrity, Dolly, will take you across our many fields and into all the nooks and crannies that the general public never gets to see. Also, we have a lot of activities for the kids and we thought it was about time we set something up for the adults. We have launched a range of Masterclasses on subjects such as “Sheep Keeping and Wool Spinning”, “Veggie Patch or No Veggie Patch?” and “Butchery and Sausage Making”. You can get more details on all of these through our website but do sign up soon as they are really popular and places are running out!!

Our Farmers Markets and Farmily Fun Days continue each month and are a roaring success. The next Farmily Fun Day on 31st May will feature Sheep Olympics – I can’t wait for the laughs that will cause!We continue to go out “on the road” and details of when and where we are listed on the Events Page of this website. This month, Jimmy’s Farm will be at the Suffolk Show from 28th to 29th May so we hope to see many of you there.

All of this keeps us really busy! Do come and visit us, or order from the on-line shop, or just keep in touch through the website – it is great to hear from so many of you and we really do appreciate all the support.

Until next month ……

Jimmy x

Hi Everyone!

Hey, this blog was a great idea – so many of you have let me have some great feedback on it and it is fantastic that you all want to keep up with the goings on at the Farm. It has been really good to get so much feedback from people in Australia and New Zealand where the first series of the BBC show has been shown recently – keep viewing and keep in touch!

As we all know, Easter was unusually early this year but none of us expected the weather to be so cold and snowy – we all thought it was Christmas and not Easter! That didn’t stop you all coming to the farm, even when cars had difficulty getting down our drive you still came on foot! We really did appreciate the support and I hope you all enjoyed the new experience of an Easter Egg Hunt in the snow!

You might not know this but entomology is one of my specialities. For those of you that don’t know what that is it is the study of insects and I am so excited that work has finally started on the Jimmy’s Farm Butterfly House as it has always been my dream to create a haven for butterflies on the farm. On the wettest weekend of the year the diggers moved in to start work and you can see pictures of the building work on the Butterfly House page of this website. Assuming all goes to plan (which I am sure it will) the Grand Opening will be at the end of May. More details will appear on the website to keep an eye out!

Another exciting development in the last month has been the opening of our revamped Field Kitchen. Simon, our chef, has done wonders and has created a wonderful menu using fresh farm produce (talk about low air miles!).

There are loads of events coming up in the next month: we have our next Farmily Fun Day on 26th April and this month you have the chance to meet all our animals close up and the next Farmers’ and Gardeners’ Market will be on 3rd May. We are also out and about “on the road” in the next few weeks and you can get more details of when and where by looking at the Events page on this website.

Thanks again for all your support and good wishes – till next month’s blog ….

Cheers

Jimmy x

Hello everyone – thanks so much for all the positive feedback you have sent me about this Blog that I started last month. It really is encouraging to know that so many of you are interested in what we are doing at the Farm!

You might have seen from recent press articles that we have had to cut back on the number of pigs we have here – I want to reassure you that the farm is still thriving and we are still open for business! We had to take the decision for economic reasons but we still produce our own meat from the farm and sell it in our farm shop and on-line.

Things have been busy this month getting ready for Easter – which does seem to be very early this year. We have lots of activities going on from Easter Egg Hunts, walks through the bluebell woods, animal petting (lots of newborn lambs around) to courses for the kids on how to be a farmer. You can get more details on all of these events on the events page of this website.

A really exciting development this month has been the revamping of our Field Kitchen which opens for business on Good Friday. We have carried out major repair work in the herb garden so there is now a fully equipped Field Kitchen and an improved sheltered eating area. Our chef will be preparing daily meals using most of our own produce and there will be a salad bar and an extensive range of hot and cold drinks available. We are really pleased with this new venture so do come along and try it out for yourself – the Kitchen is open 6 days a week from Tuesday to Sunday.

We would never be able to achieve all that we do at the farm without all the help (financial and practical) that we get from so many of our supporters. This month I particularly want to thank Jonathan and Sarah Evans at Discovery Recruitment and Training for their financial donation – it really is greatly appreciated.

As you can see things are just as busy as ever and getting more so as next month we start on our annual programme of “road trips” going to various shows and markets around the country. I will keep you updated on everything in next month’s blog. Till then … HAPPY EASTER HOLIDAYS!

Cheers

Jimmy x

PS:  If it snows, bring your toboggan!  The nature trail has an excellent slope – just make sure you don’t end up in the pond! x

Hello to you all from my first Blog entry! The idea of me writing this blog is to keep you up-to-date with all the goings on from Jimmy’s Farm. We’ve had the most amazing support over the 4 years we’ve been going and get so many people asking … what happened next!

Last year was a very challenging year for the farming industry as a whole and we were lucky that we didn’t have to close to the public during the Blue Tongue or the Foot and Mouth outbreaks. The whole farming industry took a huge financial blow and we were kept on our toes financially, living month-to-month as usual!

So at the end of 2007 we resolved to have a really good Christmas on the farm to give us a boost before the New Year. We hired a great new head butcher, created new systems, a new online shop and many more developments to make sure we got our Christmas orders really slick. I’m extremely pleased to say that all the hard work by the Jimmy’s Farm team paid off hugely and Christmas was much, much smoother than the previous year! Lots of happy customers, no huge queues and lots of on-line orders. We were very proud to give all our customers great service and provide them with delicious food over the festive period.

2008 is a very exciting year for the farm. We have plans afoot for converting our lovely old barn to create a restaurant and some tea-rooms for people to enjoy all our produce. We also have major changes going on in our gardens. The bit I’m really excited about is our Butterfly House and Garden. We’ve now cleared the area for it and hope to have it up and ready for visitors in the not too distant future. You can watch all the progress in the gardens through the website which will be regularly updated. We also have a better than ever calendar of farm events for people to enjoy and a much wider range of kids and adults courses.

So all of this is keeping Caela and I very busy and I’ll keep you updated on all new developments on the farm with my monthly blog.

Cheers

Jimmy x