This week we have had a group of 12 year olds staying on the farm from inner city Sheffield. They have loved it. They have fed the lambs, inspected the ewes and sows about to give birth, collected the eggs, had pony riding lessons and played in the farmyard and fields. Their head teacher told me they think they’re in the depths of the countryside, they don’t realise they’re only 5 miles from home! We want to offer more children the chance to have these experiences. This year 13,000 children visited the farm but we plan to increase to 20,000/year. Sheffield has some of the poorest wards in the UK but it is set in some of the most beautiful countryside. But many of the children of Sheffield never leave the city boundaries. As we are so close to the city, it is easy for groups to come for a day visit without travelling for hours or they can come and stay on the farm. Either way, they get to be ‘real farmers’ for a while. Our project is to redevelop this farm site to: o Build a new eco-friendly reception/office building at the entry to the site – we’d like to re-instate the pond that was there up until about 40 years ago and we’d use the pond as the heat source for our carbon neutral heating o Turn the existing offices into activity rooms for the children visiting the farm o Create a small milking parlour and an on-site butchery and food preparation area which will both allow the children to make their own food from our produce (from field to fork) and supply our farm shop with produce – we want to generate more of our own income rather than just asking for handouts o Have our own wind turbine to generate the electricity we need – we’re high enough to get lots of wind