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Blog

The Bee-Ginning of Spring!

23/3/2019

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We had a lovely week or so in mid-February when the sun shone and the bees came out to play.

​It turned out to be something of a false dawn, with most of March being soggy soggy soggy! But in that brief window of sunshine I managed to capture our bees stretching their wings for the first time in 2019. These hives have been on the farm for decades and help make the honey we sell in the farm shop. We love our bees!
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An INTRODUCTION To Artichokes

22/1/2019

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On the back of one of our chefs asking recently: "How do artichokes grow'... I thought I'd do a quick video to explain. I don't think Steven Steven Spielberg has anything to worry about, and if you suffer from sea-sickness you may need to close your eyes when I start walking... but other than that I hope you find this little film informative!

​There are subtitles if you can't hear what I'm saying...
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New Year, New Ideas!

5/1/2019

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Here it is: the post I've been itching to write for 6 months... the chance to announce the exciting plans we have for the farm in 2019 and beyond!

Before I begin, a few things to bear in mind:
  1. The decision to run with the ideas below has been influenced by the customer survey we held in summer 2018. My last post gave a summary of this survey and I'd encourage you to quickly read that  before reading this. 
  2. These new plans will be complementary additions to the farm, not at the expense of the existing parts you know and love! The farm shop, cafe and plant centre will carry on every day, untouched, just as they always do.
  3. If you suggested something in our survey that isn't here, please don't be disappointed. These are just the first proposals we've chosen to progress, as they were the most in demand by our customers, or the farm, or both! We've created a long list of potential improvements we'd like to make in the future, when time and budget allows. Your suggestion may well be on this list.
  4. However, there are some ideas that we just won't be doing. Some suggestions like building a mile-long pavement to reach us on foot down the main road are sadly out of our hands. Other suggestions like turning ourselves into a children's soft play centre are just not what the farm is about. Again, my last blog explains why.
Without further ado, I'll outline the 5 main ideas we're introducing in 2019: a couple for adults, a couple for children, and first of all something for everybody to look forward to...

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Our Survey Said...

22/12/2018

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Have you ever answered a survey and wondered whether anyone actually read your thoughts? Well, I can't speak for others, but I'm going to show that I've tried my best to read and digest all of your replies to the survey we did in July 2018.
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Time for my best Les Dennis impression...
Last summer we launched a review on the future of Kenyon Hall Farm. Within a week we'd had an overwhelming response: a whopping 875 replies, 10,000+ pieces of data and 30 pages of A4 filled with suggestions. It was so heartening to have so many people care about our little old farm! So it's only fair I put the time in to analyse what you've said and to share the findings.

This post will explain why we did a survey and three of the fundamental things we discovered - the Executive Summary. My next blog post(s) will go into specific details about the ideas for the future that we're going to run with to (hopefully) make the farm even better!

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Smashing Pumpkins (Records)

4/11/2018

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I've been staring at a blank screen for an hour now. If I don't start writing something soon, we'll be opening for Pumpkins 2019 before I've written about 2018!

I just don't know where to start. October was the busiest month ever at Kenyon Hall Farm. We grew more pumpkins, welcomed more visitors, sold more pumpkins, carved more pumpkins, wheeled more barrows and ate more chocolate apples than ever before. We smashed all our records - not just for a pumpkin season, but for any season. Since we started in 1978.

I can't let all that pass without comment. But after a month of relentless pumpkining and minimal sleep (I call it pumpkinsomina) my brain doesn't seem to fancy this final task: the write-up. So you'll be pleased to hear that I'll be keeping this brief! A quick look at how we did and a nod towards next year...


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P-P-Pick Up A pumpkin!

20/9/2018

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Drum-roll please… We’re only a couple of weeks away from the 2018 pumpkin season at Kenyon Hall!

Across the farm we’re working hard on the final preparations for this year’s season. So before the fun begins and we open the patches to welcome you to the farm during October I wanted to write a few words about all things pumpkins. There’s some hints and tips at the end to reward those who read the whole post!

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Farmer Tod's 15 minutes of fame

8/9/2018

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Farmer Tod being interviewed by Holly Hamilton. Credit: BBC Breakfast screenshot
It all started with a quick phone call from BBC Radio Manchester asking for his take on this year's bonkers weather. The next thing you know, my Dad's not-very dulcet tones are booming out across almost every BBC outlet there is. The August Bank Holiday was a funny old day on the farm...

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tremendous tayberries

29/6/2018

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The tayberries are ready!!!
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They're Farmer Tod's favourite fruit and this year it's a bumper crop. Thousands of deliciously large purple fruits hanging from the bushes, just waiting to be picked!

But what is a tayberry? That's a very good question! In this post I'll explain what they are and why they're such a great fruit to pick...

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how's the fruit?

19/6/2018

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All bets are off. It’s 19th June, the strawberry season is under a week old and I couldn’t tell you whether there will strawberries to pick tomorrow, let alone into July! We’ve never seen a fruit season like it: raspberries ready in mid-June, sugar snap peas so plentiful they’re carpeting the field bright green, and the strawberries… oh dear, the strawberries.
 
In this post I’ll clarify the current situation with our Pick Your Own fruit and veg, explain why it’s behaving so bizarrely, look at what to expect in the coming weeks and help you work out how to still enjoy a visit to the farm this summer.
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when are the strawberries ready?

30/5/2018

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The question we get asked at Kenyon Hall Farm more than any other, by a country mile is: “When are the strawberries ready?” The first call of the year came in on 8th January when it was dark and frosty all around, and during the last month of glorious sunshine we’ve taken something like 50 calls a day asking the very same!

​Safe to say there’s a lot of enthusiastic strawberry pickers around here. There's also some uncertainty about when the season is, which is very understandable. This post aims to clear up some of the confusion and give a preview of what to expect from the 2018 season...

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    Author

    I'm James Bulmer. Born and raised on Kenyon Hall Farm, where I spent the first 18 years of my life. After university I spent a decade working in IT (specialising in making maps on computers) before returning to the farm in 2016 to help out my mum and dad. I hope you enjoy these occasional posts and please get in touch if there's something you'd like to know more about and I'll do my best to answer!

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OPENING HOURS

Every day 9am to 5pm
​Open 7 days a week!

CONTACT

Kenyon Hall Farm
Winwick Lane
Croft
Warrington
​WA3 7ED
​​01925 765531
theshop@kenyonhall.co.uk