What seems like an age ago now, back on February 28th, Lauriston Farm invited community ownership of its biodynamic farm business and new Social Farming Initiative. Now, two and a half lunar cycles later, we have been overwhelmed by the support that has been shown for this pioneering gesture. Today, one hundred and eleven individuals own this co-operative business and have collectively invested almost twenty seven and half thousand pounds in it. Our business plan has always aimed for community investment of £35,000 and now there are just two weeks for you to become a member before our share offer closes. If you choose to invest you will not only be a member of this pioneering project but will be helping to develop a brand new venue for adults with learning difficulties to work alongside our staff and learn rural skills such as weaving, gardening, livestock husbandry, cooking fresh produce and connecting with the wider local community through sales of the farms products.
All the information can be found at www.lauristonfarm.co.uk/shareoffer.
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This year we have fifty one ewes to lamb and over the May Day bank holiday weekend some fifty lambs were born from about thirty five ewes bring our tally to date of sixty lambs from forty one ewes. We are only bottle feeding three - one pair of twins whose mum is very old and only has a little milk and another who is also a twin and at birth another ewe cleaned it so the real mum doesn't recognise it.
With sheep cycling over three weeks we are enjoying a few quiet days until the next surge which we are expecting on the weekend of May 20/21 - hopefully the last eleven ewes will be a easy as the others. Lauriston Farm can announce that this afternoon they reached the funding milestone of receiving pledges for £20,000 worth of community shares in their Charitable Community Benefit Society. This qualifies the team at Lauriston for maximum Just Growth Programme match funding which triples this amount. All those involved at the farm give a huge "thank you" to each one of the seventy nine individuals now becoming members in the newly formed Society as well as the Just Growth Programme and Crowdfunder UK for all their support. Farm Director, Spencer Christy, commented, "This is an amazing day for the farm, this area of Essex, the honey bees, the farm's soil and all the wildlife that make this farm their home. We have taken the first step in implementing our Social Farming Initiative which aims to offer adults with learning difficulties daily life experiences on the farm." The Community Share Offer now moves into it's final phase with an additional £15,000 worth of shares available to fund capital works and complete the membership body of warmth around the Society by May 24th 2017. The Team's commitment is strong to achieve this saying, "the local interest and support has been amazing and we will continue our hard work in spreading the word so people can join this pioneering project for the Blackwater Estuary in Essex."
The Lauriston Farm Social Farming Initial is slowly emerging into reality as our community share offer passed £14,400 yesterday on its way to the initial £20,000 target. We have just over a week to secure the remaining £5,600 of share pledges and are working hard to give it every opportunity of succeeding.
A series of local talks by Farm Director, Spencer Christy, continues to raise local awareness of the project with excitement that it is the first farm business to become community owned in the County of Essex. The last few open days are booking up fast and an email campaign at the weekend will keep all those interested up to date with progress. If you have been thinking of becoming a shareholder now is the time to act! Full details are available at www.lauristonfarm.co.uk/shareoffer With only twelve days to go, Lauriston Farm has now secured pledges for over 60% of the initial target in their Community Share offer. Fifty four people are now members with over £12,500 invested - can you help us get to the magical £20,000? If so we will achieve triple match funding from Just Growth Programme. Take a look at www.lauristonfarm.co.uk/shareoffer Lauriston Farm was entrusted with looking after honey bees in 2005 and in the following year the hives were converted to a biodynamic principles. Since then, with the help of the Natural Beekeeping Trust (NBKT), our bees have continued to be healthy. We only harvest honey for medicine and allow the Queen freedom to move throughout the hive. reproduction is always by the bees natural method of swarming. Our Social Farming Initiative will invest further into natural bee guardianship through more workshops, more Sun Hives, more flowers and an asset lock with the NBKT. See our website for more information on how you can help this work and the bees in Essex. Lauriston Farm's Social Farming Initiative is half way to fitting its first target on securing sales of 20,000 shares! The initiative will integrate adults with learning difficulties into all aspects of the farm life and expand production - including the addition of the gorgeous rare breed Berkshire pig. There are two weeks to raise the other half to secure match funding from Just Growth. Come and be part of the community that owns and delivers this groundbreaking initiative for Essex. Half way through our first ever community farm share offer, pledges have now been received for over 6,000 shares each valued at £1 which means we are over thirty percent of the way to reaching our first target of 20,000 shares. Why not come and join us as we develop a body of warmth and support around our critical work aimed at conserving and enhancing the natural environment of the farm. Through the gentle method of biodynamic farming you will also be supporting adults with learning difficulties opportunities to share in this meaningful work and learn new skills. Sit back and enjoy this little piece of tranquility and hope.... Lauriston Farm's community share offer has now passed another milestone with over 5,000 share sales being pledged by twenty four people.
The warmth body around the Society continues to grow as does our optimism about getting our Social Farming Initiative off the ground. Why not come and join us? |
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