Robert and Sally Bendall, Hollow Trees Farm
Like hundreds of farms around the country, Hollow Trees Farm near Ipswich is a member of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), an organisation that helps farmers like Sally and Robert Bendall manage their farm in an environmentally responsible way. Between them the husband and wife team run a very successful farming business, employing around 50 local people. Whilst Robert is responsible for managing the 140 acre mixed farm, Sally is kept busy looking after the farm trail, farm shop, café and education centre and is well known to the hundreds of visitors and customers Hollow Trees Farm receives every week.
The farm and the countryside around it are very precious to the Bendalls who have been farming here for three generations, which is just one of the reasons they joined LEAF. LEAF is a registered charity that assists farmers and producers, at home and abroad, manage their farms as efficiently and sustainably as possible which as a result, helps them to produce good food with environmental care.
At Hollow Trees Farm there is a wide variety of animals and birds including barn owls, which Robert provides nesting boxes for. There are 13 ponds on the farm which are home to a huge variety of wildlife, so they must be maintained and cared for all year round, as well as a host of trees including lime trees which are native to Suffolk. LEAF offers practical tools to farmers to help them care for the countryside and the wildlife that lives there. For example, to help farmers capture and record information about the wildlife and the environment on their farms, LEAF provides its members with The Green Box. Divided into four sections: biodiversity, soil, water and air, it helps farmers measure the positive impact of their farming techniques and shows them ways they can improve.
Building public understanding and connecting consumers with food and farming is also a major part of LEAF’s activities and is equally important to the Bendalls. Like all farmers, Sally fulfills many roles including: business woman, environmentalist and retailer but it is perhaps that of educator that gives her the greatest satisfaction. For Sally, nothing quite beats the look of wonderment on children’s faces when they see something for the first time – be it a day old chick or a cow being milked. This has led Sally to work with LEAF on the production of the Virtual Farm Walk www.virtualfarmwalk.org - a great online tool that helps educate children about their food and how it is produced.
But if it’s a hands-on experience children and adults are after, at Hollow Trees Farm visitors can follow a farm trail to find out how Sally and Robert care for the countryside whilst producing good food for us all to enjoy.
Added to this, every year Sally and Robert join hundreds of other farms around the country and open their gates for LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday (www.farmsunday.org) which this year will be held on the 12th June. Sally and her team will be giving personal tours of the farm so visitors can discover at first hand how good food is grown and produced - and have a great day out too!
The tour will show the many LEAF practices used on the farm to protect wildlife. These include six metre strips that have been left, largely uncut around fields, the hedgerows that provide a safe harbour for wildlife and a buffer zone that has been left around ponds to protect frogs, newts, wild ducks and birds. Visitors will see where a mix of different bird seed has been planted so that there is food for wild birds in the winter months and nectar and pollen-rich plants are grown in the summer, to attract butterflies and bees.
Hollow Trees Farm also has a farm shop with a café that stocks and serves local produce. The farm shop is a real success story for Sally who started by selling eggs from her car to local customers before progressing to a small building on the farm itself. Today the purpose built farm shop and café stock and sell as much local produce as possible from meat and cheese to bread and cakes. Look out too for LEAF Marque produce in the farm shop. LEAF Marque is an assurance scheme, developed by LEAF that enables the consumer to know they are buying food that has been produced by farmers who care for the environment.
For a great day out and to find out more about how your food is produced and the beautiful Suffolk countryside around you is cared for, visit Sally and Robert at Hollow Trees Farm on the 12th June for Open Farm Sunday. Hollow Trees Farm is one of hundreds of farms that are opening up their gates for LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday on 12th June. The day offers everyone a fantastic day out and a unique opportunity to discover the story behind our food and to learn more about how farmers care for the countryside too. To find a farm open near you visit: www.farmsunday.org
For more information visit www.farmsunday.org and for up-to-date campaign information, follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/openfarmsunday
To arrange a visit to Hollow Trees Farm or an interview with Sally contact:
David Gough or Laura Bates
Open Farm Sunday Press Office
T: 01189 475956 M : 07884 353 474
E: david.gough@ceres-pr.co.uk / laura.bates@ceres-pr.co.uk