I just had to write a review of this place! Its a little Gem!
For Mothering Sunday my Hubby & Son took me to the Down to Earth community Farm in Southampton.
Entry is £2 per adult and children are £1 although Oscar is under they age of 2 so was free admission.
The farm is a local social enterprise run by volunteers and offers educational visits and craft courses and you can even book birthday parties there. This includes activity days such as making your own bat box, wood work, bush craft and felt making as just some examples of the courses they run.
We arrived just in time for the farm tour at 2pm and were guided round to see and hear more about the project and all the animals on site.
We paid 70p for a bag of feed so were able to feed the chickens and then hens as we went round.
First stop was the gorgeous pair of Kune Kune pigs Primrose and Precilla! The tour guide called their names and the pigs came right up to us! They're obviously very loved and looked after and comfortable around people! They had a gorgeous muddy pen and little stick hut to roll around in.
Moving on from the pigs we saw some beautiful bearded and very friendly goats! Here is Oscar probably getting a bit too close and personal!
The goats shared an enclosure area with a gorgeous white cow called Snowball and some fluffy Shetland sheep which you can feed straw through the fencing.
We also saw the vegetable crop area and further developments going on at the farm on the way round including the area being cleared for a new poly tunnel.
Final stop was the small animal room, here we were met by some very friendly volunteers and got to hold a African Pygmy hedgehog and bearded dragons and even feed them! Oscar's little face says it all :)
In the animal room there were also tortoises, sugar gliders, gerbils, a snake, and lots of other animals to learn about. If you have a specific interest or animal you'd like to meet the volunteers were very happy to get them out of their little homes to handle them and tell you all about them.
I must say this was one of the highlights of our visit, we've been to quite a few farms and zoological parks and although you can sometimes pay for up close encounters we've never got so close to animals and learnt so much as part of the admission to a farm. We've seen the usual chicks, bunnies and guinea pigs but the animal enclosure had a real variety of different species which we'd never had the chance to meet before, making it really unique!
The community farm also had a gift section if you want to treat yourself to some souvenirs of your visit, we saw some jams, lovely birdy bunting, insect houses, fairy doors, woollen finger puppets and my hubby & son got me an adorable hedgehog letter holder :)
If you're looking for refreshments there is a little community room on site and as a special Mothering Sunday feature they were offering afternoon tea! We didn't stop for anything as we had already had some lunch but we saw some gorgeous home baked cakes available and they serve freshly made sandwiches and other tasty snacks daily.
You may recognise the community farm when BBC's Mr Bloom took a visit to collect some chicken eggs, they were featured in series 2 of the popular children's programme and you can see a snippet of the episode here on YouTube:
Why not take a look for yourself and visit the farm! On March 28th/29th and early April they'll be holding an Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones :)
Down To Earth Community Farm
Down To Earth Community Farm
There are also some great April Holiday Activities lined up. I believe these are for ages 3 and up and you can contact the farm to book your place.
We thoroughly recommend a visit and had such a lovely family outing there :) It's refreshing to see so many fun and interactive activities and there's a real community feel here,superb, affordable and educational day out right on our doorstep. Thank you Down to Earth Community Farm!
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