Lambing returns for first time in 3 years

We are delighted to announce that the much-loved Lambing Festival is back for Spring 2023, following a 3 year Covid break.

The old and the new

In recent years a lot has changed for us as a charity, as well as the wider world. So this year’s festival will undoubtedly look and feel a little different to previous years. But we hope it will be better than ever – and the focus on family fun remains.

The festival will run over two weekends – 25^th-26^th March and 1^st-2^nd April. Visitors can explore the working farmyard where expectant ewes and newborn lambs will be keeping cosy in the lambing shed. There will also be tractor-trailer rides, games, stalls, goats and much more. Catering will be provided by a range of suppliers including Earth Trust tenant shepherdess Emma’s Ewesful Acres, and local roastery Horsebox Coffee, to ensure everyone is fuelled up for fun.

The choices we make

As well as being a great event for all the family to enjoy, our Lambing Festival provides a crucial opportunity for us to generate awareness on sustainable food production and consumption. The choices we make about the food we buy can support practices that are good for climate, nature and human health, and the charity feels passionately about demonstrating this as part of the festival, which is expected to attract more than 2000 new visitors. Earth Trust farms in a climate-friendly way, working in partnership with the environment to enhance biodiversity, minimise carbon emissions and maximise carbon capture, whilst producing quality food.

Laura Bainbrigge our Public Programming Manager shared: “We’re so excited to welcome visitors back for our Lambing Festival. By opening up our farm, we can showcase our climate-friendly farming approaches. And since many people will be coming to see us for the first time we look forward to sharing our green spaces and our ethos with a new generation of supporters. Enabling more people to explore, enjoy and understand their local landscape is at the heart of what we do. Earth Trust Lambing Festival is the perfect opportunity for everyone to do that together.”

Together is better

This festival sees Earth Trust collaborating with a wide range of local partners. For instance, the importance of our role in helping more people connect with nearby green spaces is recognised this year by the support we are receiving for the festival from North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Farming in Protected Landscapes Programme. The event will also showcase the work of the Earth Trust Farm Step tenant programme – with goats from the farm’s award-winning cheesemakers Norton and Yarrow. And stop and say hello to Larkmead Vets at the lambing sheds who will support the festival with activities and advice.

Our CEO Jayne Manley elaborates: “The success of farming and local food production are inextricably linked to biodiversity, climate change and the state of our environment such as the health of our soils, and quality of our water and air.  Farming systems and farming business, alongside the ecological systems that they rely upon, are going through a period of great change and getting the right balance for the future is complex and will require us all to make better more informed decisions.

Our Lambing Festival aims to bring visitors a little closer to local food and farming so that we can all see at first hand farming and the complex interaction with nature and our own wellbeing. And of course, by coming along to an Earth Trust lambing weekend you will be helping to support our important work in championing accessible natural green spaces for everyone.”

We look forward to throwing the farm gates wide open for everyone to come and see the work we do, have a great time and hopefully learn something new.