Our treasure is our watercress

Mornings cutting watercress, the journey up to the watercress beds is made with a purposeful pace.  The need to cut, bunch and pack, ready for collection or delivery is all on a schedule.  When harvesting the watercress, the background noise of the spring water running through the watercress beds, accompanied this time of year by the orchestra of bird song, blankets out the commercial demands of the job.  This soundtrack has changed very little in over 170 years of cutting watercress at Abinger Hammer.  How incredible is that!

Surrey Day, Saturday 10 May, come and join a watercress tour, visit the watercress museum, sample some of our favourite watercress recipes and meet some of the finest small producers whose products are stocked in the Farm Shop.  Kingfisher kids can take a turn at our treasure hunt and enjoy some face painting fun!

Why not enter our Watercress Pesto Competition?  The recipe is on our website or available to pick up in the Farm Shop.  Bring your pesto along on Surrey Day to enter it in our competition.  All details are on the website on the Surrey Day page.  Watercress pesto is included each week in the fresh focaccia sandwiches prepared by Clare from the Vegan Wellington.  These are a weekend treat on sale at the Farm Shop.

This time of year is busy for garden enthusiasts and we share in the passion for growing.  We have been experimenting with soil blocks to grow seedlings in our polytunnel.  This allows us to reduce packaging for seedling plants.  The results have been a great success and your response has been very positive thus far, which is really encouraging.

The Flower Shop is overflowing with wonderful British blooms at this time of year  Join us on Wednesday, 18 June when we will be hosting a Hand Tie Flower Workshop to celebrate British Flowers week.  To book your place go to our website for all the details.

Celebrate the abundance of spring with a visit to Kingfisher!

Join us for a fun-filled family Surrey Day celebration on Saturday 10 May...

We’ve invited some of the best local producers to be with us for tastings from 10am - 2pm, so come along to get to know some of our wonderful suppliers and take home a few delicious treats.  For our younger visitors we’ve laid on a treasure hunt and face painting too.

The doors of the Old Bunching Shed Watercress Museum will be thrown open for you to experience the sights and sounds of watercress production and distribution, plus tours of the Watercress Beds will run from 11am and take about half an hour.  Please book via the Surrey Day page on our website.  The whole of the £5.00 ticket price will be donated to RABI, a national charity providing much needed support to the farming community across England and Wales.

As part of our celebration, we are running a Watercress Pesto making competition.  The recipe and entry form can be found on the Surrey Day page of our website or picked up from the Farm Shop. There are two classes, one for children, one for adults.   All entries should be named and brought to the Farm Shop for judging on Saturday 10 May before 10.30am in a sealed, clearly labelled container.      

Good luck everyone!

The Leatherhead Swans

Esme, one of our talented Flower Girls, is a volunteer at this inspiring local charity run this year by her father Matt.  The Swans will be with us on Surrey Day if you’d like to get involved.

The Leatherhead Swans Club was established in 1975 to offer disabled people a range of physical and social activities to engage them in the community, providing a positive focus on their abilities and what people can do, rather than their limitations.  With over eighty members and twenty volunteers, it is the largest multi-activity sports club forpeople with disabilities in the south of England.

Now in its 50th year, ‘The Swans’ continue to play a vital role in the Mole Valley community by providing sport and recreation for disabled people.  We engage people with a range of permanent or temporary disabilities in physically and mentally stimulating activities that have an incredibly positive and life enhancing effect

The Leatherhead Swans primary activities are swimming, bowls, and dry sports such as Boccia, New Age Curling, and gym exercise.  We compete at swimming and bowls and hold our own annual swimming gala to engage in friendly competition with other disability groups from the South of England.

In addition to the advantages of exercise, people coming to the Leatherhead Swans Club get to meet new people, form lasting friendships and be part of a thriving social scene that builds confidence and independence.  The club is entirely volunteer run, meaning that any funds raised go 100% to running the club and its activities.

Swans runs Tuesday evenings at Leatherhead Leisure Centre, and we are always looking for new volunteers and club members.  If you are interested, please do get in touch or speak to one of us at the table at Kingfisher on Surrey Day.

leatherheadswans@hotmail.com

Let’s talk dirty...

Come with us on our journey to try and make gardening greener and more sustainable.

We have decided to take action against the use of plastic plant pots by growing straight into compost cubes and selling young plants wrapped in newspaper.  We’re still very much in the experimental stage, but we’re delighted with the results so far, and customer feedback has been extremely positive.  If you would like to leave any plastic pots with us when you purchase a plant, please let us know and we will wrap your plant in newspaper and recycle the pot.

Another innovation in the garden is the creation of biochar compost.  We are stocking locally made Peat Free Biochar Improver Compost from Brodie Biomas in Brockham who are using local and sustainably sourced materials to create their product range. Incorporating biochar into your garden can be transformative, offering a substantial method of enhancing soil quality and supporting a thriving garden ecosystem.  This can be purchased in either 20lt or 40lt sizes using one of our bags for life which can be refilled every time you need more compost.

In Celebration of British Flowers

British Flowers Week falls from the 16 - 22 June this year.  Since it’s launch in 2013, this annual event has championed the UK’s cut flower industry, celebrating growers, wholesalers and talented florists who work with British grown blooms.

Here at Kingfisher, our Flower Girls will be hosting a Hand Tie Workshop on Wednesday 18th June.  Nothing beats learning the art of creating a seasonal hand tie made with 100% British flowers.

This creative and fun morning will include locally roasted coffee and some of our favourite cakes & treats for you to enjoy, as well as your beautiful bouquet to take home.

Book your place now in the Flower Shop or on our website

Photography Credit: @chloe.hardwic@k,@henry.catling@stuartovenden