Coming together over Easter, as a family and as a planet

Easter is all about renewal. Spring has sprung. The farm is starting to bloom, all bright greens and blossom in the hedgerows. The summer veg start to lift their heads to the sun and the flowers morph into pods. The first beans starting to form was enough to raise an excited shout from Andrew. But patience is required. All good things come to those who wait, and never has that been truer than for the bounty of vegetables that summer brings.

Easter is often a chance for families to come together, share food and good company. It is a time to cast a fresh eye over the coming year, a moment to reflect and think of the future. Last month, you may remember I wrote about the uplifting meetings going on with Plant Shaftesbury. Through this, we heard about last Saturday's Extinction Rebellion procession in Shaftesbury. Extinction Rebellion is a movement that takes inspiration from the suffragettes and civil rights movement, using peaceful protesting to highlight the need for a common sense and urgent response to tackle the climatic changes we are going through now. One aim that particularly drew is us the idea of setting up a citizens assembly to discuss climate change and come up with the solutions we need, think of it like a jury service for democracy! Here at the farm we had three generations of Cross's down, and what better way to spend the holiday than together, as a family, as a community, taking positive action and marching for the future. And positive is the key word here. Climate change is a scary topic. It can very easily become divisive. But what is amazing is how this movement has shown that those great British attributes (politeness, a cheery smile, a willingness to listen) can open up those conversations that we've been sorely lacking. It was inspiring to be amongst the hundred or so people who took to the streets, the knee high holding the hands of their grandparents. Generations coming together, holding their hand painted signs proudly! And everyone smiling.

And we've seen this attitude in the shop. It has been heart warming to see how rapidly people have leapt on the chance to "Bring your own Bottle" and fill up from our new fresh jersey milk dispensers. David Attembrough's work highlighting the effects of plastic pollution in the oceans seems to have given us all a focal point that has starkly demonstrated the unseen effects that our consumption has on the planet. And it has been transformational. It's certainly made us want to up our game and find more ways to reduce our reliance on packaging in the shop. Alongside the milk dispensers we have new gravity fed buckets for nuts, pulses and rice, and on the veg side, we're trialling totally compostable bags for all our own vegetables. When you're done, simply pop the bags in your compost box and let nature do it's thing.

So, if there's one message we've taken away from this Easter weekend, it's the power that we can all have when we come together in a positive way. And in that spirit, this months edition was a collaborative effort between Sara and her son Richard. Sara is of course one half of the driving force behind Gold Hill Organic Farm and Richard is and Environmental Scientist working on the effects of pollutants in our natural environment.