‘For farmers working on their own, it brings great company...’
MY involvement came about when we were asked to take on participants. Claire is with us and she loves the hands-on aspect. It’s a very special project and I’m learning about people with special needs because of it. Many of us are enrolled in a course with UCC that is also helping to broaden our understanding of caring and Social Farming.
We have a lot of perceptions about people with special needs that are often far from true. It’s not until you’re actually working with someone with special needs that you realise this.
For example, Claire is a fantastic participant and her personality is developed by working as part of a group or on an individual basis. Social Farming creates different dynamics for people with special needs to learn from. It has benefits for a participant that are both mental and physical.
Claire loves being a part of our garden and she loves the poppies and eating poppy seeds the most. She waits for them to turn to seed and I often joke to her that if she keeps eating all the seeds there will be no poppies next year! There is a huge fun aspect to Social Farming.
I would say to farmers that it’s a way of giving back something. A lot of farmers lead hectic lifestyles working on the farm, whereas Social Farming is a way of making you slow down and appreciating your surrounds while doing some good. You’ll soon discover that giving some time to Social Farming is the best part of the week. There is a social dividend to be gained from it, and a great sense of self-fulfilment from knowing that for those couple of hours it is not about trying to make money or earn a living. Giving something meaningful back to society and an individual is very rewarding. Many farmers work on their own and Social Farming is great company for them.