It’s been a hive of activity for making Christmas produce and other seasonal items this week. I will be providing a list in the next week of what delights we will have available at the Christmas Market on Sunday 10th December. Sue is putting the finishing touches to the Market arrangements and we will have three areas this year of stalls – both in the centre and 2 outdoor areas. We have been inundated with requests for stalls so hopefully have picked the best to showcase their goods. There will be seasonal home made refreshments available to enjoy on the day. If you are planning on coming, the parking, as always, is very limited so try and walk, cycle or car share where practical.

May I extend a huge thanks to all of you that donated foliage and berries over the past few days, following my request last week. It was greatly appreciated. Yesterday saw 25 happy ladies from 16 – mid 70’s make their wreaths. It was lovely to have a couple of mother, daughter and granddaughter and grandmother couples attending. Such a nice way to enjoy a creative activity together. There were a couple of huge wreaths made – the largest that have been done on our workshops before. See the Tuppenny Barn Organics Facebook page for the photos. As we got booked up fairly quickly, I know that there were a few disappointed people that missed the workshop. I thought I would let you know about another wreath workshop that is being run by Rosemary Jenkins, one of our lovely volunteers who is a superb florist and she is teaming up with Abigail Overton of the most sought after Albert and Arthur Floristry. The workshops run every day from 11th Dec until 22nd less Sunday 17th. Contact Rosemary at rosemaryjenkinsflowers@gmail.com or 01243 537475 for further details.

We now have our first two clients for the Horticulture Therapy project with more coming online in the new year. We used their polytunnel yesterday as our classroom. Sonia is busy finishing off the list of the equipment needed and they will be putting electricity into the tunnel for the purpose of light and propagation. They will be replicating the two propagating systems we currently use, one that is based on using an electric blanket as the main heating element. This is based on having a wooden base to encase the blanket, covered by a very thick builders plastic and then sand, which is kept damp at all time. We have used this system for the past 5 years and it has proved very successful, even better knowing they both use upcycled materials.