Category Archives: Market Harborough WI

Ayrshire Cows and Stilton Cheese

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stilton-w500-h500Jane Barnes of Southfields Farm, Somerby entertained us with a fascinating talk on Wednesday about the life of a dairy farmer’s wife in these touch economic times – not for the faint hearted!

Jane is married to Mark Barnes, a ‘rare beed’, she says.  Why?  Because there used to be 65,000 dairy farmers in the UK and now there are only 10,000, of which he is one.  With a herd of Ayrshire cows (they have changed in recent years from Fresian), Jane took us through the trials and tribulations of modern day farming, from buying new cows  to the 365 days a year commitment to managing the herd.  Mulberry, the bull, figured in there, too.  Each cow, at its peak, produces 30 or 40 litres a day of milk.  This is used solely for the production of Stilton cheese, which we were all delighted to sample.

Jane described her enterprising business skills, too.  She supported the farm with her silk flower business but this was hit by the foot and mouth outbreak.  Her cows were not affected but countryside visitors to the farm were restricted.   Jane has subsequently built up a very busy diary of talks, as well as visits to the farm for both adults and children.  For the latter, she works closely with a nearby arable farmers’ wife, so the children get the chance to visit both in a morning and begin to understand how the output of each helps the other.

National Conference – Hazel is to represent us

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Hazel Stacey, our President, is to represent us at this year’s National Conference in Cardiff.  This will be on the weekend of 1 June 2013.

The main resolutions is the Decline of our high streets and town centres. To read more details: 2013-agm-resolution-briefing.  We are very lucky in Market Harborough to have such a thriving town centre and so many amenities.  In many parts of the country this is not the case.

Join us for a skittles evening on Friday 19 April

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Long alley skittles-w500-h500Pub skittles Are you free on Friday 19 April?  Then join us for a relaxed evening at the Railway Arms, 6 Station Street, Kibworth Harcourt, LE8 0LN.

There will be games of table top and long alley skittles.  It doesn’t matter if you have never played before, we’ll show you what to do.  It’s good fun.

If you want to eat, there’s pub food at approximately £5 per head.  Book and order in advance – Contact Us – or just turn up on the night.

Being a dairy farmer’s wife, including how QR codes are used on their cows!

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April’s montly meeting speaker will be Jane Barnes.  Jane works with her husband, Mark, on a 220 acre farm near Somerby.  The Barnes family is the third generation to run their farm.  Milk from their herd of Ayrshire cows is sold to Clawson Dairies to make Stilton cheese.

article-2173488-140ECD42000005DC-960_468x314-w500-h500Jane will be speaking about her life as a dairy farmer’s wife, which includes opening their farm to visitors to show them how milk is produced.  Jane and Mark are bang up to date with using modern technology.  They came up with the whacky idea  (harmless) of spraying their cows with a white QR code so visitors could click on their smartphones and read an up to date blog of the cow’s life and contribution to the farm.  I hope I haven’t given it all away … !

To find out more, come along on Wednesday 24 April at 7.30 pm at the Congregational Church Hall, Bowden Lane, Market Harborough.   It’ll be fun, too, sampling the Stilton cheese!

An evening of reflexology

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A big thank you to Sue Burgess, who stepped in at very short notice, to run this month’s session on reflexology.  Sue began by explaining her approach to KORE, simply meaning a balanced approach to treating mind, body and spirit.  She touched on a short history of the subject and also passed around samples of essential oils, notably rosemary and orange.  Sue then went on to demonstrate a back massage on her colleague, followed by how reflexology is used to stimulate various areas of the foot to encourage the body to heal itself.   Hazel kindly offered her feet for this treatment.

Sue can be contacted on 07951 185518 or srburgess@farming.co.uk.  She is based in Earl Shilton.

A slight aside, if you believe in things happening in 3s, then last month the original speaker could not make it as he passed away at New Year and this month’s planned speaker had to attend a funeral.  What can the third thing be … ?

Wear It – success for our first ever fund raising event!

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Fashion show-w500-h500Valerie Hitchcox, one of our Co-Treasurers, has been in touch this weekend to say, ‘Just to let you know that the final total for the profit from the fashion show was £317.45 once all expenses paid.’

That’s excellent news for our first ever fundraising event.  The money will go a long way to helping with regular expenses, such as venue hire and speaker costs.

Thank you, again, to all those who gave their time to make it all happen, as well as to  everyone who attended Wear It and made it such a fun evening.  Enjoy wearing your new outfit, too – I certainly am!

 

 

Alternative medicine – visiting speaker for March

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Sue Balcon, Reflexology-w500-h500Sue Balcon, full member of the Association of Reflexologists, will be the visiting speaker for the monthly meeting on Wednesday 27th March at 7.30 pm at the Congregational Church Hall, Bowden Lane, Market Harborough.  For more details and background click on Holistic Balance Therapies.

Sue will be demonstrating 3 technqiues know as alternative medicine: reflexology, head massage and ear candling.   If you are not sure what these are, then reflexology, or zone therapy, is about applying pressure to specific zones of the feet (it can also be the hands or ears) with the use of oil or lotion that brings about changes to other parts of the body.  Indian head massage is performed on the the head, neck and face to manipulate  energy channels.   In Hopi ear candling, one end of a hollow candlie is lit and the unlit end placed in the ear canal with the aim of improving general health and well-being.

What to know more?  Then see you on 27th March.

Cake Club – an invitation to join us

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cake-w500-h500Market Harborough WI member, Carla Scott, would like to update you on the Cake Club.

Carla has joined forces with another lady, Hannah Fenwick, who had contacted her about the Cake Club and they have decided to do this through the Clandestine Cake Club.  This is a nationwide club and it would be great if you would like to sign up to join it by clicking on the link above.   When you have the home page on the screen, click on clubs, then under group directory search, type in Market Harborough and then click on to become a member and that should take you through the registration process.

Carla and Hannah are planning on meeting on the third Thursday of each month between 7 and 9 pm.  The first meeting is on the 18th April 2013.  There will be a theme each month and the location is not announced until the week before the date of the event: that is the clandestine part and only members get to know where it is.

You do need to register and then confirm that you will go to the meeting.  Hopefully it should be lots of fun and interesting to see how people decide what cake to bake for each theme. If you look at theClandestine Cake Club website it does show bakes in other areas so you can see its not professional stuff!!

Hope to see you all at a meeting.   Happy Baking. 

Fish Project – a chance to show off your craft skills

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Building on the success of the Jubilee and Christmas bunting competition last year, Cheyla Grainge, Committee member, has come up with another idea – decorate a fish!.

Fish-w500-h500Click on Leicestershire Craft Centre, Market Harborough, to download the fish template and suggestions for decorating.  Basically this can be using any skill you have, such as cross stitich, embroidery, quilting or collage.  The only thing you can’t do is ceramics.  Maybe you could link your theme to the Market Harborough WI?

Bring your finished fish to the March monthly meeting, the 27th.  There’s a prize for the best one.  The completed fishes will be passed on to the Leicestershire Craft Centre, who have granted them an exhibition at the LCB Depot, Leicester from 14th – 20th May 2013 – make a diary note to call in and see the fish selected for display then relax over a coffee in the lounge area.

If you want to know more about the background to the fish project, the link above to the Leicestershire Craft Centre gives more details.

Wear It – we’re in the Harborough Mail again!

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Check out page 10 of this week’s Harborough Mail for  a lovely, colour picture of the models, Hazel, Sam, Daisy Chain Agency, make up artists and hairdresser, together with an article explaining how successful Market Harborough WI is proving to be.