Celebrating 2025!
2025 has been a year of growth in every sense - connections, community and creativity as we’ve worked with the rhythms of the seasons.
Spring is always a season of new life as we welcome lambs on the farm. This year we were able to have a live cam for Moneyrea Primary School to watch the lambs growing , as well as an afternoon for the community to come and say hello to the lambs.
It was great to celebrate women as part of International Women’s Day, with flamenco dancing, information from Women’s Aid and some flower arranging (in a teacup!) and some cooking together.
April brought excitement as we began the long awaited project of developing a sensory garden as part of our community farming, funded by the National Lottery Fund. The project is led by Fiona McVickers, from Grounded Horticulture, with Andy from SowGrateful creating the hardscape. What surprised us all was that as volunteers met every Thursday for our Grow and Gather session, so we saw community grow in a deep and meaningful way as we cared not just for the plants but for one another.
In June we were delighted to be part of 20 farms across Northern Ireland showcasing the importance of farming with the Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend. Friday brought Comber Primary and Glenvagh School visit the farm to learn about our story at Glenside Farm. Well done to all who visited on Saturday on a wet wet day, with a special thank you to Nick Mathison, MLA for supporting his local farm.
Autumn saw the end of our year project Farm to Fabric which focused on the raw fleece wool from the farm and using it to create beautiful fabric work through skill building in spinning, weaving, felting and dyeing. The project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, also allowed us to build relationships with facilitators from Inspiring Yarns CIC and Kiri Cottage Crafts. We even have some wool from our fleece for Iain to have a crocheted hat!
The year brought lots of new connections with the Farm to Fabric project and the sensory garden. We welcomed Stitch Cruises - a group of knitters from America on a cruise that docked at Belfast. They enjoyed learning about the heritage of the linen industry in Northern Ireland and especially stories from the peninsula.
A group from Portaferry spent a morning blending and carding wool.
We were interviewed by Radio 4 for the ‘On Your Farm’ programme - to be aired in 2026.
We celebrated being runners up with the Good Relations Council - Connecting Communities in March. Thank you for Rural Support NI for nominating us.
We had a morning of filming with ‘Escape to The Country’ with Jules Hudson. What a great morning introducing our pedigree Aberdeen Angus and Blue Texel Sheep and not to mention our goat - Betsie. What a privilege that as they were in County Down they chose to visit Glenside Farm - can’t wait to see it when it goes live on TV.
The year ended with our beautiful wreath making workshops. We had six workshops led by different facilitators and for different groups. Each one was special and brought a festive buzz with lots of creativity.
Finally, thank you to everyone who has visited the farm, taken part in one of the projects as an attendee or a volunteer. Thank you for all the organisations that have supported us to be able to have a presence in our community. We cannot do what we do without you - thank you for your suppoort!
