Being new(ish) to Dartmoor it was lovely reading last month’s edition of the Moorland Link, finding out about all the exciting things happening in our local area. On this note, I have never played Whist…can I come along and try? I was surprised to see myself mentioned, and thought I better formally introduce myself. Hello! My name is Emily, and I am the new Volunteer and Partnerships Officer at Shallowford Farm.
I am not a Devon gal by birth having grown up in a small village in Cambridgshire, but when I moved here in 2017, from moor to shore Devon felt like home, although I know I am many decades off being considered a local! I come from a background of environmental communication and community engagement. I love talking to people, finding out about their interests, and sharing mine with them. I am very excited to have joined the Shallowford Team, to explore what could be possible at the farm, to expand opportunities for local people to engage with what we do here.
At time of writing I have been in post for 4 weeks, and it’s been a full month of apple pressing, acorn testing, hill walking, policy writing, chocolate pudding baking, and lots of learning about who Shallowford is and how we fit into our local community. Now I have found my feet in these new wellies I am keen to dig into what I’m here to do, and I think we should start a cup of tea and a few biscuits…
There are lots of opportunities I can already see where local volunteers would be a huge help. For example, monitoring the threatened Marsh Fritillary butterfly we have on site or lending a green thumb to our kitchen garden. Whilst these will be staples in our volunteer programme I am keen to encourage this programme to develop as a community informed initiative. I don’t want to make things that people don’t want. And the best way I have found to figure out what your community needs is to have a chat over a chocolate hob nob.
I would like to formally extend the invite to everyone reading to a coffee morning at the farm, so I can find out a bit about you, you can find out a bit more about what we hope to do with our volunteer programme, and we can chat about how we may be able to support one another. At 10am till 12:00pm on the 28th November you are welcome at The Ark, East Shallowford Farm, TQ13 7PW.
If you would like to email a hello, or request your favourite type of biscuit, you can get in touch with me at emily@shallowfordfarm.co.uk
I look forward to meeting you all soon,
Emily Tyack-Moore