Swinton Park Visit
18 Nov 2021
This week we were lucky enough to be able to visit Swinton Park, no we weren't taking advantage of their spa facilities or taking high tea, we were there to learn about how big businesses can reduce their carbon footprint.
We learnt a lot about what they do. We started the day by meeting Dame Susan, who takes care of the walled gardens. She told us about their seasonal produce and about their estate to plate policy. They grow a lot of fruit and veg, which is then used in their kitchens, from these gardens. We learnt about how the chefs select their produce fresh each day and change their menu according to what is growing at that time. There is no plastic involved, no transport needed, no carbon footprint
She also let us forage for raspberries and scatter wildflower seeds at the same time.
Whilst we were there, we bumped into a familiar face, Mrs Todd, who reported a sudden ringing in her ear, then the chinaware clattering. What was the cause? Grewelthorpe juniors came marching by, in an orderly fashion of course, on our way to the birds of prey centre.
Here they talked to us about how they manage the land to encourage wildlife back into their grounds, including many species of birds of prey.
We then got to meet Luke, who showed us how to make foods from a sustainable source. We used lots of their home-grown vegetables and made Cornish pasties. We also got to try their jams from all the fruits they've harvested this autumn.
We ended the day by meeting Charlie, who's in charge of forestry. He showed us how they use trees to sell for production but use the offcuts and unsuitable logs for chipwood, which provides energy to their biomass heater. That produces enough energy to heat to the entire hotel and the spa pool! Again, much less carbon created and they plant 10 saplings for every tree cut down.
And after all that fun, we ended the week by meeting Georgie, one of our classmember's rabbit. She came in to help us see what makes her a mammal. We've been classifying animals this topic. We were very gentle and she helped us confirm she's definitely a mammal: She has a backbone, has lungs, has fur, is warm blooded, gives birth to live young and produces milk.
Have a lovely weekend.