The Dairy Deli Farm Shop is situated on the A3054 in Shalfleet. Only yards away from Shalfleet Creek this oasis of local produce offers visitors a real chance to taste, smell and enjoy the rich variety of food produced on the Isle of Wight.

The Farm Shop offers you, local meats fresh seasonal vegetables, fresh bread, Calbourne Classics Baked cakes and scones, clotted cream ice cream, milk, cream, Cheeses, jams, chutneys, juices and much more.

Currently the smell of freshly picked Asparagus greets you as you enter and with a background aroma of Isle of Wight Garlic this shop really tantalises the taste buds! The shop showcases the huge range of Award Winning produce produced by Calbourne Classics, owners of the shop, which is located on the farms boundary and if heading to Newport after your visit you will often see the herd of Calbourne Classics’ pedigree dairy cows grazing the pastures by the road side.

FISH (www.fishcowes.co.uk) also visit the farm shop every Friday and Saturday offering one of the few wet fish counters in the West Wight.

The produce extends to also incorporate local fare from the south of England.

Produce available; Calbourne Classics, Garlic Farm, Glebe Farm Jams & Chutneys, Stone Ground Flour & Pasta, Briddlesford Free Range Eggs, IW Pasta, FISH (Fri & Sat), Sharon Orchard Apple Juice & Jams etc, Rosemary Vineyard Juices, Tomato Stall Products, IW Lemon Curd, IW Fudge, Rew Valley Milk & Butter, IW Cheese, Hamiltons Meats, Island Lamb, Brownrigg Poultry, Briddlesford Free Range Eggs, Rosary Goats Cheese, Ben Browns Asparagus, and much more!

The Dairy Deli Farm Shop Shalfleet is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

‘ChangeforLife’ – a way of life at Shalfleet School

Shalfleet has been officially recognised a number of times for its efforts in being a healthy school. In 2007 the school was awarded the prestigious National Healthy School standard and won the Isle of Wight Healthy Eating Alliance Award. In 2010, continued commitment to Healthy Eating was recognised at the Alliance evening celebrating those who have made a significant contribution to embedding healthy eating practices. In recognition of this, Lisa Nicolson, Headteacher, who appears in the Healthy Eating Alliance Award promotional video, was recently invited to attend a ministerial event at 1, Birdcage Walk in London, for a ministerial  Change4Life reception where she met, and was photographed with, the Minister for Health, Andy Burnham.

Shalfleet has a thriving and proactive healthy schools committee (called ‘ChangeforLife’) who meet each half term to monitor the progress of Shalfleet as a Healthy School and to give a lead on many healthy school initiatives and activities taking place. The group includes representatives from the teaching staff, extended schools officer, parents, governors and pre-school, as well as the Head Teacher who personally takes an interest in the well being of each child. The aim of the group is to improve the standard of health and well being of all children attending Shalfleet School, through a whole child approach that encourages both understanding of a good diet (knowledge and awareness of food and nutrition) as well as the importance of regular exercise and relaxation.

There have been many, many healthy schools initiatives and activities taking place at Shalfleet in recent months, which culminated in the school being nominated for the Healthy Eating Alliance Award. Some of the recent activities include;

• ‘Bring your Parent to Breakfast Morning’ which was a great success. The children brought tasty nutritious breakfasts in to school and enjoyed sharing them together – attendees included Dads as well as Mums, Grandads and Grandmas, Governors and friends of the school.
• Healthy Lunch Box Week – the children entered a competition and judged it themselves to see who had the healthiest items in their lunchboxes! An award is given regularly each week in Collective Worship (assembly) to the child who has the Healthiest Lunch Box.
• A Family Walk took place in February in preparation for children entering Walk the Wight in May.
• Bike Maintenance classes – children enjoyed learning about the ‘M check’ which taught them how to run through their own bike safety.
• Sports Relief – celebrated the children’s sporting activities, achievements and awards. They brought in certificates from home and shared sporting stories and moments with the whole school in assembly. The school football team was celebrated, who recently made it to the semi final of the Island Primary Schools Cup.
• Exercise Diary – in which children record and recognise the activities they have engaged in during the Easter holidays.
• Fitness Friday – coming up soon!

Although the ChangeforLife events at Shalfleet help make healthy living lots of fun and accessible for all, it has really started to become a way of life for the school. The Head Teacher is involved in a training programme –  Enhanced Healthy Schools -that looks at how to encourage and enable children and their families to make the change themselves, “that is so much more effective than having healthy ‘do’s and don’ts’ imposed upon you”, said Lisa.

For more information on any of the ChangeforLife activity at Shalfleet, please e-mail us Shalfleetpri@online.net, or call the school office, tel: 760269.

‘ChangeforLife’ – a way of life at Shalfleet School is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Go Wild in the Woods

Come and enjoy a fascinating day in the life of the woodland of Firestone Copse during the spring half-term holidays on Wednesday 2 June.

Set your alarm clocks early as the day begins at 5am with a dawn chorus walk followed by lots of other great wildlife activities throughout the day including pond dipping, woodland crafts, wildflower and butterfly walks, tree climbing, canoe safaris and outdoor art plus loads more, and will draw to a close with night time wildlife detecting at dusk.

We’ll also need your help with Island’s very first BioBlitz where you can get involved with recording all the species that we see on the day – so bring a camera!

Parking is limited at Firestone Copse, so please try and car share. A free hourly shuttle minibus will run from Station Road Steam Railway car park in Wootton.

For the latest event updates and activities timetable visit www.wildonwight.co.uk

Go Wild in the Woods is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Naturezones is run at a ten acre site consisting of wildflower meadows and native woodland at Blackwater. It is a great venue for children to become Nature Detectives. The Wildlife Education Centre was set up by Angela Hewitt and her husband three years ago with the help of Heritage Lottery funding.

Numerous activities include: Tuesday Holiday Club, for 6 – 12 year olds. This includes Hide building, treasure hunts, art and craft. They offer Birthday Parties during the school holidays which include a healthy eating picnic and nature discovery activities – the parents provide the birthday cake. Parents can either stay and join in the fun or leave them in capable hands for two and a half hours.

Naturezones latest project is The Green Girls Saturday Club – giving nature a helping hand. This club is for 8 – 12 year olds and is held the last Saturday of every month. The Green Girls will take part in Forest School type activities, nature investigation, help with the Meadow Makers project and even the odd excursion to other nature reserves on the Island.

Naturezones supports the national curriculum in natural sciences (particularly in the understanding of wildlife habitats), geography, art and craft and social skills in all of its activities. As well as offering one free school visit for up to 30 children until July 2011. They also support the Diploma course for higher education students with work experience and citizenship skills.

There is something for parents too, with their volunteer programme and workshops.

For more info go to www.naturezones.org.uk

Children discovering nature at their own pace. is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

The UK’s No 1 FREE online Eco Auction

Wicycle-it is the fun way to recycle your unwanted goods, gifts etc for cash!

If you use ebay, and don’t like the high fees that you are charged, you’ll absolutely love what you are about to discover…Only private individuals can use Wicycle-It, so you can catch some real bargains, and make a good income as well!

Registering is FREE, listing all the items you want is FREE, sell your items with NO selling fees from the Wicycle-It team and you can even swap your items with other Wicycle-It users!

It’s the smart way to recycle – fast, fun, financially rewarding and best of all - FREE!

Visit Lyn’s Green Biz and click on the Wicycle-It link today!

Wi-cycle-it is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

There is much talk of “green” issues these days but it can all become very confusing and it is difficult to know who to believe.

Wikaniko (pronounced we-can-eco) is a company that helps everyone to “do their bit” . The company believes that people do care about the damage that is being done to the planet with plastic bags, harmful chemicals and other forms of pollution etc. Not only the planet, we could also cause serious health issues for  ourselves if we continue to put harmful products in and on our bodies.

There is a very easy solution. Wikaniko believe that people do care about the world they live in but that they are not sure how to make the right changes or where to source the right products to help with those changes. They produce booklets cataloguing a range of products to help us all make changes step by step. These products are sold at a reasonable cost . The way we are living is costing us our earth. Wikaniko believe that it shouldn’t cost you the earth to make the changes.

Wikaniko (pronounced we-can-eco) is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Pond Days of Fun…

Parents and accompanied children are being asked to come along to three pond events happening soon. The first pond to be worked on will be Treefields Pond on the outskirts of Ryde on Thursday 29^th October from 10.30am, during half-term week. This pond is owned by South Wight Housing, who have been working with local residents, the Footprint Trust and the IW Pond Wardens for many years and thus the pond is one of the best in the area for diversity of aquatic life.

The second pond to be managed will be in Seaclose Park, Fairlee Road, Newport, on Saturday 14^th November from 10am until noon. This work is being carried out with the support of Newport Parish Council, who brought the pond to the attention of the Footprint Trust last year. Local parish councillor Jackie Hawkins was concerned about litter in the pond and the invasive plant, parrot’s feather. The IW Council’s Parks & Countryside section were pleased to be able to co-operate and thus the pond is to get some assistance.

Isle of Wight Pond Wardens are seeking more recruits in the West Wight. They are holding an event at Bouldnor Forest Pond on Wednesday 21st October from 10am until 12.30pm. They will be accompanying the Green Gym group members in helping to conserve the pond by thinning out plants and removing debris. The Footprint Trust has been able to gain some funding to train more Pond Wardens thanks to funding from the West Wight Landscape Partnership and the Environment Agency.  The training for any new recruits will happen in the spring. For more details call Ray on 82-22-82.

All are welcome to come along to these events – all children must be accompanied and cared for by parents or guardians.

Pond Days of Fun… is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

Our new eco-friendly business supplies brochure is out now.

We have selected 600 products covering a variety of product areas, many products contain a high proportion of recycled materials. These include our most popular brand Q-Connect.

As well as selecting products with recycled content, we have also included other ranges, which are deemed to be friendly to the environment but not necessarily manufactured from recycled materials.

We are delighted to announce that we will be exhibiting at Business Expo 09 on the 29th & 30th May at the Isle of Wight College.

Come and meet us face to face and allow us to show you a small selection of the environmentally friendly products that we can supply to your business on the Isle of Wight.

Green Island Supplies Limited is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk

We share your commitment to sustainable, environmentally friendly packaging. ‘Green’ packaging doesn’t’t have to be expensive either, as careful material choices often give you more cost-efficient packaging solutions too. Did you know that “As well as being completely recyclable and fully biodegradable, corrugated cardboard has the best recovery and recycling rate of all UK packaging, with 84% already being recycled – equivalent to enough recycled packaging to cover Greater London every four months. What’s more, the European corrugated industry is one of the few industries to meet the targets set by the EU Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC)”. We can offer single and double wall corrugated cartons, postal boxes, postal tubes, padded Jiffy bags, Mail Lite bags, bubble wrap, biodegradable loose fill and corrugated paper rolls; all of which are manufactured using recycled materials. Please take a look at www.greenislandsupplies.co.uk for more information.

Green Island Supplies Limited is a post from: Isle of Wight - WightBlog.co.uk