Zoom along the Frome

On Saturday, Good Gym took to two wheels to ride up to Feed Bristol, a farm in the north of the city run by Avon Wildlife Trust.

Ten GoodGymers rode up the Frome Valley Greenway, a lovely route out from the city centre following the river Frome, and about 30 minutes and a few big hills later, we met with Matt, the manager at the farm. We got a tour of the farm, which has some of the very finest soil for agriculture anywhere in the UK, and is visited by a huge range of schools, community groups and corporate work days. It’s a really beautiful site which is sadly under threat from a road building project – to find out more, see here: http://www.bluefingeralliance.org.uk/

After our tour, we grabbed forks, buckets and wheelbarrows and spent an energetic hour turning over soil and weeding a bed in the imaginatively named ‘Big Field’ (it’s a field, it’s big) to prepare for a wildflower meadow. The earth was teaming with life, including some of the largest worms you’ll ever see. Despite the hum of the nearby M32 motorway, it was a really peaceful site, and even a couple of rain showers didn’t disturb our hard work.

Once the soil had been de-weeded, and we’d removed the mud from our shoes and forks, it was time to hop on our bikes to tackle the same hills, but in the other direction as we headed back, but not before promising Matt we’d return, and perhaps have a barbecue there too. Watch this space…