Our gorgeous tasting cakes are just part of what we do here on Naish Farm. We take care to step very lightly on our environment and we have developed a nature reserve to surround us. Our BeeGreen projects help us to continue to improve our environment.

We have gently adapted the old farm buildings to house our bakery and packing areas, whilst retaining all of their original features. Our office was originally a set of pig sties- everything from stable doors to floorboards have been reused and recycled.

We've picked up many tips from visiting Pam Lewis's wonderful wildlife garden, Sticky Wicket. We've installed woven willow bird feeders after seeing them being used in Pam's garden. These pretty swirls of willow & hazel allow tits & other small birds to feed without being hassled by patroling Sparrow Hawk..

Our BeeGreen projects

Live Webcams

We have installed two live webcams so far - one overlooks the yard where Joan and the three donkeys live and the other is installed in a nest box by the bakery.

Tree and hedgerow planting

We now have our very own nature resevre at Naish Farm, where we work hard to protect and encourage wildlife. So far we've planted a number of horse chestnut, Oak, Damson, Crab apple and black poplar trees and hazel and willow coppice areas.

Each winter Charlotte and Graham continue with the hedge regeneration scheme, laying and re planting where necessary.

Since allocating 2.5 acres of land to wildlife setaside areas we have seens a huge increase in wildlife, particularly seed feeding birds and bank voles, taking advantage of the habitat the Naish farm nature reserve provides.

The wildflowers and plants have really come into their own, through out the year we have beautiful banks of bluebells, primroses, wild garlic, evening primrose, celendines and pink campions to name but a few.

Another part of Bee Green is being as self sufficient as possible. The first step towards this is growing our own fruit and vegetables. In our lovely little polytunnel, raised bed, fruit patch and dung heap we have succussfully grown an amazing supply of vegetables, herbs and fruit to feed our hard working team and serve in our Bee Shack Cafe.

Our team share the growing space in exchange for occassional watering and weeding duties!

Bird Survey

Once a month our keen twitcher Graham is up with the larks to observe and record the species seen on site. Through out the year we sight redwings, tits, woodpeckers, wrens, pied wagtails, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches plus a number of species of high conservation concern such as Song Thrush, House sparrow and starlings - our monthly bird-log usually records 25-30 species and is written up on the BeeGreen blog.

Charlotte -a regular contributor to the BeeGreen blog

Operation Goldfinch

This is our ongoing mission to encourage more of these beautiful little birds to feed and feel safe in our finch feeding strip which runs out to the back of the bakery. We've noticed a definite increase in numbers since we allowed the finches' favorite foods, thistles and teasels to spread.

Honey Bee

In April 2009, The British Beekeepers' Association identified that urgent funding is needed to combat the threats facing honey bee health. Being affiliated with this very special species, Honeybuns would like to encourage you to support your local Beekeepers. Some of our honey comes from Filberts Bees in Muckleford.

Recycling

We recycle all of our cardboard, foil, glass, plastic and paper.

The cardboard is processed locally by J&G Environmental by shredding it into animal bedding - which we then re-use for our horses and donkeys. After mucking out the horses, it finally ends up in a muck spreader destined for local farms or being used to fertilise our vegetable and fruit patch.

Other waste, for example packaging from discontinued products, is given to The Scrapstore in Yeovil where it is made available to groups and individuals for use in arts and crafts projects.

We're also installing a new toilet for the Bee Shack cafe which will be using harvested rain water. We have also installed solar power security lights around the site.

Packaging

The cardboard boxes we use are all made from recycled material and are printed using sovent-free inks. Our box supplier even recycles all offcuts and misfeeds back to the paper manufacturer to be recycled into production of new boxes.

Our cakeboard inserts use card from a sustainable source and are printed with vegetable based inks.

The packaging we use is getting greener as technology keeps improving. It used to be impossible to find a biodegradable film that didn't become "cloudy" and brittle after freezing. We've now located one & have switched over to this alternative for most of the film we use. Recently some uncertainty has arisen over whether it is better to use biodegradable plastic at all. This is because waste containing a mixture of biodegradable and standard plastic cannot currently be separated, so all goes to landfill, whereas a load of standard plastic would go for recycling. We are monitoring the situation as it develops and, as always, will strive to take the most environmentally friendly option.

We can still do better & are always striving to improve our packaging.

                            10:10 Campaign

10:10 is a movement of people, schools, businesses and organisations cutting their carbon emissions by 10% in a year. We joined the campagin when it launched in September 2009 and since have been working hard at ways to reduce our carbon emmisions, succeding in reducing our carbon intensity by 10.4% compared to our baseline year. To follow our progress and find out more about the 10:10 campaign follow the link.

Traffic Reduction

We are also very aware of the traffic we generate in the way of delivery vehicles to the farm. We have extended our storage areas to enable us to take larger quantities of ingredients and packaging at any one time. We then have to hold more stock than is ideal but, on the positive side, we can order less often and thus have fewer delivery vehicles.

For delivering our products, we do not run any of our own vehicles. Instead our goods "piggy back" on lorries which travel fully loaded and more efficiently on established transport routes.

Recognition at Glastonbury Festival

Each year we take a Honeybuns team to Glastonbury, to offer festival goers a chance to sample our gorgeous gluten free cakes. Honeybuns was recognized by Glastonbury Festival, Green peace, The Soil Association and The Fair trade Foundation for being a business with low environmental impact. We were proudly awarded the Silver Green Traders Award.

A proud Charlotte and Graham

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