Sustainable Development Fund 961.44 Kb - the Dorset AONB

Productive landscapes…green buildings
Food Processing Barn at Five Penny Farm
Over 200 people helped raise a new
barn at Five Penny Farm, Whitchurch
Canonicorum, to provide food processing
and storage facilities for a co-operative
of farmers in the Marshwood Vale.
Jyoti Fernandez, driving force behind the
project explains ‘We have a co-operative
of 46 members, all local small scale food
producers. We all want to produce food
in a way we that doesn’t have a negative
impact on the environment and so the
construction of the barn using locally
sourced materials - a timber frame,
thatch roof and cobb cellar - was really
important to us’.
The co-op members wanted to add value
to the food they grow to make their work
viable. They will use the barn to
transform what they grow or rear into
bacon, ham, salami, juice, jams, dairy
products, chutneys and herbal products.
All will be sold at local outlets and they
hope to run courses at the barn to share
their skills around.
Jyoti is pleased with what they have
achieved ‘The barn raising was great -
an amazing feeling to see such a tangible,
big, lasting building coming into being.
It has really brought the co-operative
together and inspired them to produce
more!’
Brownsea Island outdoor activity centre
The new outdoor activity centre on Brownsea Island follows
the scouting principles of ‘leaving the ground as you found
it’ throughout it’s design. Incorporating rainwater recycling,
water minimisation, wind turbine power generation and
biomass boilers for heat, the building will run with little
impact on the environment. It’s unique design also ensures
that it can be completely removed, including the foundations,
leaving no trace of it ever having been there.