It's no secret that the wood-fired pizza from Horsenden Farm is a magnet for GoodGymers - so powerful that it pulls people from different areas to Ealing! Today the promise of the Horsenden Loaf speciality brought three guests from GoodGym Hounslow: Michelle, Kymm and Gus.

But there is no pizza without fire! And there is no fire without firewood.

This Saturday's task was to help the Horsenden baker Anthony stock up on firewood to feed all the hungry GoodGymers after the winter sessions at the farm - and the number of volunteers at the farm has grown rapidly in the last months, reaching 9 people in October. At today's session, we welcomed a new joiner, Diana, who met us at pumpkin carving at Northfield Allotments last week. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing, Diana!

Ijo, Steph, Sevan, Penny, Kash, Diana and the three Hounslow visitors grabbed wheelbarrows and loaded them with logs from a pile located higher up the hill. It was the opposite of our usual tasks at the farm: shovelling woodchip or compost into barrows and pushing them uphill. This time the heavy loads were going down the hill - but don't be fooled - it was hard work!

Not far from the pizza oven, Kymm was assembling a Jenga tower out of firewood pieces that kept coming in barrows in all shapes and sizes, so she had no way to apply any strategy to how best to arrange them. In the end, it turned out she did a nifty job! Next to Kymm, Gus found his happy place at a contraption he would love to get for Christmas: a log splitter. Before having a go at that apparatus, Gus received the safety training and protective goggles from Anthony.

"I'm the most hipster lumberjack!" - Gus said, admiring his new eyewear.

Splitting the logs required time and focus, so after the pile was transported downhill, Gus stayed at his post, accompanied by Michelle who swapped with Kymm on the wood tetris position. The rest of the team was made redundant and looked for other jobs at the farm. They were employed to build a highway between the veg patches out of old cartons and fresh woodchip. Penny, Diana and Ijo laid the cardboard foundations while Steph, Sevan, Kymm and Kash brought the material for the path surface - all of that to stop weeds from growing in spaces between the plots.

Two hours of the farm-style workout was concluded with the obligatory team lunch at Horsenden Loaf with pizza, coffee or craft beer from the local microbrewery. We are already looking forward to the session next month - save the date and sign up now!

We are back! GoodGym x Brompton were together again this month making a difference in the local community as a group of 9 Brompton volunteers headed to Horsenden Farm to help out.

The group were so keen to get started that they headed off in groups to the farm while AA Yianny was heading to their office and our paths didn't cross! No matter, we all reunited at the farm for a quick introduction to GG and our partnership before Elsa and the team split us into two groups to crack on.

Those wearing suitable footwear headed over to the former pig enclosure to pull down the fencing and get it ready to be rebuilt for next year's intake. The wire showed plenty of signs of the many escape attempts this year!

The remaining group grabbed shovels and wheelbarrows and headed down to shift woodchip and compost to bring up and lay in the planting garden ready for a new season to be laid.

After a really challenging year the team are running a fundraiser for the farm and we wanted to share it here - it's going great so far but we need to get to the full amount by November 2nd so if you can please spare a few £ for a great cause.

The Crowdfunder is now live! https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/expand-and-protect-horsendens-rare-breed-animals

By the end of the session everyone was suitably warm, muddy and happy and a great deal had been done which is the main thing. We were also given home baked Amaretti which just makes everything feel amazing!

A huge thanks to all the Brompton vols, you were excellent today and we look forward to seeing you again sometime!

The New

Horsenden Farm is always a popular starting location for the new GoodGym adventurers. The image of volunteering, animals, pizza and craft beer lured many souls to that promised land of rustic pleasures. Today, we must have had a record number of new starters, with Lauren, Louis and Krishna arriving at the farm to sweat hard and feast wildly!

The Old

Steph Ducat and Gus cycled while Sevan and Kash ran to today's task to revisit the familiar potato patch, where the GoodGymers had been previously spreading manure, compost or woodchip on multiple occasions. It was Gus' first visit to Horsenden, but he fell in love with the farm, just like other Hounslow folks before, so we are pretty sure he will become a regular.

The Job

The potatoes from the plot on the hill had been long gone, and the soil awaited a new plan devised by volunteer manager Elsa. She asked GoodGymers to solve a complex puzzle involving creating stripes on the ground with layers of either cardboard and compost or cardboard, wool and woodchip. Some of us imagined the job as even more confusing after mishearing the instructions.

Wool? Oh, I heard wall! I was wondering how you'd fit that between cardboard and woodchip. - Kash

We split into teams that laid cardboard and wool, transported woodchip and compost or raked. We continuously reviewed where more hands (and wheelbarrows) were needed and whether we should be bringing more woodchip or compost. Those calculations led not only to superior efficiency but also to the invention of GoodGym tongue twisters.

How much woodchip can a GoodGym chap chuck into a potato patch? - Gus

Our crew was so effective that we had enough time for a bonus task: laying woodchip on a path from the potato plot to the pizza oven and for the tour around the farm.

Volunteering? Check ✅

The Tour

We had promised our new joiners that they would see farm animals after all the hard work they had done in the morning. There were a few surprises though. The ducks fell victim to the fox (just like the chickens in the past), the pigs were "gone" (you know what that means, salami lovers), and the harvest mice had been all released (partially by GoodGymers). Luckily, the goats were still around, hiding in their latest enclosure that seemed more secure than the paddock we had been making escapee-proof in the past.

Animals? Check ✅

The Main Course

All seven of us gathered at a table in the sun to devour well-deserved pizza. Some of us sampled the "interesting" Gesh pizza famed for gherkin being one of the toppings. A couple of us have proven that the noon can be a happy hour and ordered a pint of zesty craft beer from the microbrewery.

Pizza? Check ✅
Craft beer? Check ✅

The Future

Hungry for another Horsenden visit? Join us in November on the first Saturday of the month. Sign up now!

See how we come to Horsenden Farm? Very demure, very mindful. We don't show off, carrying 30 kg wooden logs in front of our new joiners.

Today's first-timers, Kat and Kane, showed our GoodGym divas it's time for a reality check! They were very modest, not flashing their red t-shirts yet, but working equally hard, if not harder, as our most celebrated GoodGym heroes.

Sevan, who has reached 750 good deeds, didn't put his celebratory vest on until the pizza party time. Very demure. Or maybe Kash has forgotten about the milestone vest in her bag again this week?

While Alaa, Kat, Michelle, Sevan and Kash mindfully transported the chicken manure to the compost piles, Kane, Luis and Steph Ducat, together with a new Horsenden volunteer Tom, moved the heavy wood and bed frames out of a former chicken coop. They rested all the bulky things against the shed on a slippery slope. How all that stuff we had piled by the shed throughout the year hadn't slid down yet - we don't know. Very mindful.

Elsa suggested a third task in case we'd finished with either of the two jobs: razing a wild hedge to the ground. We don't come to work to cut green trees. We don't bring big saws and axes. That would be way over the top. Today, we cut the whole hedge at Horsenden with a few pairs of humble loppers.

When it was time to see the animals, Elsa showed Alaa, Kat and Kash how to jump the fence demurely so as not to disturb the pig residents. See how the goats were very well-behaved today - let's not forget to be demure, divas!

Stay demure and join us for another day of volunteering 🫶 + animals 🐮 + pizza 🍕 + craft beer 🍺 in October!

Upon arrival at Horsenden Farm, seven GoodGymers learnt that the chicken coop had been a scene of a terrible crime. The notorious predator fox decimated the population of Horsenden chickens and geese. After a couple of bird survivors had been taken home by Elsa, the chicken coop ceased to exist. Its structure had been taken down, and the GoodGymers arrived to do forensics. They were to investigate the top six inches of the soil to find clues about the night-time massacre. With subtle instruments such as forks and shovels, the GoodGym team found traces of chicken poo, hay, seashells and tiles in the clay soil. They also excavated potential murder weapons: bricks, glass and two large pieces of concrete.

Elsa asked the GoodGym forensics team to dump the already analysed layer of soil into the space she had prepared for a new compost pile. Sevan, Penny and Kash were joined by an independent detective Kieran, and the rest of the investigators moved to another assignment. Paul, Ijo, Roberta and Steph Ducat examined the compacted compost in the enclosed area of the car park but didn't find anything suspicious. Elsa was still pleased that they moved the compost out of the way onto a big pile.

Paul and Roberta had one more investigation to carry out while at the farm: tip the large tubs with soil and examine the dirt in search of any forbidden plants. The Horsenden Farm came out clear in that test, so the investigators concluded they could trust its food and drink. Eight detectives gathered together for their final investigation of fire-baked pizza and nettle beer and found them guilty of being incredibly tasty.

Hungry for another detective story? Or maybe for the famous Horsenden Loaf pizza with gherkin? We got you covered! Join us for another Horsenden session in September - sign up now!

Do you know what happens with the contents of your food waste bin - provided a fox hasn't knocked it over? Ealing Council takes the food waste to a processing plant, where it is used to make fertiliser. Elsa from Horsenden Farm told us that the compost piled up at the farm car park was produced that way. So, if you live in Ealing and recycle your food, maybe our intrepid team of farm-gymers was shovelling the product of your egg shells, banana skins and that leftover at the back of your fridge you discovered after two months, thriving with fungal civilisation. Hopefully not the latter! If you don't recycle your food, you can read about it here and order your free food waste bin. It really makes a difference to the environment.

Today's session was all about compost. Penny, Roberta, Sevan and Kash, not scared by the pouring rain, made it to Horsenden Farm to transport the fertiliser from the car park to our favourite potato patch up the hill. Elsa advised us not to overfill the wheelbarrows as the journey to the plot was challenging enough. The tactical approach was to load the barrow with the lighter dry compost from the middle of the heap. Can you imagine? The fertiliser inside the mound was extremely dehydrated despite all the heavy rain flooding streets and paths since yesterday!

Sevan was fascinated by the compost journey in the circle of life. He filmed a documentary, starting with the fertiliser shovelling scene. The action then moved up to the plot where - believe me or not - we saw potatoes being grown and harvested. They are not a myth! Our manure exploits at the farm in the winter finally paid off. Potatoes that had been already harvested were being sold at the farm shop at the Hayloft.

It was a pretty tough workout and everyone gave their best effort, so we decided to cut on breaks but finish the shovelling ahead of time. Now, the rewards awaited! It was too early to order the pizza, so we were hanging out with the farm animals. Chickens, pigs and goats could be found in their usual spots, while the calves were out for grazing and nowhere to be seen. We offered cuddles to the fluffy farm cat and the cute dog, Nalla just before noon, then queued for the coffee and pizza order. Both treats were delicious and warmed us up after the morning in the rain and the wind. It was a well-deserved break!

If you missed animals, pizza and the great company today, worry not! Horsenden events are running each month throughout the year, so join us for the next one in August! Oh, and there will be a proper volunteering workout too, of course!