Little Haven Farm: Meet the Yorkshire teacher following her farming dream on a smallholding near Hull

“I will never forget that day at Driffield,” said Suzie. “When the children were asked they didn’t know that bacon comes from a pig, or that beef comes from cattle, of that bread starts off as wheat before becoming flour. I really was flabbergasted.

‘I was lucky enough to have grown up knowing all of that and more, and not just from having been brought up on a farm. I think we all knew more about where things came from years ago and I had assumed that all children would know today, but they don’t.

Suzie only qualified and began teaching full-time in April 2020, having started out as a mum going in to help with reading and then becoming a teacher’s assistant.

“Teaching is now my passion. There is so much that can be taught in the classroom but there’s so much more that can be taught outside and that’s what the experience at Driffield Showground showed me. Children nowadays don’t get the same exposure as we all did with farm visits.

“Lots of schools back then would have animals that the children would look after as they were growing up.

Suzie said the catalyst for her own efforts in creating a better outdoor learning environment and starting her own open farm with Howard came during the first lockdown.

“We went on a family walk like everybody else. We walked past what is actually now our farm. We had originally looked at it for storage for Howard’s building company that he had at that time.

“When we had a look around I said to Howard that this was it. It had always been a dream to have a smallholding and get back to my roots. Howard as well because he also comes from a farming background.

“I’m a farmer’s daughter from teeny-weeny Fitling in Holderness. My grandpa Robin Fisher was NFU East Riding county chairman. Howard’s grandfather had a farm at Holme on Spalding Moor and his family was originally from Sutton on Hull.

“What I want us to do here is to be open to the public for weekends and holidays and to get schools in for educational visits during weekdays. And because some children aren’t academic I also want to provide something that offers interaction in a fully immersive experience, somewhere where people can feel safe and also learn, while enjoying the company of animals.

“That’s how this has all tied together, with a passion for education and a passion for the outdoors, animals and farming in general. It’s all tied into the dream we have going forward.

Currently Suzie and Howard have their education days and open farm plans, but there is another strand that Suzie said they fell into when they started populating the farm, that of being a rescue centre.

“The rescue animal side started because somebody contacted us and said would you be willing to take such and such on and it has gone from there. Word quickly gets around here and very soon we were being offered all sorts.

“Not everything here has come about from being rescued. Our current headcount includes two reindeer, six goats, several sheep, turkeys, ducks, chickens, rabbits, two Saddleback-cross-Gloucester Old Spot pigs, guinea pigs and a micro pig that somebody had as a pet in their kitchen.

“What happened with opening the farm up was that after having started off with chickens and a couple of rabbits for the kids we decided to get two reindeer called Sven & Klaus, not from Lapland but Leicester.

Suzie said the reindeer were Howard’s idea.

“The reason we got those was that following the lockdowns in 2020 Howard said let’s get some reindeer and give the kids a bit of Christmas sparkle. We then thought that if the children were coming in to see the reindeer that we would try and get a couple of other animals in that were in keeping with Christmas so we got a couple of turkeys and borrowed some sheep.

“We didn’t know if it was going to come off or not because of what was going on, but perhaps fortunately because I worked with a local primary school we worked together with other schools and we had them in, in their bubbles, during that period.

Suzie said the reindeer have inadvertently become the blocker at present to moving on with the educational and open farm ideas.

“We have been able to open up under the 7-day rule whereby we are allowed to open up for 7 days a year without planning and licensing on selected dates and we have opened for camping on a 28-day rule, but we would love to have all of that all year round.

“Hedon Town Council have been awesome and have embraced us as offering something really positive for the village but we are experiencing a few problems with East Riding Council over licensing and it seems as though some of it is down to Sven and Klaus.

“It all appears to be about halter training them and we have now started doing that, so hopefully that will be one thing sorted. It has seemed a little bonkers as in my opinion they are domesticated, but don’t qualify as such unless they have been halter trained. Hopefully that will put us one step closer to opening.

“Until then we are a little in limbo over what we do about any breeding of animals. We have had some kids from our 3 nanny goats, but we are as yet undecided on going forward until this reindeer thing is done and whether we will have enough space for everything as we like having the opportunity to take on rescue animals that most rescue centres don’t take on.

“At the end of the day it’s a labour of love. I want it to provide better education for children, but it all needs to pay for itself.

Suzie is looking forward to Little Haven’s future.

“I had a wonderful childhood growing up on the farm. I loved the animals, the freedom. We are now hoping to give other children the opportunity to experience some of that.