Visitors to Belvoir Castle from 8 – 9 June will be able to enjoy a weekend full of free wellness and mindfulness activities in celebration of the new Belvoir Castle Farm Shop and freshly transformed Engine Yard retail village.
The weekend marks the culmination of an extensive project to expand the current retail offering at the Castle. In keeping with the Engine Yard’s new strapline of ‘Fuelling Your Future’, the two-day event will feature a range of talks and activities aimed at fuelling the mind, body and soul, curated by The Duchess of Rutland herself.
A key highlight of the weekend’s events will be the official launch of the brand-new Belvoir Castle Farm Shop, which will be marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony by The Duchess, alongside special guest Chris Broad, former England and Nottinghamshire County cricket player.
Once open, the farm shop – which will be operated by Nik Tooley the former co-owner of award-winning Nottingham delicatessen, Delilah – will be an all-in-one destination for locally sourced premium produce. As well as featuring fresh fruit and vegetables, the shop will offer a bakery, deli, café, cheese monger and more.
The Duchess of Rutland said: “I’m excited to be opening the doors to our newly transformed Belvoir Castle retail village at the Engine Yard. The food we eat can have a massive impact not just on our bodies, but on our minds too. Our new farm shop will be stocked full of some of the best produce from across the county, and will have everything you need to look after your body from the inside out.”
The farm shop will also offer a carefully curated selection of fine produce from the Belvoir Castle Estate, hand-picked by the team. These will include apples from the Estate orchards that are also used to create Belvoir Castle’s very own apple juice, honey from its bee hives, wines pressed from grapes from its vineyards and premium beef from the rare breed of cattle that The Duchess introduced from Herefordshire.
As an extra treat, visitors can enjoy a ten per cent discount at the farm shop across the launch weekend, while people who live within a seven-mile radius of the site will continue to receive a ten per cent discount for the remainder of June.
At 10.30am on each day of the launch weekend, visitors will be able to enjoy wellness talks, cooking demonstrations, live music, farm and vineyard tours and family activities including face painting, craft stations and an animal petting zoo. It will also feature a display of farming machinery including tractors and combine harvesters, allowing visitors to step back in time through Belvoir’s farming history.
The Duchess added: “Health and wellbeing is something that has always been important to me, and I’m really passionate about championing that across all areas of the newly relaunched Belvoir Castle retail village at the Engine Yard. Over the course of the weekend, I’m looking forward to sharing the many experiences and lessons in healthy living that I’ve gathered from travels all over the world.”
Other highlights from the day include talks from the Belvoir Castle team who will be discussing the castle’s commitment to farming, conservation and its gardens; Forest Bathing sessions by Liz Dawes; a talk from Dr Helen Barsham on ‘Education, Children and Astrology; new schools of thought’; a talk from Per Norgrenn on mindfulness; ‘Wild Walk & Talk’ hosted by Fergus Drennan and a talk from Dr David Luke on ‘The Science of Psychedelics’.
The weekend will also feature the usual weekly Belvoir Pop-Ups stalls at The Engine Yard as well as an Artisan Fayre held in the Belvoir Castle grounds, with half price entry if buying something from the farm shop.
To find out more about Belvoir Castle, visit the link here.
