It’s why our entire range is vegan, but for our team it does not end there: We truly believe in making a change in the world, little by little, and therefore are all about supporting like-minded causes and this is how we first came across Hugletts Wood Farm Animal Sanctuary.
We first stumbled across the sanctuary in 2017: Our Marketing Ninja Romy had already heard about the farm before through a couple of vegan activists and reached out to Wenda, the owner of Hugletts, who was kind enough to invite us.
Our team was lucky enough to visit the sanctuary in late 2017 & were instantly fascinated by the peace and beauty of this wonderful place and experienced the nature & wonderful life of the 300+ animals that call Hugletts their home.
Hugletts Wood provides sanctuary for life to over 350 rescued farm animals and birds and is situated in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty in East Sussex. Surrounded by rolling hills and cushioned on two sides by a magical ancient broad leaf woodland, which is home to deer, foxes, badgers and any number of indigenous birds. Owls swoop down through the trees at dusk, as the bats come out to play. Life in the fields, where the cows and sheep graze, goes on gently at a leisurely pace.
After visiting Hugletts in 2017, we knew: this is a truly special place that we would like to support, aligning with everything that Mr Organic stands for.
For the summer of 2018 we therefore set up a fundraiser event in collaboration with the sanctuary with all proceeds going to the farm. We wanted to offer a handful of people the opportunity to experience the wonderful life at the sanctuary and create an intimate day on the farm, including meeting the cows & other animals, a yoga & meditation session in the woodlands & delicious, vegan food by Mr Organic.
We couldn’t have been more lucky with the sunshine on this wonderful July day, which made our yoga session in the woods a truly magical experience.
Thanks a million to our lovely supporter Purdy from Unstruck Yoga, who guided us through our mindful journey of connecting to nature, sitting in-midst the trees with the sunshine glistening through the leaves.
If you have never met a fully grown cow in real life, you’d definitely be surprised how big and powerful they can become! At least this was our first impression when we realised that they are taller then each and every one of us!
They are however truly gentle beings and Wenda & Matthew led us into their field and explained to us that we need to behave in a cow manner to get close up to them. This involved approaching them from the side rather than straight on and also greeting the head of the heard – Bruce – first before saying hello to the rest of the cows.
We instantly bonded with the cows – and they even started going along with their normal business despite us being there, which showed that they were feeling comfortable around the group. Some of them even got comfy and sat down for a close up cuddle – They definitely seemed to enjoy the attention!
Wenda & Matthew – two truly incredible beings – run the sanctuary single-handedly and have devoted their lives to serving the animals on the land, looking after and caring for them every single day of their lives, ensuring they can live a life of love, not fear.
Hugletts Wood Farm Animal Sanctuary is not usually open to visitors, but Wenda organises a couple of Open Days every summer for those that really want to experience the positive life they lead. If you are interested in finding out more, make sure to stay up to date with their Facebook page, where Wenda regularly shares what the sanctuary and its inhabitants are up to.
Find out more about Hugletts Farm:
Photos by www.jameswhitty.com/ & Paco Rabitti
