Our Green Policy
At Quinhay Farmhouse we care about the environment and take whatever steps we can to be as green as possible whilst at the same time, not compromising on the luxury and comfort we feel that our guests deserve. Below you will find our policy outlined and if you feel that you can add to it, we would love to hear your ideas!
Linen and Laundry
For long stay guests, we change the bed linen every four days. Towels are also changed at the same interval. Should you want your linen changed more frequently, please either let us know or just put your towels in the bath.
All linen is washed at 30 degrees and line dried before ironing. The towels are partially line dried before tumbling dry for 30 minutes – keeping them soft and fluffy with a minimum of power use.
Use of chemicals
When cleaning the house, I use ‘e’ cloths which do not require the use of traditional cleaning products. The use of household chemicals is therefore kept to a minimum.
Shopping
All food is locally sourced, thereby cutting down on ‘food miles’ and our own carbon footprint. Less fuel, less pollution.
Recycling
Wherever possible we buy recycled products and ask you to help us recycle. Next to your waste bin in your room, you will find a small basket. Please place all plastic items, cardboard and newspapers in here rather than in the rubbish bin. It can then all be recycled with our own household recycling and collected as usual. I save all my jam jars and re use them for my jam making and all kitchen waste and newspapers are used to make garden compost. Last year, we were 90% self sufficient in the garden and the little that we needed to top up with came from the council’s own recycled product – ‘Progro’.
Energy efficient light bulbs
As the light bulbs expire, we are gradually replacing them where possible with energy efficient bulbs.
Food Wastage
This can be a problem, as we need to buy food in, just in case you would like to eat it! We have solved this problem by asking you to choose your menu the night before. Our meats are frozen just as soon as we return from a trip to the butcher and by choosing the night before, this means that we are able to defrost just what you want, and minimize waste. Any fruit left from breakfast always gets eaten by the family!
Our Wildlife Policy
This is a tricky one, because as many of you will know, we have three cats who partially earn their keep by keeping down the rodent population. Unfortunately, they are also partial to birds, so we do not actively encourage the birds as they would be lured to their deaths. However, in our wild garden, there are many nooks and crannies where wildlife can flourish and you will often see pheasants in the garden and rabbits. (Being a gardener,I am not sure if they are very welcome!) – but we try to live and let live. We have installed an owl box in the field and hope soon to have a resident owl.