Sue and I met as university students and have been growing together ever since. Sue went straight into
primary school teaching and I eventually ended up in the same profession. We
are both extremely proud to be able to change so many young lives for the good.
We moved to the big city and I felt a bit lost for quite a
few years of my life. Just before the big Four-O I had a major health scare, a
blessing in disguise for it was the catalyst I needed to get back to a
slower-paced self-sufficient lifestyle.
Our fast-paced life, rushing around, lungs filling with
smoke, like an ant in an overcrowded colony, consuming more to compete with others
and to escape the tedium, all this was replaced with a rural simplicity, hard
outdoor work and fresh air. But most of all, space. Fenland is full of space.
I had big plans right from the beginning, but it has been
hard work and we have been on a steep learning curve. When we moved onto our smallholding
we inherited a bunch of chickens (mostly rowdy cockerels) and a breeding Berkshire
sow called Daisy. We didn’t even know where to get straw or animal food beyond
the bag we had been left. Our experimental micro vegetable beds in suburban
London suddenly turned into 5 acres of windswept rough paddock to manage.
Our first years were spent building the project up, but we
are now at the stage of wanting to share it more and more with others, wanting
to teach and wanting to learn. We are entering a second growth phase. We have
learned canny ways to work with nature’s relationships to help us cultivate the
soil and grow our own food.
With this the smallholding has become more manageable and we
are now focussing on sharing and disseminating our knowledge and expereince and
letting others enjoy what we have created here.
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