I heard a snippet about this on the radio this afternoon - anyone know any more?
The bit I heard was a farmer near Bristol giving over a field for rented allotments/livestock land, he's planning a countrywide group of similar farms renting out a field in lots, the farms will be identified by yellow wheelbarrow signs.
lovely idea - although if they're all 'out in the sticks' it still leaves a shortage of allotment space for town/city folks.
I can only see an idea, an address and a map on the website
Village farm dot org dot uk
-
snapdragon
- A selfsufficientish Regular
- Posts: 1765
- Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:05 pm
- latitude: 51.253841
- longitude: -1.612340
- Location: Wiltshire, on the edge and holding
Village farm dot org dot uk
Say what you mean and be who you are, Those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind
Re: Village farm dot org dot uk
Snapdragon,
Sorry to cast doubts on the chances of such a scheme succeeding, but from past experience they're not high. The East Hampshire Self-Sufficiency Group tried just such a scheme about 20 years ago, when a local farmer allowed all members to sow strips of mangels in his field for our goats etc.
Try as we might, it never really worked out. The farmer promised to plough the field for us, but all his other work took preference, so it was done later than the ideal sowing time. When it came to subsequent cultivation, some members weeded and hoed their section religiously, but the weeds from the others soon spread... and so on.
In short, a brilliant idea, but not when run by real people with real human failings...!
Sorry to cast doubts on the chances of such a scheme succeeding, but from past experience they're not high. The East Hampshire Self-Sufficiency Group tried just such a scheme about 20 years ago, when a local farmer allowed all members to sow strips of mangels in his field for our goats etc.
Try as we might, it never really worked out. The farmer promised to plough the field for us, but all his other work took preference, so it was done later than the ideal sowing time. When it came to subsequent cultivation, some members weeded and hoed their section religiously, but the weeds from the others soon spread... and so on.
In short, a brilliant idea, but not when run by real people with real human failings...!