The Cottage Smallholder

Oh where to begin?

I stumbled across this site the other morning whilst looking for ways to possibly dry fruit/veg in a halogen oven.

After a nosey around, I decided I liked the attitude of the site and it's contributors, so if you'll have me, I'll stay 

Inspired from an early age by the legendary John Seymour, who I had the brief pleasure of meeting once, I've always liked the idea of doing as much as possible on the kitchen table and in the garden.

I ran my own landscape and grounds maintenance company, and a domestic gardening business together for over 20 years, culminating in having a small plant nursery on my 3 acre smallholding, together with pygmy goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, quail, and rabbits. The goats were rescues, and really just pets but I did well selling prepared turkeys and chickens from home, along with eggs and home bottled flavoured vinegars at local markets.

Sadly between Mr Blair and my ex-wife, neither my business nor smallholding survived his reign and my divorce, and I now have an average sized garden, and an equally enthusiastic partner who shares my passions.

In 2007, as an HGV driver, I managed to ruin my back in an accident at work, which required 2 operations to get me mobile, but left me limited in anything physical, so the garden is enough.

Recently, just to add more annoyance, I suffered a stroke. Luckily I have recovered well, but again have had some further limitations put on me.

So what now? Well, I home cure bacon, make sausages, play in the kitchen, and make sure we always have something on the go, together with a well stocked larder.

If I know how to do something, I'm always happy to share that information, but am equally eager to learn new things or alternatives.

At the not-so-old age of 52, I haven't quite decided what direction my new career path will go in, maybe an idea will germinate from here.