Eating Sprout Stalks: 15 Steps to Self-Sufficiency

Region:

North West

Notice Period:

Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)

Type:

Fulltime smallholder

Fee:

Paid: £60-80 plus mileage

Category:

Nature

Updated:

24^th March 2019

Tagged:

Bees

• A fully illustrated talk which is both informative and inspirational. • Covers fruit and veg, and also poultry and bees. • Steps include Planting Perennials, Planning for Problems, Processing & Storing. • Full of ideas on self-sufficiency and sustainability (Reduce / Reuse / Recycle). • There is (a little) philosophy, but also humour, poetry, and quotes from the sitcom The Good Life, the self-sufficiency guru John Seymour, and Henry Thoreau’s novel Walden. • Some content is likely to surprise, some may even shock.

Any size audience, 1-2 hours.

I manage a smallholding of 2.5 acres in Hayfield, Derbyshire. There is a large veg garden, an orchard, and a fruit cage. We have solar panels, a wood pellet boiler and spring water.

We are self-sufficient in growing fruit and vegetables. We also have chickens and bees, and rear turkeys at Christmas! We try to do things sustainably, and use limited mechanical power, and no pesticides. Currently, we are experimenting with more perennial vegetable crops, trying to move away from sowing and planting every year.

My passion is fruit trees, especially apples. I have developed an orchard of over 50 varieties of apples, pears and plums, and I am aiming for 100. I graft all my own trees, and this year I experimented with apple crossing (trying to create a new variety). I am in the Northern Fruit Group.

We have kept bees for six years. We keep dual-purpose chickens, and regularly hatch new broods of chicks.

I offer a variety of tours, courses and lectures.

Tours include a general Smallholding Tour, a Fruit Tree Tour, and a Green Tour. Courses include An Introduction to Apples, Whip ‘n’ Tongue Grafting, Crossing and Winter Pruning. Details of these can be found on AirBnb experiences.

Other Talks on SpeakerNet by James Ellson

• I Ate My Last Herefordshire Russet This Morning (An Introduction to Growing Apple Trees)