What does it take to be a crofter?

I receive many emails and quite a few comments from people who think they’d like to take on a croft or smallholding, with a view to becoming largely or entirely self-sufficient at some point.

Some ask directly what it takes to be a crofter, some ask if I think they could do what we do and some, like Bob who commented earlier today, are more than a little shocked by our workload.

Instead of continuing to answer the questions individually, I thought it would make sense to address them in a single post.