Produce

We’re often asked if we sell produce from the croft, if we plan to run the croft as a farm shop and if our produce is organic.

The answer to the first question is, yes, we do sell produce but only if we have a surplus or to cover the costs of rearing animals for our own consumption.

We almost always have eggs available, while surplus vegetables are available seasonally. We sell butchered half sides of pork about every three months and half sides of lamb around October/November. We also have the occasional plucked and drawn cockerel to spare.

So, will we be setting up a business and more particularly opening a farm shop? We’ve looked into running the croft as a business but it’s not worth it while we’re operating on a small, non-mechanised scale.

We’d have to get planning permission, convert at least one of the outbuildings, have a business mortgage (at much higher rates of interest), pay business rates on top of the council tax, and comply with an even greater array of regulations than we do now. We’d also have to keep detailed accounts for the taxman.

All of that would mean that while we wouldn’t earn much more off the place than we do now, our costs would be much higher and a larger proportion of what we did earn would be siphoned off to other people.

Are we organic? This is where it gets very complicated!

We are not certified organic and in fact believe the organic label has been hijacked for use as a marketing gimmick. The original principles of the organic movement were sound, but you can now buy organic status while still farming on an industrial scale.

We try to stay true to the original principles of the organic movement - growing crops and rearing livestock using natural (nonsynthetic) materials and using older agronomic practices that enhance soil building and maintain biological diversity. We also maintain diversity of cropping and incorporate or leave intact beneficial habitats for wildlife and native plants.

But, we are not a commercial farm and do not think that some business interpretations of the organic principles are really maintaining the spirit of the philosophy. For instance, is it really appropriate to use imported but certified organic soya bean meal to feed your pigs? Or is it better to feed them locally grown barley, that while not organically certified, has actually had little or no synthetic inputs?

So we also look to permaculture for inspiration, particularly the idea that you should use as few outside resources as possible and that you should be aiming to sustain a cyclical system that returns what you take out. We also try to work within the constraints imposed by our soil and environment, instead of trying to change them.

At this stage in the development of the croft, we can’t produce all our own inputs (particularly livestock feedstuffs) but nor do we want to import all of our nutrients and fertility at somewhere else’s expense.

It’s a difficult balance to strike, but we aim to gradually reduce our dependence on outside inputs by providing our own. Not only is it virtuous, it will also save money.

And if you’d like to buy, trade, barter or swap for our produce, email me at dennis at donjon1 dot demon dot co dot uk.