The story so far Smallholding life
The cottage came with just over 1.5 acres of
land,includingawonkyfruitcageanda
slightly neglected, mixed orchard. We
immediately set up an apiary for our
beehives, and planted out the hotchpotch
of apple trees, herbs, and blueberry bushes
we’d brought with us from London. After
that,ourprioritywasbuildingraisedbeds,
and getting some vegetables on the go.
We replaced our rickety lawnmower
with a gaggle of tubby geese, who keep
the orchard grass under control and lay
enormous eggs for the kitchen. Soon
afterwards came the hens. We also built
log stores to dry out wood from the land,
which we use to heat the cottage. And, last
summer, we added a f lock of four Shetland
sheep which will hopefully provide us with
wool, milk and meat in the years to come.
Opposite: Kathy
picking beetroot
from amongst the
rainbow carrots,
chard, and edible
flowers in the
vegetable patch.
Above, from left:
geese eyeing up
juicySpartanapples;
a Double Red
sweetcorn cob –
one of the
“experimental”
varieties Kathy and
TomgrewlastyearHaving got a taste for growing fruit and veg in the garden of a
rented London f lat, Kathy Bishop and Tom Crowford dreamed of
more space to live their own version of The Good Life. So they
took the plunge and upped sticks to a little stone cottage in
Somerset with its own patch of land, and began chronicling their
adventures at theseasonaltable.co.uk and @the_ seasonal_table.A smallholding is essentially a house
with land that can be used for small-scale
fruit and veg growing and for rearing
animals. It can lead to partial or complete
self-sufficiency. Our smallholding is
fairly small, but it allows us a close
connection to our food as we grow, forage
and produce as much of it ourselves as
possible. We’re able to experiment with
cultivating interesting varieties of familiar
fruits and vegetables such as snow-white
strawberries that taste like pineapple,
purple sweetcorn, and candy-striped
beetroot. And we now cook with all
kinds of delicious, unusual ingredients
we’ve either grown or foraged – from
pine needles, wild watermint and
hedgehog mushrooms, to Chilean
guava, mulberries and edible f lowers.119