Redoak's off-grid life.

[HappyBob]

Amazing crops Marc, you should be very proud of yourself. I admire that you are making your own destiny. I,m sure you will make a good go of it and you will be succesfull. I applaud you Sir

[mrs boodles]

Marc, I am so enjoying reading your posts about your way of life, you are achieving what so many of us would like . Your photos are great and I think the one of the squashes is just lovely. Have you thought of selling at Farmers Market, or would that not be cost effective. Do you do any bartering of goods and talents. What about the Lets scheme.
Sorry if I seem nosey, I`m not but your life sounds hard but fascinatingand as said at start and am not the only one your posts are so interesting.

[ChrisG]

As to the loneliness, one can be just as lonely in the city. There do seem to be several DTL members down your way - have you thought about a get together? At least you know they will appreciate what you are doing.

[Richard]

Hi,

Just being nosey Redoak, do you have to pay for any Services and / or Council Tax or are you exempt and get assistance there?

Richard

[redoak]

Thanks again folks
Lot's of questions and suggestions!
Richard, I don't have any services except water, for which I pay the farmer who sold me the land.
Council tax I'm not billed for yet as I don't have planning permission to live on the land. They won't even give me an address which I asked for but they (the council) said it's not possible without a house.
That is something of a problem in all sorts of ways, and it also means that I cannot claim working tax credit or any other benefits.
Lots of people have suggested farmers markets. However I really don't think that I could do them on my own. If you sign up they expect you to do every week of the year. There are lots of people who would have seasonal veg but keeping up a varied supply all year is difficult. Also in the summer I don't think I could cope with the extra work load of farmers markets.
The boot sales that I do are only a couple of miles away and you go or not as you wish, and turn up at whatever time you like up to a point.

I don't use any artificial fertilizers or pesticides/herbicides but as yet not registered organic. It looks quite complicated, not to mention expensive to get certified now, so I'm keeping that in abeyance.

I have tried selling to shops and restaurants but have found them difficult to deal with. They never want what you have when you have it, and next week when it's gone over then they want it!

I've been trying cut flowers and some ornamental plants in pots. Sad though it is, they do seem more profitable then edible crops so I'm expanding on them this year.
I sell some veg and flowers at the gate and in the summer it goes quite well. At the boot sales both flowers and the veg normally sells very readily. Of course price is a factor but as I said before, I generally get a far better price there than at wholesale so I'm fairly happy.

The whole enterprise is a work in progress and sometimes I get frustrated that It's going slower than I'd planned. It's always the case though, that things take longer than you expect. I have to keep telling myself that I'm doing all I can and it will take as long as it takes
As it was just a bare field to start with it's a big challenge.

Here's another couple of photos from last year

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo290/ss145/hb2011sml416.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo290/ss145/hb2011sml402.jpg


Will keep you posted,

Marc

[LittleBrownFrog]

The boot sales that I do are only a couple of miles away and you go or not as you wish, and turn up at whatever time you like up to a point.

I don't use any artificial fertilizers or pesticides/herbicides but as yet not registered organic. It looks quite complicated, not to mention expensive to get certified now, so I'm keeping that in abeyance.

Personally, I tend to choose local produce over organic produce (obviously local *and* organic is good, but mostly not affordable for us at the moment). It's enough for me to know that something is grown with respect, without it being certified organic.

[manda]

I agree with you there LBF...and I'm more likely to buy at the gate than anywhere else to be honest.

[Orfy]

Very interesting thread. Well done.
I look forward to reading more.


If you explain (Put a notice up) That you use traditional methods but are not allowed to use the word organic because of the the cost involved must people will understand and appreciate the honesty.

I've seen a few people attempting to sell produce and they seem to make extra money by adding value to products.

A good potted herb could be sold for £4 but they can crop the herb make a bouquet garni, put a ribbon on it and a rustic label and sell it for £1.25 a bunch of plants makes a lot of bouquet garnis.

With that amount of land have you not thought of producing livestock or putting hens on it?

[Spreckly]

Really interesting to read your last post Marc. I have no advice to offer, but wish you all the very best. You deserve to succeed.

[ChrisG]

Your crops look amazing! Just one thing - why (and how!) are you growing your flowers upside down??

[LittleBrownFrog]

I'm going to guess that they're not growing, but drying?

[Scooby88]

Wow what a legend you are! Im certainly very jealous! Well done, and please keep up the posts!

[Benny&Co]

Wow Marc, I've just thoroughly enjoyed reading your thread and your pictures are wonderful of all your gorgeous veggies and flowers.

Well done you and here's wishing you every success

[MissEllie]

Thanks so much for another really interesting post Marc.
We've had a few leaflets from local farmers round here who sell seasonal veg boxes. Where you pay approx £12 and they deliver a box of mixed seasonal fruit and veg as often as you choose. It seems like a really good idea to me
Looking forward to your next post

[redoak]

I've not been online for a few days as been really busy. Now the evenings are lighter there's always things to do until dark. Then when I stop, I just crash out, not much energy for setting up the laptop.

I did a boot sale at the weekend, it was very good. Considering that the weather wasn't great and I didn't really have very much to sell.
Strawberry, rhubarb and forget-me-not plants in pots, plus a few herbs. The mint was very popular. I do it in various size pots, and that seems to work well. Did 3 litre pots of spearmint and black peppermint. Sold half a dozen of them at £2 each. They were well grown, ready to pick straight away. Plus 2 smaller sizes, they almost all sold, and a few chives.
Some of the remaining leeks and a few other odds and ends. Took £77 - not bad for a first one.

Now I'm frantically potting-up more. Been out for 10 bags of potting compost today. That'll probably be gone in a week or so.

I now have a building with gutters on, so I've set up a couple of barrels to collect some of the rain water that we are getting at last.
I actually sold a couple of bags of my salad leaves (first this year) to a local customer yesterday.

Nearly dark now so I must go out and deal with the chooks.

Bye for now

Marc