[KChally]

Hi,

I am interested in chatting to anyone in the Cheshire area ( or any other area of course ) who is interested in Gloucester Old Spot pigs. We have not gone down the F2F route as I didnt know about the book at the time, but still we have managed to secure a temporary permission on our 6 acres.

We are trying to build a business so that we can accomplish our "dream" and wondered if there was anyone out there doing something similar.

Hope to hear from you

Karen

[foodhero]

KChally, on 09 July 2010 - 02:37 PM, said:

Hi,

I am interested in chatting to anyone in the Cheshire area ( or any other area of course ) who is interested in Gloucester Old Spot pigs. We have not gone down the F2F route as I didnt know about the book at the time, but still we have managed to secure a temporary permission on our 6 acres.

We are trying to build a business so that we can accomplish our "dream" and wondered if there was anyone out there doing something similar.

Hope to hear from you

Karen

Hi Karen
We are having ago at it were just on the welsh side of Chester.
Were not into Gloster old spots more hens and vegetables.
But dont let that put you off saying hello.
Foodhero

[KChally]

foodhero, on 10 July 2010 - 08:23 PM, said:

Hi Karen
We are having ago at it were just on the welsh side of Chester.
Were not into Gloster old spots more hens and vegetables.
But dont let that put you off saying hello.
Foodhero

Hi Foodhero,
Nice to hear from someone "local". We too have some hens, we tend to just go for pure breeds cos we can sell the eggs really easily. People seem to like the blue and green eggs in the boxes. We also have some geese - pure toulouse and embden crosses which we breed from.
The pigs are our main income and they live outside. When we move them onto fresh ground we hope to grow spuds where they were, cos we have to make as much as we can from our 6 acres. What sort of hens do you have and what do you grow? I used to grow herbs in the polytunnel and sell at farmers markets, but dont really have the time at the moment. There definitely aren't enough hours in the day.

Regards
Karen

[foodhero]

KChally, on 11 July 2010 - 06:04 PM, said:

Hi Foodhero,
Nice to hear from someone "local". We too have some hens, we tend to just go for pure breeds cos we can sell the eggs really easily. People seem to like the blue and green eggs in the boxes. We also have some geese - pure toulouse and embden crosses which we breed from.
The pigs are our main income and they live outside. When we move them onto fresh ground we hope to grow spuds where they were, cos we have to make as much as we can from our 6 acres. What sort of hens do you have and what do you grow? I used to grow herbs in the polytunnel and sell at farmers markets, but dont really have the time at the moment. There definitely aren't enough hours in the day.

Regards
Karen

Hi
We planted roughly an acre of potatoes this year , and then another acre which has chard , brocolli, cauliflower ,sprouts,cabbage, celery and celeriac, onions leeks , Have sown parsnips will sow carrots soon Kale and purple srouting plant due to be delivered this week.
We run a box scheme stall and a few sales through the year. Whats left over goes to a wholesaler to get what we can for it. We have 100 warrens which is pretty apt as the farm is called Warren Dingle.Would like to do farmers markets but couldnt break into the farm market scene and moved onto farmgate type sales. Will grow herbs and glasshouse type stuff next year. Like tbe sound of moving animals from one place to the next so they can help out its permaculture in it true form.
We have 7.6 acres with woodland pasture stream and views of our own plus 2 rented pieces of 5 and 1.5 acres.
It looks like we are about to move to the land as we are going to start repairs to a water tank and stay there whilst carrying out the building.
Keep in touch its good to know we are not alone.
foodhero

[KChally]

foodhero, on 11 July 2010 - 07:45 PM, said:

Hi
We planted roughly an acre of potatoes this year , and then another acre which has chard , brocolli, cauliflower ,sprouts,cabbage, celery and celeriac, onions leeks , Have sown parsnips will sow carrots soon Kale and purple srouting plant due to be delivered this week.
We run a box scheme stall and a few sales through the year. Whats left over goes to a wholesaler to get what we can for it. We have 100 warrens which is pretty apt as the farm is called Warren Dingle.Would like to do farmers markets but couldnt break into the farm market scene and moved onto farmgate type sales. Will grow herbs and glasshouse type stuff next year. Like tbe sound of moving animals from one place to the next so they can help out its permaculture in it true form.
We have 7.6 acres with woodland pasture stream and views of our own plus 2 rented pieces of 5 and 1.5 acres.
It looks like we are about to move to the land as we are going to start repairs to a water tank and stay there whilst carrying out the building.
Keep in touch its good to know we are not alone.
foodhero

Hi, Thankgoodness for the rain. How have your veggies been doing Foodhero? Some of the farmers round here have had it quite hard. We managed to get our hay in just about, before the rain came. Hubby left it when weather good then took a chance and cut late last week. Our old spots must be daft, cos they lie in the sun and get sunburnt so we have to put sun screen on their ears - not easy when you have 50 odd of them. They do like to dig though, so we fill the holes with water and they love to roll around in it. Our hens seem to have gone off lay, have yours?
Are you going the F2F route on your place as I think you have enough land dont you. Good luck when you move on

Karen

[foodhero]

Hi Karen
Yes Im very pleased with the recent rain.
Veg is starting to grow again just got to get on with the weeding now! But we are producing more than we can sell through the veg boxes so some is starting to go to the wholesaler.
We are going to follow the field to farm route, but have an appeal to lodge with the planning inspectorate asap.
I would like to visit you to have a look at the pigs and have a general chat.
We are inudated with eggs at the moment and the customers are off on holiday so if you want some eggs do let me know.
I started to cut hay.... just enough to make it rain, didnt get much done though so will start again as soon as possible.
We are going to make a start on repairing the existing buildings on the land next week so its a positive step forward for us after waiting for 6 months to get really stuck in.
Take Care
Foodhero

[KChally]

Hi Foodhero,
How you doing? How come you have to go to appeal and had to wait 6 months? Are you already living on your land?
Hope you dont mind me being nosey. We just moved on to our land in a mobile home without any permission and hoped for the best. I got fed up with wondering what to do - should we or not so we did. We got away with it for about 12 months (extra time to build up business).
Our first application for temporary mobile home failed, so we waited 6 months and then did another with a different consultant.
Success - here we are.

Regards
KChally

[foodhero]

KChally, on 11 August 2010 - 10:46 PM, said:

Hi Foodhero,
How you doing? How come you have to go to appeal and had to wait 6 months? Are you already living on your land?
Hope you dont mind me being nosey. We just moved on to our land in a mobile home without any permission and hoped for the best. I got fed up with wondering what to do - should we or not so we did. We got away with it for about 12 months (extra time to build up business).
Our first application for temporary mobile home failed, so we waited 6 months and then did another with a different consultant.
Success - here we are.

Regards
KChally

Hi
We are trying to get used to living in two porta cabins joined together. Its like camping indoors at the moment.
We took 6 months over putting in 3 prior approval applications and talking to agricultural consultant. Any way we got fed up with waiting around. Because we already have some building work to do on an existing underground water tank, wier, walls, bridge etc.
So we moved onto the land, the council called around the day after we took up residence and asked us to apply for temporary planning permission for the porta cabins, as they are not caravans. Well I sent a letter explaining that they could be viewed as caravans and we await their reply. There is going to be a new farmers market well its almost certainly going to be held in West KIrby on the wirral on the 31st october I said you might be interested they are looking for local producers and this would be a foot in the door to more. get back to me so I can let them know for sure as there will only be two places for each type of product. Would like to meet up with you both some time to chat properly.
Take care Jon

[KChally]

Hi Jon,

Sorry not replied sooner, but been very busy this weekend with markets and events etc, no time for anything else!

Whatever you do dont give up. This planning thing is quite scary at times, but it does seem to take a while before much happens with the planners. They do seem to give you about 6 months each time to get things sorted before they start threatening you.

With regards to the farmers market, are you organising it? Yes please we would like to have a stall selling our Gloucester Old Spot meat. If you are not organising it perhaps you could tell me who is so I can ring them. In fact Jane Casson from made in cheshire sent me an email and i'm sure it was for this farmers market. Unfortunately I couldn't open the attachment.

All the best
Karen