BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: open mike
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 03:26 PM

and if you camp, caravan or tipi there, what sanitation facilities are available?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 03:33 PM

Do you have riparian rights on the river? What sort of fishing does it offer?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 03:36 PM

You might enjoy looking at this, Rosie:

The Friends of Minack Society


The books about Minack are just wonderful. Derek and Jeannie led the life they truly wanted to, in the latter part of their lives, lucky things, down in a very lovely part of Cornwall. They're the kind of books to curl up with on a wintery night, to lose yourself inside.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 03:42 PM

It's interesting to compare responses from U.S. and UK Mudcatters. It's like living in two entirely different worlds. I have no idea what it would be like to own an acre of land in the UK, and I'm sure many UK Mudcatters can't fathom what it's like to own rural property in the U.S. - but the widely different perspectives make for an interesting discussion.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 03:54 PM

What are the EU implications of cultivating land to grow products for human consumption? Land would have to be tested for toxins. Do cultivation procedures and sale of consumables fall under EU regs on such a small scale?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 04:46 PM

Rules-wise, growing veg for sale isn't a problem, as is small-scale egg production. Livestock is another matter - Defra rules are pretty strict. We raise sheep and pigs, and have to go through hoops to ensure that everything is as Defra says it should be. It's a lot of work, and probably not economical on just an acre.
Raising for home consumption, though similarly fraught with regulations, would be an option on that amount of land, however. And you have to manage the grass somehow, so if it's not to be ploughed or tilled, then you might as well run some stock on it. It's not cheap, though - either in terms of time or money.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 04:49 PM

...and I'd forget about trying for organic status. It will cost you £500 to register with the soil association, and you won;t be able to sell produce as certifiably organic for three years. The fee is the same whether you've got one acre or a thousand, which has always rankled with me. We're not organic, as we could never recoup the £500 without pricing our stuff out of the market, but most discerning customers are more concerned with ethical and local produce - and only idiots would buy organic peas from Zambia.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 05:00 PM

We're very lucky to own 25 arces of beautiful ancient woodland, it's a great place to relax, walk, meditate. We've had parties and camps too. There's loads of wildlife including deer and gliss gliss.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 05:09 PM

If you raise livestock for 'home consumption' somebody is going to have to kill and butcher it. Are you 'up' for that?


And yes, Zoning Regs will have a LOT to say about what can be done with it.

Me, I'd try to build a hideout cabin on it. Nature-fy as much as I could. Then, just go hide out. Maybe a small veg garden, but putting up produce is a Big Job too.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: open mike
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 12:23 AM

what or who is gliss gliss?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: open mike
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 12:30 AM

ewwww, an edible dormouse or fat dormouse
do you have any recipes?

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: semi-submersible
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 04:25 AM

I like the allotments idea, if there are a few other families within bike range who would like to get their hands dirty. It sounds friendly and good for the neighbourhood.

Once he's figured out how much of the area should be wood and coppice, would your Dad enjoy exploring your region hunting for fallen seeds or seedlings he'd like to plant? Not all would grow on first (or second) attempt, but it would cost nothing and successes could give great satisfaction. In a few years he would have his coppiced woodland shaping up after all.

Daily gathering of fallen hazelnuts is a pleasant project at the end of summer, and they are very satisfying eating whether green or dry. Of course trees you plant in the next few years will need a while before you can eat off them, but they grow fast.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Stu
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:18 AM

Make a stone circle. Plant an orchard and make your own cider.

'riparian' - best word in this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Stu
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:21 AM

Actually, I'd build earthwork fortifications around the perimiter with a single entrance and declare it an independent socialist republic and mint my own coin and worship no God but the land itself.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: John Hardly
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:23 AM

I'd dig half of it a mile deep, stack the dirt on the other side, and turn my one flat acre into two miles of mountain range.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Joseph P
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:36 AM

"Get hold of a copy of John Seymour's book on self-sufficiency. A lot of it is idealistic twaddle, but it should give you some ideas of what you can do with an acre."

My Dad has a copy of this book, as a child I would read it for hours. I dreamed of becoming self sufficient, keeping pigs etc, (not in a pet way, I was also keen on the butchering bit - I love my meat!!!)

Nowadays? I would keep a small area of woodland, grow veg on some, operate a landshare scheme where people can grow their veg on my land in exchange for a small share, similar to that suggested by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall (isnt that a bit like feudalism all over again? - maybe just let them use the land for free instead.)
Maybe I would squeeze on a bit of livestock. Who knows.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:43 AM

I'm currently trying to find out what we will be able to cultivate on 9 acres (including the house and track), 1000' up in the east Lancs Pennines.
At the moment the next door farmer pays us to run sheep on it, but it would be nice to find a web site that gave approximate temperature ranges, rainfall and wind conditions that different plants will grow in.
Then all I will have to do is monitor the temperature, rainfall, wind speed and hours of sunlight for a couple of years :)

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:51 AM

OM..I'll google it, there must be some recipes somewhere. Unfortunately...or fortunatley for the gliss gliss, they are protected here and you can't kill them. Paul was travelling once in the lorry which he keeps out at the forest and had to turn around and go back when he found a gliss gliss in the lorry.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Michael
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 08:08 AM

It's bleedin' obvious:- I'd plough it with a team of rats.
And that would see my lifetime through.

Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 08:15 AM

glis glis ewwww, an edible dormouse or fat dormouse
do you have any recipes?

See Recipe for Fledermaus thread. Same thing sans wings.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Mooh
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 08:30 AM

Plant trees, and/or cultivate a forest on it, and/or plant a large garden, keeping buildings to a minimum.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: What Would You Do With an Acre of Land?
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 09:50 AM

A silly young man in St. Kitts
Once planted an acre of tits.
They came up in the Fall,
Pink nipples and all,
And he chewed them all up into bits.

Peter