Publicity benefits of the local council and rising food costs are the points of focus for two readers of The Country Smallholder.…

Check out your local council

Dear Editor,

When we started our farm shop last year, I knew I would have to deal with the Council for planning and other regulations. What I didn’t realise was that I would be able to access their tourism and business departments to help me with publicity. I am not sure if this is true across the UK but in our area, the tourism officer is very keen to promote new businesses that add value to the area and the Council themselves put out brochures and online information for tourists (and that includes people within the area having a day out) which feature local businesses. I also found the business advisor useful, and he told me about some grants that maybe helpful in the future when we grow.

I’d also recommend tapping into your local community network, clubs and societies, giving talks and demonstrations as this too increases awareness of your business. I’m optimistic for the future although it’s not the easiest of trading conditions. I do think that local produce will become increasingly more important and I am proud to be part of it.

Peter Frances


Dealing with rising costs

Dear Editor

One of the reasons we at first took an allotment and then finally pooled our resources with our parents and took on a smallholding, was to be able to keep down food costs by producing much of it ourselves. This I am pleased to say, we have been able to do with a super-productive veg patch, polytunnel and small orchard. But the costs for producing anything animal related are ever increasing on things we must have for our livestock. The price of animal feed keeps rising yet if I sell eggs from our gate, I cannot keep increasing the price – at least not in my very rural area. I do not want to replace my balanced ration with trying to mix it myself and having had a quick look into it, I don’t think it would be much cheaper, especially for a small number of hens as we have. Goats do not eat everything and anything, as people seem to think, and this is particularly true for dairy goats who need a well-balanced feed to enable their bodies to cope with a high milk yield. Why has everything gone up in price? Fuel is needed to grow crops, transport them and there are increased costs with importing – and they all have to get passed on. What can we do? Not a lot really, we are already not only producing food but also preserving it in many ways including freezing. But electricity costs went up as well!

On a supermarket trip to top up with what we cannot produce, we haunt the cheap shelf – and freeze that too. At least we have the land and skills to (mostly) feed ourselves. I can see why the weekly shopping trip must be so worrying for many.

June Jarvis

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