Hi, I’m Alison, I’ve been lurking on the cs forum for quite a while, I went away on holiday and when I came back many of the names I had got used to seeing had disappeared. Not one to give up easily I have now found you all here. I didn’t think I could post much before, being a wanabe, but as of next week We will be moving to our own holding.

We are moving to North Devon, England. The farm has 30 acres, with agri tourism, storing caravans, caravan and camping (very limited), and pasture.

At the moment there is farm gate sales of eggs from the 50 chickens and three ducks. Nothing has been done to the pasture for three years.

I can’t wait to move now. We are going with my mum and dad. We being my husband and three children 5,3,9m

I feel I know you all really well, and hope a Brit can stay.

Many thanks

Alison

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Answers

Hi Alison! Welcome! I'm glad you found us! Your move sounds very exciting. I hope you'll let us know how things come along. I check in about everyday and do more reading than posting. Good luck with the move!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Wow, really neat Alison...........welcome.......please tell us all about your move and how it is going as you go along.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Please post often, Alison! I just love the words you use, it sounds so much more country than our words here. 'At the gate sales', now that is cool! I had a wonderful neighbor once from there, and she said you all have "car boot sales" too. Out of the trunk of your car! What's a caravan? Is it a camper? Tell us about the animals you are going to have. I just got a Guernsey cow and I just love her. There's so much I still need to learn about using all this milk and cream. Welcome aboard.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Welcome aboard, Alison! Most of us still visit CS daily, but like this as our main "hang out".

Now David will have someone to speak English with -- instead of our American (even if we DO call it English). Or maybe, it's ALL English, just with major subsets -- British, Canadian, American, Australian, etc., all with subsets of their own!

I have questions for you. I believe a caravan is what we have always called a house trailer (or just a trailer). Then along came "motorhomes" (some people refer to them as Winnebagos, sort of like calling a tissue a Kleenex). Do you call "motorhomes" caravans as well, or is there another name for them? If I am not explaining it well enough, a motorhome differs from a trailer/caravan in that it is self-propelled, driven rather than towed behind another vehicle.

Also, can you explain agri-tourism? Is that tourists going and staying on a farm and "helping" with the work?

As for not posting because of being a wannabe, don't anyone let that stop you! I never have (ignore the snickers from the sidelines!). These forums are for asking questions as well as giving answers. If you read something in a book, you can ask if others have done it that way, what their experiences are, etc. All you other wannabe lurkers out there, speak up! ;-)

And congratulations on your new smallholding/homestead! Does 30 acres really count as a smallholding?

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Welcome, Alison.

It's always nice to see new people on our forum. :-)

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Oh boy, a real Limey!!! Great, I absolutely love the "Brit coms" on PBS, "Good Neighbors" was a favorite of mine! You folks talk so neat, your more than welcome here, post often so we can all learn the real Kings English!!!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Thanks for the welcome. Cindy, we usually go to car boot sales most weekends. It generally costs £3-£5 for a stall and you can sell anything. My favourite one has about 200 sellers there, all in a field. Sometimes the buyers pay 20p each which then goes to charity. I've bought lots of great stuff from these places, really cheap, and I've also sold a lot of rubbish,lol!!

Joy, a caravan is towed behind a car. Sometimes people do not want to tow their vans to the west country every summer so they pay to store them when they are not using them, in an old barn. We are hoping to 'value add' this operation (as Joel Salatin would say) by offering a service and valet for an extra charge.

Agri-tourism is the term refering to any tourism taking place on a farm, like b and b, petting farms, camping etc. What do you call it in the US?

We will not have livestoke straight away, due to the foot and mouth crisis. Transporting animals is still difficult, but that said, nothing has been done on the land for three years and there is major clearing to be done first. We will be inheriting 50 chickens with no specific history, so our first job will be to replace these with 100 first year layers bought from an egg farm. These we will have in an egg mobile and start preparing the chicken tractors ready for the broilers. I've been reading, reading, reading everything I can find.

I have many questions so I'm sure I'll post frequently

Many thanks

Alison

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Alison wrote: "Agri-tourism is the term refering to any tourism taking place on a farm, like b and b, petting farms, camping etc. What do you call it in the US?"

Ummmmm, non-existant? LOL! Seriously, I won't say there are NO operations like this, but I don't know of any, and they aren't common if they do exist. Probably everyone else will chime in and tell of some place like that they know about, but I still say, they aren't common. I wonder if American tourists would be interested. Probably not many, if it doesn't involve driving around madly on some loud machine!

I went through Devon on a UK tour years back. Very pretty country! Do you know how to make double cream, like is served for "cream teas"? I bet Cindy would like to know about that! My impression of it was that it was sort of like an unsalted, whipped butter, or halfway between whipped cream and butter. Scones, double cream, and strawberry jam/preserves -- yum yum!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001

Glad you can join us! I'm really looking forward to hearing your ideas on homesteading over on that side of the pond!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I think that Back Home Magazine had a cover story about agri-tourism a couple of issues ago. One of my goals for my future property is to have a botanical sanctuary and herbal education center. I imagine having trails through the woods with the various plants labeled, and thet I could do tours for children's groups and teach them about the different plants. I would have some craft/homesteading programs too. I bet the city kids would get a real kick out making butter or seeing a cow milked.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Welcome, Alison!!

Agri-tourism is existant here in my area, but it is mostly seasonal types of operations. Nearby, we have Earthborne Farms, which is open in the fall and sells pumpkins, other decorative squash and crafts. It has a HUGE straw bale maze to go through, a haunted maze (in the dark, of course!)in an old outbuilding, a smaller straw play area for little children, an hilarious miniature golf course that goes upstairs and down in an old barn - you have to slide down a slide form the haymow to get to the bottom half of the course and the clubs are ummm...rustic, to say the least! They also offer hayrides out to the pumpkin field to pick your own pumpkin. The company I used to work for used to put on an anuual fall party down there for the families of workers and would hire caterers to prepare the meals and we would get to enjoy all the various activities.

We also have the "Great Pumpkin Patch" nearby, which offers pumpkins and other squash, Indian corn, potted chrysanthemums and other agricultural offerings. It also has animals available for petting.

What type of agri-tourism did you have in mind for your place?

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Wow, Polly, that sounds like a lot of fun (I'm just a big kid) -- how far down into Illinois are you? Did you say you're directly east of St. Louis?

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

No, Joy - I'm about 100 miles N of St. Louis, in about the middle of the state. If you have an atlas, look for Shelbyville. It used to be a lot of fun to go there - I need to find me some kids to take and head down this fall!

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Welcome, welcome!! I think it's really neat to hear how things are going on the other side of the water...and good to know that there are people everywhere trying to live beyond the sidewalks. As for wannabees, I'm a pretty big one myself, even though we live in the country. Pull up a chair and set a while!

PS Polly--You can take me to Earthborne anytime you want!! (And we'll bring James along so it looks like we came because of the kid!) Why haven't I ever heard of this place??

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Cass, you really haven't heard of Earthborne Farms? It's over between Greenup and whatever that next town is before you get to Casey! If they are still open this fall, we'll all head over!

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Hmmmmmm. Earthborne Farms is starting to sound familiar. Do they sell produce? I think I've seen bags of their salad greens in the stores . . . .

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Welcome, Alison, I'm the other Brit on the forum, but living in Arkansas now. Kim and I lived in South Devon for 3 years, and would have stayed there to homestead if we could have afforded land and council taxes. We really miss the moors, country pubs, great gardening climate, car boot sales, bramble hedges, wild pheasants and much more! Good luck with your new farm.

Joy - have a look at Hinchley's Dairy Farm in Cambridge, WI, about 25 minutes from you. Good friends of ours, and it's a great example of working agri-tourism.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

Alison,

Welcome, welcome, welcome! Variety is the spice of life, and I'm sure you'll bring more interest to the variety that allready exists amoung us.

Congradulations on your dandy move!

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001