This Organic Registered Smallholding is to be sold at auction on Wednesday the 28th July at The Pavilion, Banbury Cricket Club, Whitepost Road, Bodicote, Banbury Oxon, Guide Price £150,000-£200,000.

The property has 7.8 hectares/19.25 acres of woodland and pasture with a substantial timber lodge and is situated in a private and secluded location on the Bucks/Oxon border close to Oxford and M40.

For further info on this property please contact Duncan Lang or Andrew Ranson at Fisher German by telephone on 01844 212 880, or via e-mail at thame@fishergerman.co.uk

To visit the Fisher German website to learn more about this property please Click here.

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

This Grade II listed Georgian Farmhouse, with modern & traditional buildings, stabling and 47 acres is currently available to rent in Carmarthenshire, Wales.

The Farmhouse has been sympathetically restored, is part-furnished, and in a truly beautiful spot adjoining the river Teifi. The property was also featured on a 10 part Discovery Channel TV series.

The property has a productive vegetable garden, cider orchard, and a large Victorian-style glasshouse, along with 47 Acres comprising 35 acres clean pasture, 8 acres woodland, and 800m of single bank fishing on river Teifi.

This working smallholding is currently run as a fully certified organic beef & sheep farm, with herd of Hereford cattle.

The property offers an ideal opportunity for someone seeking a greener and more rural lifestyle and is being promoted on Greenshifters.co.uk. (View full particulars)

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

This three bedroomed cottage with one acre of land is situated 6 miles from Carlisle in Cumbria and is currently available to rent for 12 months.

This lovely cottage includes lawns, grazing, mature fruit trees and fruit cage with bushes, raised beds, vegetable plots, pig arc, hen houses, compost bays, ponds, greenhouse and has been operated as a family micro-holding for the last eight years.

The current owners are going abroad for 12 months and may or may not wish to return so there could be an option of buying after 12 months. This is an excellent opportunity to give smallholding a try and the owners will leave all tools and equipment for you to use.

The property offers an ideal opportunity for anyone seeking to start in smallholding and self sufficiency and is being promoted on Greenshifters.co.uk. (View full particulars)

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Smallholding berry farming is one of the most profitable ways to utilize growing space. Whether you pick the berries yourself, or establish a pick-your-own operation, there is money to be made in strawberries. If you establish a reputation for having the best tasting strawberries in the county, you’ll do even better.

When choosing strawberry plants, there are several things to consider, but one of the most important is plant type. Strawberries come in three distinct types: June bearing, everbearing, and day neutral. Here are the differences:

June bearing. These strawberry plants will produce a single flush of flours and produce one crop that is harvested over a 2 – 3 week time span. Then the crop is done for the year, and the plant puts its energy into replicating itself through runners. Subcategories divide June bearing varieties into early, mid-season, and late. You can expect the largest strawberries from June bearing plants.

Everbearing. These strawberry plants will produce two or three harvests beginning in spring and extending into autumn. Because they are always fruiting, these plants produce fewer runners. The strawberries tend to be smaller on everbearing plants if they are not fed properly.

Day Neutral. These strawberry plants don’t require long days to produce flowers, so they produce fruit regularly throughout the growing season. While day neutrals tend to produce flowers in flushes, and mature the crop of strawberries before producing another flush of flowers, there will always be ripe strawberries in the patch. As with everbearing strawberries, day neutral strawberries will shrink in size if the plants are not given the right nutrients.

To maximize your profit potential, make sure you only grow the tastiest varieties of strawberries. In the UK, features such as winter hardiness aren’t a serious issue, so look for plants that yield well. Avoid varieties that tend to produce watery fruit, as these do not freeze well.

Here are some varieties that offer superior flavor with acceptable disease resistance and freezing quality:

June bearing: Gariguette, early; Honeoye, early to mid; Tenira, mid; Chelsea Pensioner, late.

Everbearing: Mara Des Bois, Fort Laramie

Day Neutral: Tribute

The flavour of strawberries is somewhat subjective, but if you love true strawberry flavour, then the varieties above will deliver. I have had wonderful results with Honeoye as a June-bearing strawberry and Tribute as a day neutral. I think they will always be my favorites. The Tribute is such a dark strawberry that you will think you canned blackberry jam instead of strawberry. I tried a day neutral variety named “Aroma” one year. What a disappointment. No organic gardening method over the next three years ever coaxed flavour out of that strawberry, and the results with chemical fertilizers were even worse.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with new releases. Breeders are always striving to improve some aspect of the strawberries available—flavour, disease resistance, shipping quality. Your best sources are online, as few local nurseries are adventurous enough to bring in an unknown variety. Purchase a few plants and see how they do. If you find a winner, you can multiply the plants yourself, or order in bulk.

For information on how to multiply strawberry plants, see the article Multiplying Strawberry Plants for Smallholding Profits.

Still looking for Your Smallholding? Visit Greenshifters for the latest smallholdings for sale, rent and exchange.

Article by Denise Rutledge for Rural Smallholdings Magazine

This refurbished, fully furnished and ready to move into 4 bedroomed property is currently for sale in Galicia, Spain.  This beautiful property offers the perfect chance to start your own smallholding and live a self-sufficient lifestyle in Spain, in a private and secluded but not isolated location.

Galicia is situated in the Northwest corner of Spain, just above Portugal. It is considered to be the “Green Heart of Spain” with the sunshine and rain. Rural Galicia is very much like Wales and rural France.

With rich lush soil, mild climate and the most truly stunning countryside, it is a good area for growing, polytunnels are popular here. This area produces most of Spain’s milk, beef and cheese. It is famous for it’s bread cooked over wood ovens, and due to the mild climate, its exceptional red and white wines.

The property consists of a country farmhouse of approximately 120m2 with 4 bedrooms and a complete bathroom on the top floor, and on the lower, a large semi covered courtyard /patio, traditional kitchen with wood burning cooking range, lounge/ dining room, and an additional room to be restored which could be another lounge.

The property has it’s own parking, an older stone house with animal pens, large original bread oven and a small wine cellar, approximately 100m2, to be restored, good now for barn/stables.  There is an enclosed garden, chicken house with walled run and adjacent land of approx 1 Acre, with good drainage, Well with pump, beautiful views with apple, pear and sweet chestnut trees.

There are some lovely natural rivers nearby and it is a good area for fishing. The property and land are surrounded by wonderful countryside and forests, excellent for walking, horse riding and fishing. This is a rural area with a relaxed pace of life.

Services to the property include: mains electricity, village mains water, well with pump, telephone and ADSL and the property is  situated 88km from the nearest airport, Santiago de Compostela (approx 1 hour drive with regular flights into London).

The Nearest town is 10 minutes drive with a health centre, chemist, schools, supermarkets, banks, vets, hotel, library, hairdressers, restaurant, cafes and bars. The village has weekly deliveries of fresh bread, wine, frozen fish, mobile supermarket and the school buses collect the children from the villages Monday to Friday.

The current owners of the property are selling due to job relocation and the property is priced to sell at 98,000 Euros (approx £85000 at today’s exchange rate.) 

This property offers an ideal opportunity for those seeking to start their own smallholding and live a more self sufficient lifestyle in a stunningly beautiful location and is currently being promoted on Greenshifters.co.uk. 

(Click here to view full particulars and contact details.)

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

This traditional croft smallholding with cottage, barn conversion, various outbuildings, sheds, 30ft hardwood greenhouse, orchard and 13 acres of land is currently for sale in Aberdeenshire.

Situated 30 miles from Aberdeen and located between the towns of Turriff and Aberchider, both providing excellent amenities and in the beautiful Forglen area, the property is in the middle of the Castle route and just 10 miles from the coast.

The Cottage is bordered on two sides by mixed hedging giving privacy and sheltering the garden for the more tender plants, the mature garden is well established with mixed beds, rockerys, herb garden, waterfall and ponds, trellises abound with mixed Clematis and Roses, creating a truly beautiful rural idyll.

The 2 bedroomed Barn Conversion is suitable for a wide variety of uses and offers the opportunity for a second income through holiday and rental let.

The land comprising approximately 13 acres is laid down to permanent pasture and cut most years for hay, and includes a small woodland and a burn bordering one side of the property.

The property offers an ideal opportunity for the smallholder seeking self sufficiency and is being promoted on Greenshifters.co.uk.
(View full particulars)

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Amid the current huge growth in interest in self sufficiency and grow your own, a new national garden show dedicated to these topics is being launched this year.

The Edible Garden Show is being staged from Friday 19th March to Sunday 21st March at Britain’s most famous agricultural venue, Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire.

The Edible Garden Show 2010 will provide a unique opportunity for people from all walks of life, whether town or country dweller, realist or dreamer, novice or experienced gardener to unite with like minded individuals, learn from the professionals and purchase from the wide range of gardening essentials on show.

Whether your interest lies in growing your own fruit and vegetables, poultry keeping, organic herbs, sausage making, bee keeping, home baking, home brewing, or you just have a general interest in being self sufficient, the Edible Garden Show is the place to visit for all those with an interest in growing your own.

As well as exhibitors, the event will include a host of seminars and a packed programme of practical demonstrations. The Women’s Institute National Cookery School is also set to play a key role with their series of cookery demonstrations and food related events.

The new show has already won official endorsements from the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, and the Royal Agricultural Society of England, two of the most high profile organisations in the gardening and agricultural world.

Billed as ‘THE ultimate Grow Your Own event for visitors and exhibitors alike’, the Edible Garden Show will also provide a unique opportunity for exhibitors to present their products and services to the buying public and stands are available to book now.

To book tickets for The Edible Garden Show 2010 and learn more about the event, visit the show’s website here.

Still looking for Your Smallholding? Visit Greenshifters for the latest smallholdings for sale, rent and exchange

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

This beautiful traditional smallholding with cottage, outbuildings, self contained studio apartment and 3 acres of organic land is currently available to rent in Ireland.

Situated in North West Ireland this outstanding property includes it’s own river, meadow and forest and was featured in the UK’s ‘Country Homes & Interiors’ Magazine.

Whilst located in a beautiful rural and peaceful location, the property is just 3 miles from the nearest town and offers great potential for many business opportunities.

Visit Greenshifters.co.uk for more information and photographs of this outstanding property (View full particulars).

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Excellent opportunity to rent a first class grassland smallholding in Lincolnshire but be quick as this property will no doubt be snapped up quickly.The property is situated on the outskirts of a tiny village on slightly rolling hills on the edge of the Lincolnshire wolds.  The well equipped and modern extensive luxury bungalow of 2300 sq ft comprises very large purpose built sun lounge, modern kitchen with dishwasher, dining room, office, utility room, 3 or 4 bedrooms. 

One of the bedrooms has a large ensuite with bath, power shower, wc, etc.  The property also benefits from oil fired central heating.

The property has excellent gardens with large pond with visiting kingfishers and other wildlife.  The property is set in 4.33 acres with paddocks, field shelter and large barn/Alpaca Shed and a dog room with galvanised professional dog run.

The property is presently used for Alpaca Farming but would suit any small animal or equine useage. An additional 12 acres may be available for rent subject to agreement with the landlord.

The property is available from this December/January and is being promoted on Greenshifters.co.uk (view full particulars).

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Firstly, we would like to thank everyone at Rural Smallholdings Magazine for publishing the original article about our Eco Hamlet project in Croatia, the response has been fantastic!

Within three months of the article being published, we received over a hundred enquiries and they are still coming in each month, it certainly seems as though we have hit on an idea that appeals to many people.

By the end of October we have already welcomed some twenty people to Croatia interested in viewing the Eco Hamlet project and the first three properties have been sold, with one couple having already moved over, and several more planning to do so early in the New Year.

There are three more properties available for sale within the hamlet itself, as well as nine others very close by, so any interested readers are still welcome to get in touch.

At the moment anyone with general building skills would be of great benefit, as would those with marketing and business development experience in the rural tourism sector.

A recent development has been the opening of a small hotel, restaurant, horse riding centre and fishing lake complex, just down the road from the eco hamlet, so people are really getting on board with the Eco tourism aspect of the project.

Thanks to the success of this first project, we have now found another village ideal for creating a similar community, which we hope to get under way by the summer of 2010, just as Croatia is likely to join the EU and a very special party is sure to be had!

Thanks once again to all at Rural Smallholding Magazine, your help is much appreciated.

Keith Pierce

Please click here to visit the Inland Croatia site.

This post was submitted by Keith Pierce.