Jake, Jane and Andy Wells

Plot 1

We are a family of 3. Jane (43), Andy (42) and Jake (15). If our planning application is successful we will occupy house 1 of the eco terrace. We are organic gardeners with experience of growing fruit and vegetables on a larger scale on our allotment. We have grown healthy fruit and vegetables using all kinds of home made compost.  In terms of preserving our produce we have experience of making cider, Perry, wine, fruit cordials, preserves such as jams, jellies and chutneys, fruit and herb vinegars, cakes and bread. We own a terraced house in Sheffield which we partly heat by burning wood. We are self sufficient in the cutting and splitting of logs which we source for free. We have also kept chickens for a number of years. It has been our ambition to live self- sufficiently and to lessen our carbon footprint. An ideal way to do this is to live as part of an eco village.

Andy has a degree in Environmental Management and Technology. He has experience of environmental legislation and the laws within which industry (specifically the steel industry) has to comply. His work has been related to energy and water management and resource use. He has an in depth knowledge of waste management legislation. He has had first aid training and been the person responsible for Health and Safety at Work.

Jane has also had emergency first aid training which was specific to outdoor education activities. This certificate has just expired so she is seeking to update her skills. Jane has a City and Guilds in carpentry and joinery. Jane also has a degree in design and technology and a PGCE in primary education. She has been working as a teacher for 8 years. Jane has also just completed level 2 forest school practitioner training.

Over the past 18 months we have experience living, for part of the time, off the grid on a narrow boat. Consequently we have reassessed our requirements for domestic energy and water use and want to put this experience into practice.

Our son Jake has been brought up helping us with organic production, and chicken keeping. He has also attended a woodland management course and helps with the axing of logs for firewood. It is anticipated that Jake will be studying for A levels by the time we move onto site so his involvement in the project will be on a part time basis. Jake is currently working towards his third Dan (Black belt 3 to you and me!) in the martial art of Ju Jitsu. Last year he completed the bronze level of the Duke of Edinburgh Award. He is extremely enthusiastic about joining the Lammas Project.

Plot 1 illustrative layout

As a business enterprise run from plot 1 we plan to grow strawberries by hydroponics in a polytunnel. This has been successfully tried by a smallholder in Anglesey. The soil at Pont y Gafel currently has a very low ph, meaning it is too acidic for most crops. Growing strawberries by hydroponic methods will allow us to gain an income whilst we work to decrease the acidity of the soil in other areas of the plot. Details of how we will achieve this are found under the heading Soil Improvement Strategy in Section 4. We will however, plant blueberry bushes which thrive in an acid soil but these will not reach their full potential in terms of profitability until around year 6. We will use a second polytunnel for the growing of salad leaves for bagged salad sales. Varieties of asparagus will be grown on a permanent bed. We also propose to keep up to 30 chickens for egg production and two rare breed sows for our own needs.

In the longer term, after soil pH has increased, we will look into marketing top fruit, soft fruit and vegetables through farmers markets and vegetable box schemes. It is expected that some income will be derived from this in the fourth year.

We will also investigate the potential for selling preserves, fruit vinegars and cordials to supplement our income. If our experiment with pig keeping is successful we will also breed and sell Oxford Sandy and Black weaners.

The key to this projects success is to achieve profitability as soon as possible. To this end we intend to be earning money within the first year and achieving a surplus by year 5 at the very least. This will enable us to develop further income streams as the plot and community as a whole become more established.

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