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Four and a half acres and growing

Charlotte Smith meets Sinead Fenton and Adam Smith who took up four and half acres of Sussex farmland at the beginning of lockdown to fulfill their growing ambition.

Charlotte Smith meets Sinead Fenton and Adam Smith to hear how they gave up life in London to fulfill their dream of growing veg and edible flowers for a living. With the help of the Ecological Land Cooperative they secured four and a half acres of land near Polegate in Sussex but like all dreams this one came with its own challenges. They moved in a few days before the first lockdown in March 2020. A very wet winter gave way to a very hot spring making growing conditions challenging. The site has no water supply, and they got to work on the land all whilst living in a static caravan that had very little insulation and no electricity. But these two are not easily knocked off course, dealing with whatever life throws at them with a mixture of determination, naive optimism and sheer hard work. Charlotte joins them as they and some community volunteers plant hedgerows in a bid to improve the soil structure and create a natural wildlife corridor that will complement their ethos on land-management and help them grow into the future.

Producer: Toby Field

Available now

22 minutes

Last on

Sun 10 Jan 2021 06:35

Broadcast

  • Sun 10 Jan 2021 06:35