"K" wrote in message ...
"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
. ..
: A young couple I know have a organic smallholding, fruit and veg.and cut
: flowers.They live in Gloucestershire very near the Vale of Evesham,
: maybe that is not a good place to be for starters, anyway they are
: really struggling to make ends meet, no time for trialing new products
: etc.etc. Is this the same for most organic smallholders, are there no
: grants to help young peeps trying to make a living, it does seem a shame
: if they have to give up. They do do veg.and fruit boxes but there is not
: much to be made in that.
:
: kate

Do they do farmers' markets in the towns which seem to be popular, but then
of course they've got travel expenses.

Awful: and, I'm afraid, typical. An enterprise needs to be of a
certain size before it can be reasonably sure of making a living for a
family; and even established farmers are often pretty pushed these
days. If there's also a mortgage to pay before the family can eat,
it's worse, as with a smallholding what you mainly pay for is the
house, at normal house price, not the revenue potential of the land.

I suppose they already sell growing plants? They could gradually
establish themselves as specialists in some category, but it would
take years rather than months.

One way getting a short-term "grant" would be for one of them to
register as unemployed and get Job-Seeker's Allowance ("the dole").
After a period on this benefit, there is, I think, a system under
which a weekly payment can be made for setting up a new business as a
self-employed person. This might well include selling the stuff
nominally produced by the other, but that would need to be handled
with great discretion and savvy for fear of looking like fraud. I
wonder if there's also some kind of training grant to help the
registered unemployed partner learn to, e.g., drive a digger: round
their way there could be a demand for a good jobbing JCB operator. I
imagine, if they've got good reliable tackle, they've already
considered selling their agricultural skills as contractors doing
silage etc in the district.

Other than that, it looks like a question of one of them getting a job
off the holding: that's how it is for many of our local farmers.

Mike.