Here is an interesting story of a Hampshire village that decided to become less dependent on supermarkets and grow their own food.

Village of Martin, grows its own food

Nick Snelgar a 58 years old villager got the idea in 2003 and his inspiration was the 1970s BBC sitcom where the characters where living off the land. It was never meant to boycott supermarkets but to reduce the carbon footprint by not using carrier bags or packages. Snelgar’s idea soon got roots and out of the 164 families that live in Martin, 101 signed up as members of the Future Farms for an annual £2 fee.

On a 8 acres rented land, the residents of Martin are working on a rotation system to grow vegetables, chickens or pigs. The goods are not only for their own consumption but for anyone that would like to buy. And people buy. 45 types of vegetables and 100 chickens a week are being sold by the VAT-registered co-operative.

Village of Martin, grows its own food

Most popular thing the “future farmers” sell are the carrots. Everyone loves the smell of fresh carrots and knowing that they will be pulled out of the ground when sold, it’s great. The prices include the food cost to grow and a 20 percent profit. Just for the records in 2007 they had a £27,000 turnover.

“Our pork sausages, for example, are sometimes cheaper than sausages you buy in the supermarkets. We break even and all money gets ploughed back in.

When we started some people thought it would fail and we’d never last, but as the years have gone by more and more people have become involved.

It is also a talking point in the village and it’s great to see people walking to the village hall on a Saturday morning talking to each other. It has created a sense of belonging.” said Mr Snelgar.

The Martin community seems like a great place to live and what they’ve realized is truly amazin, it’s actually how villages used to be and it’s nothing wrong with it.

Source

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