Last year, as the lovely vegetables of Daylesford Organic were arriving weekly at Missmarketcrash's city abode, she had a thought. Farm-share. She wanted to pitch tent in the countryside on a big plot of land, find some able farmers, and go. And sell shares of her yummy organic farm to Londoners who could come for weekend visits to sow and hoe and drink Missmarketcrash's luscious organic wine and beer and be a farmer for a day. Children would run happily chasing rabbits, mums would contribute recipes to the farmshare blog, perhaps even Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would stop by and film a television segment and help with promotion. And, when the shareholders were not pitched up for the weekend in shabby-chic treehouses, they would be home, consuming their boxes from the farm which would be sent in exchange for those shares. With a bit more boring thought on the accounting side, it would all run swimmingly. The trend of knowing one's food source combined with the prospect of a weekend romp in the countryside, the prestige of having a bit of one's own farm...it all sounded ideal.
But, of course, the task of motherhood and financial management and other distractions-that-used-to-be-called-career swept Missmc away from empire-building and good ideas. All has not been lost. Missmarketcrash has just been given a coveted share of an allotment in a fantastic local spot. It comes with the free guidance of Jamie Oliver's previous gardener and a community of gardening zealots. Perhaps this is just the first bit of research toward a good idea. If you would like to take the farm-share idea and run with it, it is yours. Of course, I'd like a few preferred shares in exchange. We could have a delightful weekend together.
* A brilliant less-capitalistic version of this is already underway in the U.K., termed Landshare...see here...This works well in the U.K., but, I imagine the model above is the only model that would work in the USA...as it seems necessary to avoid anything with a nationalistic aura!
1 comment:
I have forwarded this post to my sister who runs an organic farm in Devon with her husband. Perhaps you can find a business partner there. However, 100 acres of land does act as a constraint on labour mobility so not sure how easy it will be to activate the business model in the USA. Typical of the inflexible European labour market, eh?
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