Hello all and welcome to the new world of Pygmy Farm. This is my small farm just under 3 acres in size, based in the North East Uk. 

I am so glad you have found my blog and hope you are here because you are wanting to learn how to start your very own small farm.

You might also be wondering if farming on a small scale can be done while making a profit in the process? Maybe you are here to see what “The Small Farmer Life” is all about.

The main thing is, I’m glad to see you here. Little about me I’m 44 years old from the Uk and have always been interested in living a little of the good life, growing and raising animals for my own food.

How I Learned What I Needed To Know

I have been learning farming methods with smallholdings for a while now for around 3 years. These were not big farms they were around 15 acres or so. I learned a lot from these small farms and the main thing was, these farms made most of their profit from selling specialty products, not acres of potatoes and full-grown carrots. 

They made most of their profit from fast organic growing greens on rotation. Things like, salad greens, specialty mushrooms, and microgreens. Simple and easy to grow with fast-growing times and marketing to the right customers. I will tell you how they marketed their products in another post

They never made much profit from sheep or any other large animals, which to me are a waste of your time and money. These larger animals need lots of caring, large housing. You also needed lots of these larger animals to even break even, after vet bills, slaughter, etc. This did not make any sense to me, but they knew best?

The animals they made most profits from where poultry. Selling Rare Chicken Breeds and Organic Chicken Meat and Eggs, along with Turkeys and Quails. Also selling young birds they hatched, sold really well, to locals who wanted a few Chickens or Quails for fresh daily eggs, etc. You can sell fertile eggs to people who want to incubate them at a premium all over the country using the internet and sell your Organic Eggs local.

How Will Pygmy Farm Make Profit

After what I have seen and been learning, I am going to stick to poultry breeds for my animals and 10 to 15  Organic Seasonal Salad Greens, Tomatoes, Micro Greens and Gourmet Mushrooms and have a small area to one side for other vegetables that I will need for my family. 

Also because I’m a joiner by trade I will be building herb planters, chicken coops and many other wooden products branded under the “Pygmy Farm” name to sustain the farm.

I will also be still sticking to my daily business of property maintenance. My business gives me plenty of free time to work around the farm and also pays the bills, while the farm is getting up and running.

The Thing You Don’t Want To Do

This is a “Big Thing” if you have a job or business “Do Not Just Walk Away Into Farming”. Please stick to your job or business and learn as much about farming as possible before going fulltime.

You can start your farming part-time and grow as your knowledge grows. Will it be hard, of course, it will, nothing in life is easy and farming is a hard thing to do correctly and make a profit from. Not to mention there are some back-breaking jobs around the farm.

But these hard jobs are all good to keep you fit and along with your organic food. You will never have felt so good. This blog is all about getting you off to a good start

Pick What You Will Be Farming Wisely

This is why I’m sticking with easy to rear animals a few types of salad greens and vegetables. You cannot compete with large supermarkets on easy to get vegetables like potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc. But if you grow the more expensive greens and hard to get gourmet mushrooms etc you can.

If can market your products to the right people and businesses, then you can make higher profits for less work and also less investment in large machines. Keeping it simple using systems with lower overheads and time needed to harvest.

Don’t get me wrong it is not easy work, but you do not need to pay for £100,000 tractors and other big machinery to harvest. The types of produce I will be growing will be harvested by hand hence lesser overheads. This is one of the biggest killers of farms. If you need half a million for machinery before you even start then this is going to be hard and stress you out and you do not want this.

How Long Have I had Pygmy Farm?

I found my little piece of land 4 years ago and have been planning this farm for that long. Now I could have just jumped headfirst without knowing a thing about farming. 

This is not how I went about it at all, firstly I had a small business I just started, which is property maintenance and landscaping business. This has given me so much knowledge about how to build things. Given me the little money I needed to start my venture into farming. My business is still going strong.

I then made friends in the farming community around me with medium-sized smallholdings near to my farm. I offered them a helping hand in my spare time, which in turn they taught me a lot. I then read books and watched as many videos as possible in my spare time on what to grow. Also, the best growing methods to get the produce growing fast and organic. 

I will be growing my produce in organic no dig systems. I also learned that people will pay a premium for poultry that is reared in the right way. They always sell very quickly indeed. People are more aware of the methods of big farming and the cruelty that goes into producing food on a mass scale.

Image how you would feel crushed together next to thousands of others being pushed around. Being given injections and medications just to keep you alive. All of this goes onto the shelves of your local supermarket, how else can they sell chicken full-grown for so little?

I don’t want to see this on my farm

This is what happens in most big poultry farms and this is what you are eating and feeding you and your family. Well, that’s not how I want to live and want my farm animals to live either.

Also, the greens we eat are covered in pesticides and in the Uk, even treated human waste is used as fertilizer and I don’t like the sound of that.

Pygmy Farm A Local Farm

Yes, my farm is a small farm, this is the whole point, but it is going to be an ethical farm and that’s what farming should be about. Producing quality products and letting the animals graze free and be treated with the life they deserve, not packed together like sardines. It will also be able to be run by 1 or 2 people.

All the animals I raise have to be able to have access to the fresh air and the vegetables had to be organic. I want to show that you cannot only survive on a small farm but thrive on a small farm.

This is why I have only chosen to concentrate on quality poultry breeds and a few good quality crops that all bring in premium pricing. The poultry is all free-range except for the quails as they would fly away, but they are in high soft netted large pens moved daily to fresh pasture.

The breeding cocks will have access to large runs if they are free to roam they will fight and breed with the wrong birds. They will be given a good long life as these are going to be needed for years of breeding.

Specialty Vegetables To Sell For Maximum Profit

All the fresh vegetables and herbs are going to be organically grown and will be picked daily as and when they are needed. I am only going to grow seasonal vegetables on a rotation basis. I can grow a few out of season or start them early in the polytunnels and grow mushrooms in my sheds year-round.

I will also have a cool room for greens and vegetables that need to be picked. If they do not sell I will add them to customers’ orders who do not expect them. Maybe this will turn into a future order, while also being a nice surprise for my customers. This will help for word of mouth also getting more customers.

I will be posting regular articles to my blog on how I am getting on and video tutorials to my “YouTube Channel – The Small Farmer Life”.

These videos will include lots of things I have learned and also how to build things for your farm cheaply and easy. You are more than welcome to comment, to ask for help if you find yourself in a pickle and if I can help you I will be happy to.

Do You Want To Help? Want To Guest Post

If you have knowledge that can help me and others and would like to share that information. Then why not guest post on my blog and help others to live a good life, a life free from big farming and healthy life.

I have so much more to tell you, show you and hopefully teach you, if you are wanting to live this life. Then why not sign up for my newsletter. I will not spam you and if you don’t want to sign up that’s fine. Just bookmark this site and pop back now and then to see what is going on at Pygmy Farm.

You can follow me on this journey or as I like to say adventure. I will be showing the ups the downs and everything in-between. I can tell you there will be a lot more to learn, now I am going alone, but I have friends to guide me and give me the advice I need. Not to mention the internet is full of information for the budding smallholder.

Thanks For Reading..!