SMALLHOLDER TRAINING & BOOKS
“Best weekend ever. Thank you so much for being so helpful, flexible and friendly. We absolutely loved it.”
Smallholder Training
We’ve delivered a range of popular smallholder training courses to over 1600 participants over the last decade, that give a real flavour of the life, and an understanding of what’s involved day to day. We have a dedicated website for our training courses:
Introduction to Smallholding: two day course
Fun on the farm weekend
An introduction to sheep, pigs and cattle: two day course
Sheep for Beginners: two day course
Cattle for Beginners: one day course
Apple & Cider day: making the most of your orchard with juice, cider, vinegars, chutneys & jams: one day course
Build your own cob pizza/bread oven: one day course
Bespoke Training: We’ve delivered many bespoke training courses for individuals, couples, families, groups of friends, and teams of co-workers working at city farms, animal shelters, independent hotel companies and more. We also offer corporate and team building days with a difference. If you want something particular that you can’t find elsewhere we are always happy to tailormake a course for you, so do contact us to discuss, and if we can help, we will.
Books
Debbie’s books Keeping Ducks and Geese – A Practical Guide (October 2021) and Keeping Goats – A Practical Guide (2022) are both published by The Crowood Press. You can buy the books direct from us, or from The Crowood Press, bookshops and the usual online retailers. She has been commissioned to write The Complete Guide to Smallholding which should be out in 2023.
Keeping Ducks and Geese – A Practical Guide is stuffed with all the things we’ve learned about how to keep and look after these great birds (good and bad) in our thirty plus years of having them. It covers the legal stuff, choosing breeds and bringing them home, housing and fencing, nutrition, breeding and hatching, health and welfare, security and pest control, dispatching, raising for meat, using for craft and even some favourite and unusual recipes. Rammed with our own colour photos (those of you who have been to the farm will recognise all kinds of things) and by other brilliant keepers from all over the place, it also includes information on 80 breeds of ducks and geese to be found in the UK. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to include wonderful historic black and white photographs by James Ravilious too, my favourite photographer, thanks to Beaford Archive. 192 page hardback with 290 photos.
Keeping Goats – A Practical Guide is full of information and practical advice, invaluable for anyone thinking about keeping goats, for those who have recently acquired goats, and the more experienced keeper. It provides everything you need to know including: legal requirements; land, fencing, housing and equipment; the breeds that will suit you best and acquiring your goats. There is information on year-round husbandry tasks; feeding and nutrition; health and welfare and breeding and kidding and detailed guidance is given on dairying, raising for meat and other ways to make the most of your goats. The book includes a comprehensive guide to over 80 goat breeds. In addition to the many colour photographs there are captivating historic black and white images by James Ravilious, thanks to Beaford Archive. 224 page hardback with 400 photographs and diagrams.
