A slower way of living, in progress
Fallow & Forth is a smallholding taking shape in Somerset: our attempt at a more intentional way of living with land and food. We don't have all the answers. We're just trying things, learning as we go, and sharing it in case it means something to you too.
summer
a full moon
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Room to breathe
A lot of us feel disconnected from anything to do with the land, the seasons, where food actually comes from. Add in the busyness and the cost of living, and it's easy to feel like there's no room left for a different way of living.
This is our attempt at that different way: less cost, less noise, and a closer relationship with the land and the food it gives us.
Looking for the right piece of land, since the ninth of January 2018.
How we got here
We've been looking for the right place since 2018. Mexico first, for almost a year. Then a few months around Alberta and British Columbia in Canada. A long pause through Covid. From 2023 we started travelling Portugal, the south first, then went back in 2024 for almost a year, this time travelling the central and north.
Each place taught us something about what we actually needed, mostly by not being it. That search has brought us to Somerset, where we're still looking for the right spot, not because we can't decide, but because we'd rather get it right than get there fast.
Our story
Where this is going
We're still looking for the land itself, but we know roughly what we want to build once we find it. A place for a small number of animals, including dairy goats and a flock of hens for eggs, alongside some rarer breeds we're drawn to. A growing patch for herbs and plants that aren't easy to find elsewhere. An apothecary, in time, for tinctures and other things made slowly and properly.
Further down the line, once there's something real to share, we'd like to open it up: workshops, places to stay, maybe a meal or two cooked from what's grown there. None of that yet though. First, the land, and the practice.
Philosophy
The practical side
We're looking for somewhere between 12.5 and 20 acres, likely a mix of land we buy outright and land we rent alongside it. We'd rather build this out slowly, adding what we need as we need it, than take on more than we can properly use from the start.
Once we're there, we want to build low-impact from day one: solar power, simple systems for water and waste, done properly the first time rather than fixed up later.
The land- Acreage
- 12.5 – 20
- Tenure
- Own + rent
- Power
- Solar, off-grid
- Water
- Spring / rainfall
- Build pace
- Slow, staged
- Region
- Somerset, UK
Follow along
None of this is finished, and it won't be for a while. If any of this feels like something you care about too, you're welcome to follow along as it takes shape, the wins, the setbacks, all of it.
If you're working on something similar nearby, or looking after land that might suit a partnership like this, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.
Get in touch