HARTLEY’S PLOT – organic smallholding

Growing fruit and veg on a rugged hillside, renovating a house off-grid and telling the story as it unfolds, weaving in anecdotes about daily life, music and more. Regular vids on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephenjohnhartley and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hartleysplotuk

This is the story of an ever-developing hillside smallholding (the ranch), and how its annual cycle slots into daily life.

This includes playing in bands – (I started off playing guitar in punk band Notsensibles and we’re back playing again), going to medical school, writing, renovating a house to be as off-grid as possible and keeping an eye on the bigger picture and the goings-on in the wider world.

I like the as above, so below concept. Namely, the principles seen at work in nature, and the way that we harness them to grow food, can be extrapolated to the wider world.

I wrote a book – Painting Snails, using the annual cycle of the ranch as a framework for stories about: playing in bands; becoming a doctor later in life; family life and more. I illustrated it with my woodblock prints, and apart from the printing, I did everything myself: publishing; typesetting and so on. It’s a good piece of work and has been well-received – get it here.

As ever, weaving and winding against the tide.