This week is Organic Week, which aims to promote healthy food which doesn't harm the environment during production. Reporter Sian Davies spoke to Stroud's Roger Sanders to find out how the organic smallholding he built up in the town has changed his life.
DUBBED as Stroud's answer to the Good Life, environmentalist Roger Sanders and his family have now got their organic smallholding fully functional.
After 18 years of hard slog, Roger's dream of living almost entirely self sufficiently from the produce grown on the farm in Folly Lane is now paying off.
Roger, 57, said when he first had the idea in the late 1980s people laughed at him because organic food was not as widely available.
"People were calling me Tom from the Good Life but now organic produce is big business," he said.
"People doubted me but I've shown that it does work and they can see that for themselves."
Although the farm didn't cost a lot to set up, over the years Roger has invested thousands building it up.
Since its beginning in 1989, Roger and his wife Christine, 57, and their two grown up children, Joanne, 34, and Nicholas, 36, have developed the farm from nothing more than a field into an organic delight.
At the smallholding almost every type of fruit and vegetable you could imagine is grown, as well as grapes to make red and white wine, over 30 different types of herbs and many varieties of flowers and trees.
They also keep chickens and geese and have an educational centre on site so schools or anyone wanting to embark on a similar project can come and learn about how it works.
"It hasn't been easy - we've had some very trying moments and not just the horticultural side but also having to fight the council for planning permission," he added.
Being a builder by trade, Roger has been able to do a lot of the work himself.
Now Roger and Christine hardly buy anything from the supermarket - only the odd thing they can't produce on the smallholding.
He wants more people to think about growing organic produce.
"We're leading by example here really - people come and have a look at what we're doing and are inspired by it," he said.
"Why spend money on buying it when you can grow it yourself."
Roger works full-time as a builder, and he and Christine spend almost all their spare time at the smallholding, where they are also helped out by daughter Joanne and her children, Felix, four, and Mill, eight. A keen environmentalist, Roger has big plans for the future.
His next step is to put in place solar panels so the farm can become entirely autonomous.
He has also built a model for a low impact underground dwelling that would be environmentally friendly.
But he added: "I don't think Stroud District Council is ready for that just yet."
* Organised by the Soil Association, Organic Week is a nationwide celebration of organic food and drink which features hundreds of events across the country promoting organic food, clothing and cosmetics. St Augustine's Farm in Arlingham, which produces organic milk, is also participating. For more information visit www.organicweek.org
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