About Us and Who we Are

A little bit about Us and Why we created this Web Site

About Us: We are a 40-something couple, closer to 50-something, but we won't go there! And we are bit of an eclectic mix and gypsies by nature. I was born in Natal, South Africa, my husband, Philip was born in Kent, England. We come from a long line of farmers, so it's in the blood. Although we didn't start working out as farmers after leaving university, we knew that farming was what we wanted to do eventually in order to change our hectic executive lifestyles. As a result we are now very proud owners of a farmhouse in the Casentino Valley, in Tuscany with 15 acres of land and a small forest. It's a new aquisition that we hope to move to, once the house has been restored and the fields have been planted with vines and olives.

Something else about us, which is to our advantage, is that we have lived all over the world in the last 20 odd years. My husband lived in the UK and Zambia before meeting him in South Africa. As a couple we have also lived in New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Middle East. As a result, we know these countries well.

Because we are farmers ourselves, and come from farming families, we know first-hand the joys and tears that come with farming. We are also concerned about how local farmers around the Western world are being usurped by marketing conglomerates that are turning their backs on local farmers in preference for third-world country producers.

How many farmers must go to the wall before we say, 'enough'? The drought in Australia has broken farmers across the States. More then 5 farmers a month were committing suicide during the worst of the dry in Australia because they couldn't make ends meet. They are further being strangled by local agricultural boards through ridiculous regulations. One Australian farmer told me that he was not able to sell his avocado pears because, on inspection, he was told that they contained too much sugar!!! As a result he was forced to give his avocado pears away. Which, by the way, were delicious and totally edible. In the UK, farmers have still not recovered from the likes of BSE and the foot-and-mouth epidemic that hit them so badly in 2001. And to top it all, countries like New Zealand are now luring UK farmers to relocate with high promises.

Farms and farmers are in crisis. So how can we help?

That was the reason for Country Living and Farm Lifestyles. It appears to be a commercial site, but really, the costs of our advertising just cover our time and effort into promoting farms and farmers around the globe. The primary goal of Country Living and Farm Lifestyles was not to make money, but to help the farmer in promoting what he has to sell.

You, as a farmer need to sell your produce and you do so either through markets, agents, farm shops, farm gate sales, online businesses etc. You also have farm cottages for rent, or supplement your incomes through offering bed and breakfast accommodation or opening your fields to campers. You also offer services to others, such as ploughing, consulting, fence building etc. Some of you own your own websites, and do very well, most of you, unfortunately, have web sites where you offer what you have, but are never seen. You need to have a site which has a strong presence where you will be seen, with a link back to your site.

By building a mega-website, we have created a portal just for farmers uniting farmers across the globe to have a presence on a site totally dedicated to farmers. This is really a one-stop-shop for consumers looking for farm shops, farm accommodation and rural services, especially the many who want to buy local and to support their local farmers. It is also a one-stop-shop for you, the farmer, to advertise those commodities.

So that's enough about us. We hope to provide an excellent service to all who use the opportunity to advertise through our site. We will work with you every step of the way, to ensure that your needs are met, and to leave you knowing that as a farmer in your community you are valued and needed.