All Kinds Of Everything

The Freeman family has managed to pack a punch within its eight acres, growing a raft of conventional and unconventional vegetables and keeping livestock too. Susie Kearley pays them a visit

- Susie Kearley

The earthy smell of fresh tobacco leaves lingers in the air. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s quite unusual in the British countryside. I’m familiar with this scent because I’ve been at enthusiastic grower Connor Freeman’s holding for a while and have been scrutinising the tall and firm tobacco leaves — the plant is certainly thriving in the summer heat.

“The tobacco’s for my own use,” explains Connor, the green-fingered member of the Freeman family which owns this smallholding in Steeple Claydon, Buckinghamshire. “It should save me a lot of money eventually, but I haven’t mastered the drying process yet. The first time I tried, it all went mouldy.”

Close to the tobacco plants are red grapes which are laid out on a tabletop looking shrivelled up and sorry for themselves, interestingly juxtaposed next to a freshly picked bunch of lush ones of the same colour. “I’m trying to make raisins,” explains Connor. “I haven’t read up on how to do it properly. I just thought I’d leave them out to dry in the sun and see what happens. I’m experimenting.” When he isn’t drying the grapes to make raisins, the succulent bunches are used to make juice.

Here is one smallholder who is clearly not afraid to make things up as he goes along, or try out new techniques and ideas. Sporting blonde dreadlocks and khaki attire, Connor is a tireless horticulturist with a laid back approach to life. He smiles as he leads me, his mother Ali and my husband Vic through the vegetable plots and polytunnels that are full to bursting with heritage fruits and unusual vegetables. He talks about his tree and shrub nursery: a fledgling business selling native and ornamental garden trees. He hopes it will grow and thrive, just as the family smallholding has.