Dragged from my glamorous job as a London Fashion Buyer, we bought our smallholding to feed ourselves. We wanted "real" free range eggs and that vaguely remembered pork with "snap in your fingers" crackling as well as vegetables grown without sprays or artificial fertilisers.

Friends would come to dinner, taste the pork and ask if they could buy some. Demand increased, spread by word of mouth, and soon we found ourselves, almost by accident, with a thriving business.

Almost everything we grow or raise is the result of trialling - we tried 4 different breeds of pig before deciding the Oxford Sandy & Black produced the best meat.

The tomatoes I was able to grow in the early years were a constant disappointment - even picked direct from the plant there wasn't much taste - then I discovered some of the "heirloom" varieties and was astonished at the different, wonderful flavours.

Throughout this time my biggest help and encouragement has come from the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA), the country's leading organic research organisation.