Parsonage Farm Community

Our community is much more about people, relationships and unity than it is about land, buildings and lifestyle.

We aim to put in the work, and the courage, to form a solid group who are completely committed to each other, giving each person the best chance of living a 'big' life.

We want to be thoroughly engaged with society, not turning away from it because we can't face it's problems. We want the satisfaction of taking on big issues personally - like the classism, racism and sexism within our lives - rather than quietly hoping our good intentions are enough.

We're interested in what it takes to live increasingly well together, having fun and enjoyment as well as taking on big challenges and dealing directly with difficulties.

In all, we aim to be good friends to each other, but by dealing with difficulties, not avoiding them.

Our house

Each person has a room of their own, and there is a communal kitchen, etc. We eat together most nights, and live as a single household in many ways, though we don't income-share.

We have a large organic vegetable garden and a polytunnel that we put a lot of work into - yielding lots of fruit and vegetables during the summer, and for as long as we can store them. All the adults are involved in the gardening work.

Other information

• All of us eat meat, though not always a lot - and it's always dead at the time. Apart from oysters, that is. Which are living. Though you wouldn't know.
• We have no more, or less, impact on the environment than many other households, perhaps worse in some ways - living as we do in an old, cold house far from shops and work.
  (We do think the environmental crises threaten the human race, but solving these requires complete engagement with the whole of society, not moving away from it. Simply moving into a community as a way to marginally lessen your personal impact is completely ineffective. Building groups of people who know they matter to each other starts to address the real problems).
• We don't drink alcohol, smoke tobacco or use any other psycho-active drugs.
• All the adults have paid work separate from the community.

Current Members

Karl

I have lived at Parsonage Farm for 23 years. My paid work is Technical Director of a small electronics and software engineering company. I trained as a physicist and later moved into engineering.

I am mixed race - Chinese and English, and grew up working class. I put a lot of my unpaid time into the recovery (of myself and people around me) from the effects of our currently irrational society, including classism and racism.

I am currently planning a book-length manifesto on the transformation of society to a completely rational form.

I do a lot of the mending work around the place, and look after the house food account. In the garden I'm responsible for growing potatoes, onions, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and more.

I sing, both solo and in a choir, and play acoustic (rock, pop) guitar, though not expertly. I make lots of jokes, which I think are very funny, though opinion is divided, they tell me.

Mai Mai

I love gardening, in particular, growing vegetables. This year I grew leeks, brassicas (cabbages and broccoli), rocket, peppers, fennel and basil. I also like to swim, to practise yoga, and to run "T-Rex Master Classes" (see photo - all dinosaurs in the film Jurassic Park were coached by me). In the winter, when the needs of the garden subside, I like to spend the long dark evenings learning to speak and write Mandarin with my partner Chris (aka Chiz).

I am the treasurer of the co-operative so I keep the accounts and pay the bills. It is my responsibility to submit an Annual Return to the Financial Services Authority and to the Inland Revenue. I am the Keeper of the "Non-Working" Cat Phoebe, whose key role in the co-operative is to show everyone else what it means to relax.

Portia

I am an Illustrator. I like narrative and character drawing and am also writing story poems.

I am Jewish and was born in Manchester; am 49, unbelievably attractive, and yet, incredibly modest.

In recent years I have grown carrots, pumpkins, and sweetcorn. I also mow for Britain. I look after Merlyn, our working cat. I sort our rubbish and recycling and do other small jobs like occasional bulk food shopping and paper-bill payment. I eat as much of our garden produce as is physically possible.

I spend much of my time trying to laugh at Karl's 'jokes'. When I am taking a break from that, I like swimming, especially in rivers and the nearest seas, dancing, and eating bucketfuls of soup.

* Ok, woman and girl, but that doesn't sound so weighty.

Nuala

Han

New Members

Volunteers

Email us at farm@parsonage1.plus.com to make contact. We can sometimes take a week or so to reply if we are very busy.

In Pictures...

We had a lot of work done on the roof in 2008 to fix many small problems left over from previous quick-and-dirty roofing jobs.

Karl: "At the same time I was working on the front doorframe, straightening it up ready for the new door. The old door was made from pine and was starting to rot away. The door frame was out of true on one side and needed to be corrected by 10mm to make the post vertical again.

Here's the new door I made from oak boards. The design, learning of new skills, construction and fitting took around six months of my spare time in all.

Portia is up the scaffold tower, clearing ivy that had grown up the house and started blocking the gutter and getting under the roof tiles. Down below others are sawing away at the ivy trunks.

The vegetable plots and polytunnel - viewed from scaffolding around the chimney.

Fast food, Jewish style.

Fast food, Chinese style.

Copyright Parsonage Farm Housing Coop Ltd 2012