Fifty Years of The Good Life > Fifteen Years of Hen Corner

Who would have known that we shared a birthday! Albeit 35 years younger, but the vision to live sustainably, producing as much food as possible, from our London back garden, lives on…

I grew up watching The Good Life as a child in the 1970’s and back then saw a lot of similarities between urban smallholder, Tom Good, and my ever resourceful own father. It was only after we ourselves had been keeping chickens in London for 10 years that my Dad told the story of how his parents had bred chickens for eggs in the back yard of their terrace house in London’s East End. So established was the set up, that they were registered to accept ration coupons and used them to buy poultry feed in bulk. I imagine that the queues to buy his egg during World War Two would have been similar to those long, but socially distanced, queues outside our house for eggs, honey and bakery collections during the pandemic lockdown.

I’m often asked “Is your dream to move out to the countryside?”

My reply is always the same ‘I’m a Londoner, born and bred, I love a country holiday but firmly believe that I have the best of both worlds here.’ So, just like Barbara Good, played by Felicity Kendal, I roll up my sleeves to bake bread, make jam, muck out the hens and dabble in home made wine.

As Margo and Jerry looked over the fence with complete bemusement, I’m regularly asked what our neighbours think of the three chicken coops, multiple bee hives, overflowing veg beds, etc. Fortunately, the neighbours on one side have lived here longer than us and are enthusiastic gardeners, they deliberately plant flowers for our bees and share seedlings and plug plants when they have spare.

On the other side, there have been four sets of neighbours since we’ve lived here (we’ve got on well with all of them!) and I’ve overheard estate agents pointing out our house saying, in a hushed voice, ‘That’s Hen Corner, they sell bread, eggs and honey…’  Hopefully it’s a good experience, living next door, we try to keep the neighbours happy and share gifts of produce at various stages through the year.

So to mark our fifteenth birthday, what would be better than to look back at some of our firsts over the years?

As regular readers and subscribers may already know, the name Hen Corner came about initially as a handle for social media – we have hens and live in the corner of the street, and very soon after I was blogging to share our exploits. Our first courses began that first year as did interest from national media. As Hen Corner transitioned from a hobby to a business then onto a full time job, we had a quick brand refresh to emphasise that we were actually based in London – as many readers guessed that we were in the countryside.

Now, I’m living my best life, being able to explore all that I’m interested in and share the new skills with all who care to learn. I wonder what the next 15 years will bring?

First blog post:

Whilst I had no idea who would read these posts, I started with an introduction highlighting some of our hopes and now we have around 50,000 visits to the website each year. Have you subscribed? See box at bottom of post…

So it’s Spring!

First course:

Naturally, it had to be teaching Londoners how to keep chickens, but within weeks we had planned a preserving course with chutneys, jellies and piccalilli on the schedule. Our full range of courses can be found here.

Our First Hen Party

First media article:

I was delighted, though surprised, when a journalist contacted me from the Observer Food Monthly, it’s then been a pleasure to have been included in many other newspapers and magazines over the years, highlights can be found here.

Observer Food Monthly – June ’10

First TV show:

It was great fun appearing on our first TV show, Market Kitchen, this is where I met Xanthe Clay who has supported and cheered us on ever since. Other TV programmes have included The One Show, Top Of The Shop with Tom Kerridge (BBC Two) and Inside Out (BBC One).

 

Market Kitchen – January ’11

First national magazine column:

Whilst I’d been writing for a local magazine for several years, my first national mag column completely fulfilled a dream as I’d been a subscriber of Country Living Magazine for ages. Since then, I’ve been working with Gardeners’ World Magazine and currently write a series ‘Growing The Good Life’ (what else would it be called???).

Country Living Magazine – April ’19

 

First book:

Looking back at the similarities of our family at Hen Corner and Tom & Barbara in the Good Life, their change of lifestyle was inspired by a well loved book of the hippy 70’s, ‘The Complete book of self-sufficiency’ by John Seymour, complete with the subtitle ‘The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers’. Whilst John Seymours instructions, and diagrams, have also helped me along the way, my book tells our story of ‘Living The Good Life in the City’ and encourages us all to become a little more self sufficient.

Living the Good Life in the City: A Journey to Self-Sufficiency

Coming up at Hen Corner:

April

Introduction to Scandinavian Baking Tuesday 29th

Introduction to Gluten Free Baking Wednesday 30th

May

Introduction to Making Bread Tuesday 6th

Full Day Bee Keeping Saturday 10th and Tuesday 20th

Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London Wednesday 14th

Half Term family events:

Bees for Children Tuesday 27th, Thursday 29th & Friday 30th

*NEW* Bees for Teens Wednesday 28th

June

Making New Cheeses Wednesday 4th

Family Feathers & Fun Saturday 7th

Making Bagels, Muffins & Swirls Tuesday 10th

Introduction to Making Cheese Wednesday 11th

Other news:

• I’m loving the new greenhouse – it might be small, but it’s a real game changer!
• I split a colony of bees last week, so we are now up to SIX colonies (one is already making loads of honey)
• I’ve had a go making a couple of new cheeses: Swiss Emmental and French Mimolette, they are maturing nicely

Jobs for the week:

• Harvest the overwintered crops in our deep bed and prepare it for salad sowings
• Keep on top of the weeding at the allotment
• Continue to harvest asparagus a few times each week

How’s in going in your garden?

I hope to see you soon,

Sara