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Nice!
...and it's beautiful and quite elegant. How are
things on Gigha and the ice cream business?
things on Gigha and the ice cream business?
Achamore
Well-Known Member
Things are fine, looks like we finally have a buyer for the house - along with 7 other "interested parties". The buses all come along at once..! Been busy with the ice cream, and also now 4 dessert sauces: Butterscotch, Salted Caramel, Chocolate, and a Sticky Toffee sauce. The first 3 are formulated to drizzle onto ice cream. The 4th one is for creating instant sticky toffee pudding.
Great to hear about the success of your business.
Achamore
Well-Known Member
We're just moving 2 miles north, still here on the Isle of Gigha. My wife is a dairy farmer, so we will be moving up to the farm. It is a leasehold tenancy she inherited from her father, and which will be passed on to one of her sons. So I need to build a new greenhouse, but fortunately just recently I learnt of a good-looking option, from Orkney. They use discarded feed-pipe from fish farms, and stretch twin-walled polycarbonate over that framework. Cheap, and able to take storm winds. https://www.polycrub.co.uk/polycrub/gallery
Achamore
Well-Known Member
Well, sort of successful. Ask me in another 18 months how we are doing. Been an incredible amount of hard work the past 4 years. I'm 63 and I've never worked this hard. For example, I made 7,000 litres of ice cream on the kitchen stove in 2018. Last year we had better equipment, but it is still a lot of work, and cashflow always challenging. But it feels worth it, as the aim is to find a way to keep the farm going through the years ahead.
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Achamore
Well-Known Member
A polycrub greenhouse, from Shetland (not Orkney - oops!). NOT mine, just an example.
Impressive greenhouse and recycled material...great
idea. We've got the same situation with keeping the
land for our tree nursery intact and paying employees
who have been with us for years. Owning your own
business ain't what it's cracked up to be, but worth
it to keep land in the family. Ain't making more land
in the U.S. Someday that land will perhaps feed
future generations. 128 acres will feed a lot of
people.
idea. We've got the same situation with keeping the
land for our tree nursery intact and paying employees
who have been with us for years. Owning your own
business ain't what it's cracked up to be, but worth
it to keep land in the family. Ain't making more land
in the U.S. Someday that land will perhaps feed
future generations. 128 acres will feed a lot of
people.
Achamore
Well-Known Member
I like the fact that it is made with recycled black piping, and that it has been tested to withstand winds of 120mph.
Yes, being self-employed is tough, with long hours, that's for sure.
Yes, being self-employed is tough, with long hours, that's for sure.
Achamore
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking to place a 3m wide one inside a 4m wide one, for my warm-growing orchids. I know it will mean a loss of light, but the cost savings on the heating is probably worth it. The cool-growing ones can be in a 4m wide Polycrub. The doubling up is an experiment, they haven't had anyone do that before.
I'm glad that there will be a place for your orchid collection at the new place. The greenhouse looks great. Maybe you could use some of the recycled black pipe to rig up a passive solar heating system, assuming the sun shines there in the winter. I imagine it's pretty cloudy and wet.
