Brithdir Mawr (Mon 23 May - Fri 27 May)

The latest stop on our journey found us in beautiful, and sunny, Pembrokeshire in West Wales at a warm and relaxed community called Brithdir Mawr. Brithdir is currently made up of 8 adults and 4 kids who live on and run this 80 acre farm together. This is the 150 year old farmhouse.

From Brithdir Mawr photos

Here's us, up the top of the hill behind the farm.

From Brithdir Mawr photos

They are such a warm and welcoming group, eating together often, getting on very well and showing how nice it can be in a small, almost family-like community set up. They have cooking, eating, laundry and hanging-out space in the main house, and most of them also have their own private living spaces in converted stables, barns etc. Here's the lovely courtyard that most of their houses open onto.

From Brithdir Mawr photos

They all pay rent and do 2-3 days community work a week on the farm. Most of them earn money through outside jobs too.

The main things that they work on are:
• growing an enormous number of vegetables and fruit – the polytunnels are amazing!

From Brithdir Mawr photos

• managing the woodlands – they recently planted 4000 trees
• cutting, storing and ensuring their wood supply – they plan to produce all their own wood by 2018

From Brithdir Mawr photos

• looking after the goats/chickens/ducks/horses

From Brithdir Mawr photos

From Brithdir Mawr photos

• maintenance of the buildings

The defining feature that sets Brithdir apart from the other places we have visited so far is that they are 100% off grid, i.e. they are not getting any electricity, gas or water from any mains supply. Phenomenal!

So, how do they do it? Well…

• Electricity is generated via a small wind turbine, photo voltaic (PV) solar panels and a hydroelectric (water powered) turbine – it is then stored in big old submarine batteries.

From Brithdir Mawr photos

There’s a little display meter in the hall giving everyone a constant awareness of how much electricity there is – this awareness translates into behaviour such as only using the washing machine if there’s lots of power in the batteries, all watching a film together in the same room of an evening if it’s running low. The supply can be inconsistent which means they don’t have a fridge or freezer.

• Hot water comes from a massive wood burning kitchen range that heats water as well as cooks, and from solar panels. If there’s lots of hot water the word goes round to make the most of it!

From Brithdir Mawr photos

• Heating comes from wood burning stoves in each room.
• Water comes from a spring. There are two outside compost loos, and the inside loo is literally just a water closet - here's the romantic looking compost loo!

From Brithdir Mawr photos

Cooking on the kitchen range was one of the real highlights of our time there – it was incredible to have to actually load it up with wood to give yourself a piping hot oven and hob. It took a couple of hours to get up to cooking temperature and then we were able to do a meal for 10 no problem at all, with regular re-loading of the fire compartment.

From Brithdir Mawr photos

From Brithdir Mawr photos

As we said the range also heats the water, so there is loads of hot water after a meal has been cooked and ‘chef’s privilege’ is to get first dibs on it! The showers we had after cooking felt amazingly connected, because we knew the water was hot because we’d physically loaded the wood into the stove.

The gardens produce so many delicious vegetables meaning that a large proportion of each meal is either picked fresh or taken from the impressive array of preserved food that lined the shelves in the hall. Not having a fridge or a freezer means that lots of pickling, jamming, chutneying and drying gets done - there was a very impressive array of onions hanging in the hall while we were there. Dairy products, including the fresh goats milk (which tasted very mild) are kept in the old pantry, which being on the north side and stone flagged was designed for just this purpose.

The other great highlight for Rosie was to work with a working horse - a handsome old man called Samson – dragging timber out of a wood.

From Brithdir Mawr photos

Before we started doing the work we had to trim his hooves – a great skill to learn.

From Brithdir Mawr photos

It requires a fair bit of bravery and strength – brave because you worry that you’re going to hit a nerve and strong to stop the horse leaning right onto you – but Samson was very patient with Rosie!

Overall this was a really wonderful place to visit, with lots of generosity shown to us in terms of welcome, food and time spent teaching us stuff. The stunning setting, the productive land, the friendly atmosphere and the strong commitment to reducing their footprint make this a great example of how good community living can be.