Inspired by William Cobbett’s Cottage Economy, retired BBC political journalist Max Cotton spent a year living only off the food produced on his Somerset smallholding. In this illustrated lecture we will hear about how he has met the challenges of doing this, and how Cobbett’s book may have helped.

The challenge was not an easy one, the weather was awful, rats ate some of his barley so he was not able follow Cobbett’s excellent recipe on brewing beer. While his family continued to live and eat well, and used the same kitchen, he had to subsist on eggs from unreliable chickens, home grown fruit and vegetables (and homemade cheese) while drinking herbal teas.

Max’s experiment could be followed on a monthly podcast No Milk Today; which was turned into a 5-episode Radio 4 series Growing Solo earlier this year. Leading up to the broadcast he made the comment "As a group of people, BBC journalists, they could tell you everything you possibly want to know about Labour education policy, and they don't know what the difference between hay and straw is. And I think that's a sad reflection of where we are". Max is an ex BBC journalist who DOES know the difference – and will no doubt, as an ex political journalist, also have views on current political issues related to farming such as food security, the protection of the environment and climate change.